Sparky Anderson

Sparky Anderson
Second baseman
Manager
Born: February 22nd, 1934 Bridgewater , United States
Died on: November 4th, 2010 Thousand Oaks , United States
Suggested: Right	Threw: Right
Debut in Major League Baseball
April 10,  1959  with the  Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB assignment
September 27,  1959  with the  Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Batting average	, 218
Home runs	0
RBI	34
Statistics as a manager	2.194-1.834
Teams
As a player Philadelphia Phillies (1959) As a manager Cincinnati Reds (1970–1978) Detroit Tigers (1979-1995)
Awards
3 × World Series winners ( 1975 , 1976 , 1984 ) 2 × AL Manager of the Year (1984, 1987) # 10 is no longer awarded by the Reds # 11 is no longer awarded by the Tigers
member of
Baseball Hall of Fame
Recorded	2000
Special selection	Veterans Committee

George Lee "Sparky" Anderson (born February 22, 1934 in Bridgewater , South Dakota , † November 4, 2010 in Thousand Oaks , California ) was an American baseball player and manager and the first team manager, the teams from the National League and led the American League to victory in the World Series .

Life

Sparky Anderson in conversation with George W. Bush and Yogi Berra (2001)

Anderson was born in Bridgewater, South Dakota in 1934, the son of a painter. When he was eight he moved with his family to Los Angeles and became a Batboy at the University of Southern California . In 1953 he signed an amateur contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers before playing for one season as a second baseman in Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959 . Despite his one season as second baseman, he was elected to the Phillies Hall of Fame.

After finishing his playing career, he became a team manager in the mid-1960s and worked for the Toronto Maple Leafs (1964), the Rock Hill Cardinals (1965), the St. Petersburg Cardinals (1966), the Modesto Reds (1967) and the Asheville Tourists (1968).

He achieved great fame in 1970 when he became team manager of the Cincinnati Reds and built it into the "Big Red Machine" in the 1970s. With him, the team won the championship title in the National League in 1970, 1972, 1975 and 1976. In both 1975 and 1976 he also won the World Series , the finals of the US professional baseball leagues (National League and American League) , with the Cincinnati Reds . He was also inducted into the team's Hall of Fame for his services. In addition, the jersey with the number 10 worn by him is no longer awarded by the Reds.

In 1979 he left the Cincinnati Reds and moved to the Detroit Tigers as the successor to Billy Martin as team manager . In 1984, after defeating the Kansas City Royals and the associated title win in the American League, the San Diego Padres were defeated in just five games in the World Series, so that a team supervised by Anderson won the World Series again. He was the first coach to lead teams from the National League and American League to victory in the World Series. He was also named Team Manager of the Year in the American League in 1984.

The Tigers' shortstop, Alan Trammell , was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the World Series. In 1987 the Tigers reached the American League final for the last time, but were subject to the Minnesota Twins . Despite this, Anderson was again voted Team Manager of the Year in the American League. He remained loyal to the Tigers as a manager until 1995, but without winning any further titles. The Tigers also inducted Anderson into their Hall of Fame.

Sparky Anderson also published three autobiographical books about his experiences as a team manager with the titles The Main Spark: Sparky Anderson and the Cincinnati Reds (1978), Bless You Boys: Diary of the Detroit Tigers' 1984 Season (1984) and Sparky! (1990).

After a heart attack and an unsuccessful angioplasty he underwent on 16 July 1999 a triple bypass - surgery .

For his services in baseball, he was inducted into both the US Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

At the 2006 World Series , he threw the symbolic first pitch in the second game of the St. Louis Cardinals against the Detroit Tigers.

Web links

Commons : Sparky Anderson  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Player information and statistics from Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
• Data as a manager on Baseballreference.com (English)
• Sparky Anderson in the nndb (English)
• Sparky Anderson in the Hall of Fame

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Matt Schudel: Sparky Anderson, Hall of Fame manager of Reds and Tigers, this at 76th Washington Post, November 4, 2010, accessed March 1, 2015 . 
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Richard Goldstein: Sparky Anderson Dies at 76; Won World Series With Reds and Tigers. New York Times, November 4, 2010, accessed March 1, 2015 .