George ‘Sparky’ Anderson, 1934–2010

last updated 8 January 2015

George Anderson’s minor league teammates nicknamed him “Sparky” in honor of his fiery, combative play. But when he was in his 50s, and a revered major league manager, he asked sportswriters to address him as George, which he considered more age-appropriate. The plea went unheeded, possibly because Anderson never lost his youthful zest. He kicked dirt on umpires and clashed repeatedly with front-office management. “I didn’t have a lot of talent” as a player, he wrote in his 1990 memoir, They Call Me Sparky, “so I tried to make up for it with spit and vinegar.”

Anderson parlayed his undistinguished playing career into a Hall of Fame career as a manager, said the Los Angeles Times. Born in Bridgewater, S.D., in a house without indoor plumbing, he moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 9. A standout athlete at Dorsey High, he signed a minor league contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers at 19. “I only had a high school education,” he said, “and, believe me, I had to cheat to get that.” The Dodgers traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he played his sole season in the majors, 1959, hitting .218. By 1964, he was managing in the minor leagues, where he caught the eye of Cincinnati Reds general manager Bob Howsam. In 1970, Howsam made Anderson his “unlikely choice” to manage a “young and talented team.” Anderson led the “Big Red Machine,” stocked with future Hall of Fame members Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan along with the legendary Pete Rose, to four National League championships and two consecutive World Series titles, in 1975 and 1976.

As a manager, Anderson was a shrewd tactician, but his greatest strength was as a psychologist, said ESPN.com. “The secret to managing,” he liked to say, “is knowing your players and keeping them happy.” Dismissed from the Reds in 1978 after refusing the front office’s demand that he fire his coaches, Anderson moved to the American League, taking over as the Detroit Tigers’ manager in 1979. With “relentless energy and enthusiasm,” he molded the team, whose young stars included Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker, and Kirk Gibson, into a powerhouse. In 1984, the team won 35 of its first 40 games and went on to win the World Series, making Anderson the first manager to win championships in both leagues (Tony La Russa later repeated the feat, with the Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals). He resigned after the 1995 season, having refused team owner Mike Ilitch’s order to manage replacement players during the 1994–95 players’ strike. “There ain’t no place in baseball for replacement players,” he said.