Legend Sparky Anderson dead at 76
Major League Baseball manager George Lee “Sparky” Anderson passed away yesterday in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 76 after a lengthy battle of dementia. He will be remembered throughout the baseball world as the man who made outrageous predictions
and enjoyed the game with his whole heart.
Johnny Bench, hall of fame catcher who caught for Sparky’s Cincinnati Reds during the seventies said to mlb.com that "If you see him and there's no smile on his face, he's probably asleep."
His career in baseball started as a player with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959 where he had a .218 batting average with 34 runs batted in and 12 extra base hits. That was his only season in which he was a player in the major leagues, and returned to the
Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs for four years. It was in Toronto that Sparky was told by then owner Jack Cooke that he should pursue a career in managing.
His major league managerial career began with the San Diego Padres in 1969, where he only stayed for one season. During the offseason he was picked up by the California Angels, but once he accepted the offer, he was offered a job to succeed Dave Bristol as
Reds manager, and he took it.
His first pennant winning season with the “Big Red Machine” came in 1972 when they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Championship Series (NLCS), but lost to the Oakland A’s in the World Series.
In 1975, his Reds had one of the best seasons ever in franchise history, winning 105 games and blowing everyone away. They took care of business in the World Series, winning an exciting seven game series over the Boston Red Sox. The Reds ended up repeating
as Major League champions in 1976, winning 102 games and sweeping the New York Yankees.
He was fired from the Reds in 1978 when he had a disagreement with general manager d**k Wagner that his managerial staff had to be changed.
That was not the end of Sparky though, as the Detroit Tigers got their claws on him in June of 1979. The ball club immediately started winning, but were in no real contention until the 1983 season when they finished a close second to the Baltimore Orioles.
The Detroit Tigers in 1984 started off as the hottest team in baseball, winning 35 of 40 games, which stands as a baseball record to this day. They coasted through the year to a record of 104-58 and swept the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship
Series (ALCS). In the World Series, his Tigers beat up on the Padres in five games, giving Sparky his third World Series title.
When his Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers on July 29, 1986, he earned his 600th career win in the American League, making him the first manager to reach 600 career wins in both leagues.
The Detroit Tigers in 1991 finished last in batting average and first in strike outs, but still managed to be in first place into the month of August. That was when they succumbed to the up-and-coming Toronto Blue Jays and finished a close second at season’s
end.
His managerial career ended in 1995, when there was a delay to the start of the season due to the league wide strike of 1994.
He was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 2000 with a life-time record of 2194-1834 for a winning percentage of .545. Even though he spent more time with the Tigers, he was inducted wearing his Cincinnati Reds hat.
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig addressed baseball fans everywhere yesterday with a statement given to mlb.com. "All of Baseball has lost a dear friend. Sparky was a gentleman, a great baseball man and a superb ambassador for the game. I recall
with great fondness the many hours we would spend together when his Tigers came to Milwaukee.”
Not only did the commissioner speak admirably of his friend, but so too did his athletes that he coached.
Lance Parrish of the Detroit Tigers had this to say about Sparky, according to mlb.com. "He was always pushing and cracking the whip. He just pushed the right buttons all the time. If there was ever, in my collection of my baseball career, a guy who always
seemed to know the buttons to push or things to say, he did it. It's a real tribute to him as a manager, but he seemed to know the personality of everybody on the team and who to delegate what to, when to put the right guy in the right situation. Everything
worked out."
It certainly worked out for the best, and his three World Series rings are the proof of that.
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