ANDERSON, SPARKY

The only manager to win world championships for teams in both leagues, Sparky Anderson is frequently perceived as a latter-day Casey Stengel or a successful Gene Mauch. Neither view is entirely convincing.

Not always at ease with the English language and given to elaborate chess games with opposing pilots, Anderson was conspicuous for his Dodger-trained belief that opening day rosters should be changed as little as possible. He also believed that a starting pitcher is merely a middle-inning reliever who just happens to be on the mound in the first inning. His philosophy worked.

After 26 seasons as a manager, Anderson retired in 1995 with 2,194 victories, third all-time behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. From 1970 to 1978, Anderson's Cincinnati Reds won five division titles, four pennants and two World Series. They finished lower than second only once.

Most of his field decisions with the heavy-hitting Big Red Machine involved knowing when to go to the bullpen because of a lack of top-flight starters. His frequent trips to the mound earned him the nickname Captain Hook as he popularized the concept of bullpen by committee.

When he was fired by the Reds, Anderson's winning percentage of .596 was second only to Joe McCarthy's .615.

Moving to the Tigers during the 1979 season, Anderson found another club without deep pitching and accustomed to banging its way to victory. He kept the team above .500 over his first 11 years at the helm, winning a world championship in 1984 and an Eastern Division title in 1987. The first manager to have a 100-win season in each league, Anderson set records for managing in seven league championship series (later broken by Bobby Cox) and for winning five (tied by Cox).

George Lee Anderson was born on Feb. 22, 1934, in Bridgewater, N.D. His father, a local painter, moved the family from the town of 630 to Los Angeles when George was nine. The playground where he first played ball was next to the MGM studios, and the Little Rascals -- including Buckwheat and Spanky -- and other child stars joined his games.

In 1951, his American Legion team won a national championship at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, the same place, renamed Tiger Stadium, where he later managed the Tigers. His Dorsey High School team won 42 consecutive games and he was all-city as a junior and senior.

After graduating, Anderson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers as their scout, Lefty Phillips, was his friend and advisor. The $4,000 bonus and $250 a month salary enabled Anderson to marry his girlfriend Carol, whom he had met in third grade. Anderson was a serviceable middle infielder in the Dodgers' minor league system from 1953 to 1958. While playing for Fort Worth in 1955, his nickname Sparky was bestowed upon him by the team's radio announcer, who noted Anderson's on-field feistiness.

Traded to the Phillies, he spent his only season in the majors in 1959. He earned the distinction of being the player who appeared in the most games (152) in one year without playing in any other season. In 477 at-bats, he was homerless and hit .218, the lowest average on what manager Eddie Sawyer called "the worst team in the history of baseball."

Then it was back to the minors. He spent four more seasons as a player for Triple A-Toronto, where he got his first managerial job in 1964. The team came in fifth and Anderson was fired because of his uncontrollable temper.

Anderson was more successful the second time around. In 1965, Rock Hill of the Class A West Carolinas League went from last (24-40) in the first half of the season to first (35-23) in the second half. Then he won the postseason playoff. At both St. Petersburg (Class A Florida State League) in 1966 and Modesto (Class A California League) in 1967, he again won the second half but lost both playoffs. In 1968, his final season in the minors, he piloted Asheville of the Double-A Southern Association to a pennant.

After a year as a coach for the expansion San Diego Padres in 1969, Anderson was named Reds manager by GM Bob Howsam. His hiring in October 1969 prompted a headline in the Cincinnati Inquirer asking, "Sparky Who?" The entire Queen City would soon find out. Exhibiting the tendency to make brash predictions for which he became famous, Anderson told his coaches the Reds would win the pennant by 10 games.

The margin turned out to be 14½. The Reds swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs before losing the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles in five games.

Injuries dropped the club to fourth in 1971, but the acquisition of George Foster during the season and Joe Morgan and Cesar Geronimo after it completed the nucleus of the squad that would cop four division titles in the next five years. They reached the World Series again in 1972, but lost to the Oakland A's in seven games. The next season, they lost to the New York Mets in the playoffs.

Finally, in 1975, the Reds won it all. They went 108-54 to take the National League West by 20 games and won the World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox as Sparky got rid of the monkey on his back.

The Big Red Machine went 102-60 in 1976 and won its second consecutive Series when it swept the New York Yankees.

For the most part, Anderson remained aloof from the recurrent salary battles between his star players and the front office. He gained their loyalty by consulting a circle of clubhouse veterans -- including Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Morgan -- whenever some issue threatened club cohesion.

If Anderson had one notable failure in team relations, it was his inability to prevent the trade of Perez to the Montreal Expos following the 1976 season. Anderson himself was let go after second-place finishes in 1977 and 1978 by general manager Dick Wagner, who had replaced Howsam before the 1978 season. Even the mayor of Cincinnati joined the outcry by charging that the Reds front office had "gone bananas."

Anderson replaced Less Moss as Tigers manager in June 1979 and the team stayed over .500 for his first five seasons. Then came what Sparky has described as his most satisfying achievement in baseball, the 1984 world championship: 104 wins, an ALCS sweep of the Kansas City Royals, and a World Series win over San Diego in five games -- all with an aging team of modest talents.

The Tigers had the best record in the majors in 1987 at 98-64, but lost to the Minnesota Twins in the playoffs. The next season, Detroit finished a game behind first-place Boston in the American League East.

Early in the 1989 season, Anderson suffered a nervous breakdown caused at least as much by family problems as by the arduousness of running a team on its way to 103 loses. After a three-week rest at home, there were indications that he might retire. However, while he returned to the Tigers, he frequently said that he could no longer manage "25 hours a day."

Still, Anderson stayed at the helm of the struggling franchise until 1995, when he took a leave of absence in spring training because he refused to manage replacement players. When the players strike ended, Anderson returned to manage the Tigers. They went 60-84 and Anderson resigned after the season.

He almost made a comeback with the Angels in 1997, but decided against it. He lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and spends his time on charitable causes, especially CATCH, an organization he founded in 1987 to help underprivileged children in Detroit.

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000, Anderson became the 16th manager enshrined in Cooperstown.