(February 22, 1934 – November 4, 2010)
Playing career
After five minor league seasons without appearing in a Dodger uniform at the MLB level, he was traded to the
Philadelphia Phillies on December 23, 1958 for three players, including
outfielder Rip Repulski.
[2] The Phillies gave Anderson their starting second base job, and he spent what would be his one full season in the major leagues in
1959. However, he
batted only .218 in 152 games, with no
home runs and 34
runs batted in, and returned to the
minor leagues for the remainder of his playing career.
Minor leagues
In 1964, at the age of 30, Anderson accepted Cooke's offer to manage the Leafs. He later handled minor league clubs at the Class A and Double-A levels, including a season (1968) in the Reds' minor league system.
He made his way back to the majors in 1969 as the
third-base coach of the
San Diego Padres during their maiden season in the National League. Just after the 1969 season ended,
California Angels manager
Lefty Phillips, who as a Dodger scout had signed the teenaged Anderson to his first professional contract
[6], named Anderson to his 1970 coaching staff.
Cincinnati Reds
"Sparky Who?"
But within days of being hired in Anaheim, he was offered the opportunity to succeed
Dave Bristol as manager of the Reds. His appointment reunited Anderson with Reds'
general manager Bob Howsam, who had hired him as a minor-league skipper in the
St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati organizations. Anderson was named the Reds manager on October 8, 1969. Since he was a relative unknown in the sports world, headlines on the day after his hiring read "Sparky Who?"
[7] Nonetheless, Anderson led the Reds to 102 wins and the
National Leaguepennant in
1970,
[8] although they lost the
1970 World Series in five games to the
Baltimore Orioles. It was during this season that the Reds came to be widely known as
The Big Red Machine, a nickname they would carry throughout Anderson's tenure.
The Big Red Machine
After finishing a close second to the
Los Angeles Dodgers in
1974, in
1975 the Reds blew the division open by winning 108 games. They swept the
National League Championship Series and then edged the
Boston Red Sox in a drama-filled, seven-game
World Series. They repeated in
1976 by winning 102 games and ultimately sweeping the
New York Yankees in the
Series. Over the course of these two seasons, Anderson's Reds compiled an astounding 14–3 record in postseason play against the Pirates, Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees, winning their last eight in a row in the postseason after triumphing against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, and then winning seven straight games in the 1976 postseason.
During this time, Anderson became known as "Captain Hook" for his penchant for taking out a starting pitcher at the first sign of weakness and going to his bullpen,
[4][9] relying heavily on closers
Will McEnaney and
Rawly Eastwick.
When the aging Reds finished second to the Dodgers in each of the next two seasons, Anderson was fired on November 27, 1978
[9] by general manager
Dick Wagner, who had taken over for Howsam a year earlier.
[1] Wagner had wanted to "shake up" the Reds' coaching staff, to which Anderson objected, leading to his dismissal as well.
[9]Detroit Tigers
Anderson moved on to the young
Detroit Tigers after being hired as their new manager on June 14,
1979. The Tigers became a winning club almost immediately, finishing above .500 in each of Sparky's first three full seasons, but did not get into contention until
1983, when they won 92 games and finished second to the
Baltimore Orioles in the
American League East.
Anderson's Tigers finished in third place in both
1985 and
1986. With a 9–5 win over the
Milwaukee Brewers on July 29, 1986, Anderson became the first to achieve 600 career wins as a manager in both the American and National Leagues.
[5]Anderson led the Tigers to the majors' best record in 1987, but the team was upset in the
ALCS by the
Minnesota Twins. He won his second Manager of the Year Award that year.
[4] After contending again in 1988 (finishing second to
Boston by one game in the AL East), the team collapsed
a year later, losing a startling 103 games. During that 1989 season, Anderson took a month-long leave of absence from the team as the stress of losing wore on him. First base coach
Dick Tracewski managed the team in the interim.
[10]In 1991, the Tigers finished last in
batting average, first in batting
strikeouts and near the bottom of the league in most pitching categories, but still led their division in late August before settling for a second-place finish behind the rival
Toronto Blue Jays.
During his managerial career, Anderson was known to heap lavish praise on his ballplayers when talking to the media. He declared
Kirk Gibson "the next Mickey Mantle," which he later acknowledged may have put too much pressure on Gibson early in his career. He said
Mike Laga, who played for him in 1984, would "make us forget every power hitter who ever lived."
