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Born
Born on February 22, 1934, born George Lee Anderson in Bridgewater, South Dakota. -
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Sparky Anderson
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Technical
Upon graduating, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1953. He had the skills to coach from playing and seeing how other coaches worked. -
Leading
:The gamble paid off as Cincinnati stormed out of the gate winning 70 of their first 100 games. He lead them out of a rut that they were in, and helped them win all those games. He help them get better, he believed in them. -
Staffing
Cincinnati had finished third in the National League (NL) West in 1969 and boasted a world of talent with players such as Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez. To get a good team he had to choose good players that would help the team become the best that they could. -
Human Relations
Anderson's special rapport with his players began right away. "I remember that day in spring training when he told me, I'm here to win, and I want you to help me. Right then he had everybody. We wanted to win for Sparky," recalled Perez. He had made the players want to play better, and want to win. He had believed in them and want to practice and play. -
Leader
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. He had worked with his players side by side making them good players. -
Liaison
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?". He had to check with all the players get to know them and see how they played in order to figure out how the team would need to be improved. -
Controlling
n 1970,In his first year at the helm, Anderson led the Reds to 102 victories and a National League pennant win. To do this he would have had to take the team and make sure that they had their head straight, they concentrated on the team, and that they didn’t mess up. -
Planning
Cincinnati slumped to a fourth place tie in 1971 but, bolstered by the acquisition of Joe Morgan from Houston, Sparky returned the Reds to winning ways in 1972 and once again won the pennant. He had lost the game, so he had to plan on how to beat them the next season. He had to look on what went wrong and plan on how to do better. -
Conceptual
After an injury-plagued 1971 season in which the team finished fifth,[8] the Reds came back and won another pennant under Anderson in 1972, He had to see how the team would be affected with the injured player and how the season would be like and how to make the best of it. -
Organizing
In 1975 the Reds, ignited by a regular season lineup change of moving Pete Rose to third base and inserting George Foster in left field, returned to glory winning 108 games, capturing the NL West Title, He did this by putting his player to where they would be the most help, and he organized it to help win the most games. -
Spokesperson
After the Tigers clinched the AL East pennant in 1984, Sparky had this to say in his journal: "I have to be honest. I’ve waited for this day since they fired me in Cincinnati. I think they made a big mistake when they did that. Now no one will ever question me again." He had been a good coach and then he had made sure that no doubted that. -
Monitor
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. He had to see how that team played, in order to win. -
Resource Allocator
While still in Detroit, Sparky founded the charitable organization CATCH (Caring Athletes Teamed for Children's and Henry Ford hospitals) in 1987, which helps provide care for seriously ill children whose parents do not have health insurance or the means to otherwise pay for the care. He had to see how much it would cost, when to set fundraisers and how to organize it. -
Disseminator
On September 27, 1992, the Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 13-3 for Anderson's 1,132nd win with the team, passing Hughie Jennings as the all-time leader in wins by a Tiger manager. In order to do this he had to make sure everything that lead up to it was in order, which was practice, and transportation. -
Disturbance Handler
"I don’t know why the players make such a fuss about sitting in the first-class section of the plane. Does that mean they’ll get there faster?” (9/27/1999) He had to tell the player how things was, and not what they wanted to hear. -
Died
Died on November 4, 2010 from complecations of dementia.
