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By John Lowe and John Erardi, Gannett
Sparky Anderson, the first major league manager to win a World Series in both the American and National Leaguesdied Thursday of complications from dementia, according to a statement released Thursday from his family.
Anderson was 76.
The white-haired "Captain Hook," whose once-startling tendency to yank pitchers early and often is now considered routine practice, had a career in two acts: the first with the Cincinnati Reds in their Big Red Machine era, when the team won the 1975 and 1976 World Series; and the second with the Detroit Tigers, where he remains the manager with the longest tenure and most victories. He guided the Tigers to a World Series victory in 1984.
At Anderson's request, there will be no funeral nor memorial service. He is survived by his wife, Carol; sons Lee and Albert; daughter Shirley Englebrecht; and nine grandchildren.
George Lee Anderson was born in Bridgewater, S.D., on Feb. 22, 1934, one of five children who lived in a house without an indoor toilet or sufficient heat. In the winter, Anderson's father put cardboard over the windows to block the cold.
By the time Anderson was 10, his family moved to Los Angeles, but he always seemed more rooted in the humble soil of South Dakota. Anderson consistently declined the perks and privileges of celebrity and remained grateful for the life baseball had given him.
"I was so lucky that I almost at times ... feel ashamed that you could be that lucky, all the things that happened for me," he said in 2006.
The only memorable thing about Anderson's career as a player — he initially signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers as an infielder — was that it gave him his nickname.
"I didn't have a lot of talent, so I tried to make up for it with spit and vinegar. I spent more time arguing with umpires than I spent on the bases," Anderson wrote in his 1990 book, Sparky.
"There was an old radio announcer whose name I don't remember. 'The sparks are flying tonight,' he'd say after I charged another umpire. Then I'd do it the next night. And the next. Finally he got to saying, 'And here comes Sparky racing toward the umpire again.'
"The name stuck. At first I was embarrassed. Eventually I got used to it."
Anderson played in the majors for just one season, 1959, when he was the starting second base-man for the Philadelphia Phillies and hit .218.
In Cincinnati, the headlines asked "Sparky Who?" when he was hired as a 35-year-old no-name manager at the end of the 1969 season. But after his firing nine years later, he was mourned by fans throughout Reds Country as though they'd lost a loved one.
He became just as famous — and was every bit as colorful — as the great players he managed in Cincinnati: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez, the latter three Hall of Famers. Rose would have been but for a gambling scandal that got him banned from baseball.
Sparky Anderson, the first major league manager to win a World Series in both the American and National Leaguesdied Thursday of complications from dementia, according to a statement released Thursday from his family.
Anderson was 76.
The white-haired "Captain Hook," whose once-startling tendency to yank pitchers early and often is now considered routine practice, had a career in two acts: the first with the Cincinnati Reds in their Big Red Machine era, when the team won the 1975 and 1976 World Series; and the second with the Detroit Tigers, where he remains the manager with the longest tenure and most victories. He guided the Tigers to a World Series victory in 1984.
At Anderson's request, there will be no funeral nor memorial service. He is survived by his wife, Carol; sons Lee and Albert; daughter Shirley Englebrecht; and nine grandchildren.
George Lee Anderson was born in Bridgewater, S.D., on Feb. 22, 1934, one of five children who lived in a house without an indoor toilet or sufficient heat. In the winter, Anderson's father put cardboard over the windows to block the cold.
By the time Anderson was 10, his family moved to Los Angeles, but he always seemed more rooted in the humble soil of South Dakota. Anderson consistently declined the perks and privileges of celebrity and remained grateful for the life baseball had given him.
"I was so lucky that I almost at times ... feel ashamed that you could be that lucky, all the things that happened for me," he said in 2006.
The only memorable thing about Anderson's career as a player — he initially signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers as an infielder — was that it gave him his nickname.
"I didn't have a lot of talent, so I tried to make up for it with spit and vinegar. I spent more time arguing with umpires than I spent on the bases," Anderson wrote in his 1990 book, Sparky.
"There was an old radio announcer whose name I don't remember. 'The sparks are flying tonight,' he'd say after I charged another umpire. Then I'd do it the next night. And the next. Finally he got to saying, 'And here comes Sparky racing toward the umpire again.'
"The name stuck. At first I was embarrassed. Eventually I got used to it."
Anderson played in the majors for just one season, 1959, when he was the starting second base-man for the Philadelphia Phillies and hit .218.
In Cincinnati, the headlines asked "Sparky Who?" when he was hired as a 35-year-old no-name manager at the end of the 1969 season. But after his firing nine years later, he was mourned by fans throughout Reds Country as though they'd lost a loved one.
He became just as famous — and was every bit as colorful — as the great players he managed in Cincinnati: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez, the latter three Hall of Famers. Rose would have been but for a gambling scandal that got him banned from baseball.
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