[11] He also said
Johnny Bench (who played for him in Cincinnati) "will never throw a baseball as hard as
Mike Heath" (a catcher who played for him in Detroit).
Anderson retired from managing on October 2, 1995,
[5] reportedly disillusioned with the state of the league following the
1994 strike that had also delayed the beginning of the 1995 season. It is widely believed that Anderson was pushed into retirement by the Tigers, who were unhappy that Sparky refused to manage
replacement players during
spring training in 1995. In an interview on Detroit's
WJR radio after his retirement, Anderson said he had told his wife that season, "If this is what the game has become, it don't need me no more."
He finished with a lifetime record of 2,194–1,834, for a .545 percentage and the sixth most wins for a Major League manager.
[1] He spent the larger portion of his career managing the Tigers (1970–78 with the Reds, 1979–95 with the Tigers), but he won two World Series with the Reds and one with the Tigers.
[edit]Post-managerial work
Both during his tenure with the Tigers, and for a time thereafter, Anderson did some television work as a baseball commentator. From
1979 to
1986 (with the exception of
1984 of course), Anderson was often paired with
Vin Scully and later
Jack Buck on
CBS Radio's coverage of the World Series. From
1996 to
1998, he was a
color analyst for the
Anaheim Angels' cable television broadcasts.
While still in Detroit, Sparky founded the charitable organization CATCH (Caring Athletes Teamed for Children's and Henry Ford hospitals) in 1987. He continued to support and participate in the charity well into his retirement.
[12]Honors
Anderson was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 2000. Although he managed 17 seasons in Detroit and just 9 seasons in Cincinnati, his Hall of Fame plaque has him wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform. He chose to wear the Reds cap at his induction in honor of former GM
Bob Howsam, who gave Anderson his first chance at a major-league managing job.
[1] Before his induction, Anderson had refused to go inside the Hall because he felt unworthy, saying "I didn't ever want to go into the most precious place in the world unless I belonged."
[4]In his acceptance speech he gave a lot of credit to his players, saying there were two kinds of managers, "One, it ain't very smart. He gets bad players, loses games and gets fired. There was somebody like me that I was a genius. I got good players, stayed out of the way, let 'em win a lot, and then just hung around for 26 years."
[1] He was very proud of his Hall induction, "I never wore a World Series ring ... I will wear this ring until I die."
[1]Anderson was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame the same year. On May 28, 2005, during pre-game ceremonies in
Cincinnati, Anderson's
jersey number, #10, was retired by the
Reds. A day in Anderson's honor was also held at Detroit's
Comerica Parkduring the 2000 season. His number with the
Detroit Tigers, #11, has been inactive since he retired in 1995, but has not been formally retired.
On June 17, 2006, Anderson's number was retired by the Fort Worth Cats, for whom Anderson had played in 1955.
[13] In 2007, Anderson was elected to the
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
On November 3, 2010, it was announced that Anderson had been placed in
hospice care at his
Thousand Oaks home because of his deteriorating
dementia condition.
[14] Anderson died at the age 76 on Thursday, November 4, 2010 in Thousand Oaks.
[4] He is survived by his wife Carol, sons Lee and Albert, daughter Shirley Englebrecht, and nine grandchildren.
[4]- In 1979, Sparky guest-starred as himself on an episode of (appropriately enough) WKRP in Cincinnati. The episode (titled "Sparky"), features Anderson as a talk-show host on the fictional station. Eventually Sparky is let go, which causes him to say, "I must be crazy. Every time I come to (Cincinnati) I get fired!"
- Anderson appeared as himself in The White Shadow season 3 episode "If Your Number's Up, Get it Down" in 1980. Falahey introduces him to Coolidge, but Coolidge replies with "Sorry you lost, but I voted for you." Coolidge mistakenly thought he was 1980 independent presidential candidate John Anderson.
- Anderson appeared as himself in the 1983 Disney Channel movie Tiger Town.
To see more of who died in 2010
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Shirley Verrett [1] was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into sopranoroles i.e. soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s, particularly well-known for singing the works of Verdi and Donizetti.
She appeared in the first concert ever televised from Lincoln Center in 1962,[3] and also appeared that year in the first of the Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts ever televised from that venue, in what is now Avery Fisher Hall.
