Sparky Anderson

Lore & Background

Anderson was born in Bridgewater, South Dakota, on February 22, 1934. He moved to Los Angeles, California, at age eight. He was a batboy for the USC Trojans. He attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. Upon graduating, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent in an unspecified year. Anderson's American Legion team won the 1951 national championship, played in Briggs Stadium (Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. He married Carol Valle on October 3, 1953; they first met in fifth grade. He played one full MLB season in 1959 with the Philadelphia Phillies, batting .218 in 152 games with no home runs and 34 RBIs, primarily as a second baseman. He also played minor league baseball as a shortstop and second baseman. He was nicknamed "Sparky" in 1955 for his feisty play. After his playing career, he managed minor league teams, including four consecutive pennant winners from 1965 to 1968. He managed the Cincinnati Reds from 1970 to 1978, winning two World Series, and the Detroit Tigers from 1979 to 1995, winning the 1984 World Series. He was fired by the Reds on November 27, 1978. The Tigers hired him on June 14, 1979. In 1984, the Tigers opened 9–0, were 35–5 after 40 games, and finished 104–58, sweeping the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and beating the San Diego Padres in five games in the World Series.

In Their Own Story

The October night is still cold in the way only a Detroit October can be. The stadium is a bowl of amber light and breath-fog, and somewhere in the third-base dugout a lanky man in a windbreaker is muttering to himself, rearranging a lineup card for the fourteenth time. He's not looking at the pitcher. He's looking at the sky, at the way the sodium lights turn the clouds the color of old pennies. A young infielder leans over and asks if he's worried. The man grins, spits a sunflower seed into the dirt, and says something in a word that doesn't exist in any dictionary—a word that means 'confident, but the kind of confident that's a little bit scared.' The kid laughs. The crowd roars. The game is still to be played. And the man goes back to rearranging his lineup card, because in his world, the card is a prayer, and the prayer has to be right.

Reader's Guide

Sparky Anderson managed the Detroit Tigers from 1979 to 1995. His 1,331 wins with the Tigers are the most for any manager in team history. He led the Tigers to the 1984 World Series championship, where they beat the San Diego Padres in five games. The 1984 Tigers led the league wire-to-wire from opening day to the end of the World Series, the first team to do so since the 1927 New York Yankees. Anderson won the American League Manager of the Year Award in 1984 (and possibly another year, but the source is unclear). He was the first manager to win World Series titles in both leagues.

Did You Know?

• Anderson was the first manager to win the World Series in both leagues.
• His 1,331 wins with the Tigers are the most for any manager in team history.
• He was nicknamed 'Sparky' in 1955 for his feisty play.
• The 1984 Tigers became the first team since the 1927 New York Yankees to lead a league wire-to-wire from opening day to the end of the World Series.
• Anderson managed the Reds to 108 wins in 1975 and 102 wins in 1976, winning back-to-back World Series.