oldschooler Posted November 3, 2010 Report Share Posted November 3, 2010 [size="5"][b]Sparky Anderson placed in hospice care[/b] [/size]ESPN.com news services Former [url="http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/det/detroit-tigers"][color="#225fb2"]Detroit Tigers[/color][/url] and [url="http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/cin/cincinnati-reds"][color="#225fb2"]Cincinnati Reds[/color][/url] manager Sparky Anderson has been placed in hospice care at his Thousands Oaks, Calif., home for complications resulting from dementia. Anderson family's said in a statement Wednesday they appreciate the support and kindness that friends and fans have shown throughout the Hall of Famer's career and retirement. No further details were released. Anderson guided the Tigers to a World Series title in 1984 and led them for 17 seasons. He won four National League pennants with the Reds, including back-to-back World Series titles with the "Big Red Machine" in 1975-'76. Anderson was the first manager to win more than 100 games in a season in the American and National leagues. He has 2,194 career wins. [url="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5759008&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_5759008"]http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5759008&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_5759008[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted November 3, 2010 Report Share Posted November 3, 2010 Hope your pain ends soon, Sparky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|kennethmw| Posted November 3, 2010 Report Share Posted November 3, 2010 [quote name='Elflocko' timestamp='1288798938' post='937007'] Hope your pain ends soon, Sparky... [/quote] x2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 3, 2010 Report Share Posted November 3, 2010 Prayers for George "Sparky" Anderson, AKA Captain Hook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BengalRep85-9 Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Sparky lost his battle. He died today at the age of 76 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooler Posted November 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Former Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson died today at his Thousands Oaks, California home. Yesterday, his family said he'd been placed in the care of Hospice for complications resulting from dementia. Anderson family's said in a statement Wednesday they appreciate the support and kindness that friends and fans have shown throughout the Hall of Famer's career and retirement. The former Cincinnati Reds skipper was the first manager to win more than 100 games in a season in the American and National leagues. He has 2,194 career wins. He managed the National League's Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships, then added a third title in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers of the American League. Local 12 is following this breaking news alert and will post new information here as soon as it is available. [url="http://www.local12.com/content/reds/story/Former-Reds-Manager-Sparky-Anderson-Dies/oHnASQ8ddUCX9ysqsAEwqQ.cspx"]http://www.local12.com/content/reds/story/Former-Reds-Manager-Sparky-Anderson-Dies/oHnASQ8ddUCX9ysqsAEwqQ.cspx[/url] RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Putting this here and moving it to the Reds forum so all can see it. Sad day. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101104/SPT04/311040114/Reds-great-Sparky-Anderson-dies [quote]Reds great Sparky Anderson dies Manager of Big Red Machine was 76 Reds fans will remember Sparky Anderson for three things: The way he was hired, the way he was fired, and everything in between. He was “Sparky Who?” in the headlines when he was hired as a 35-year-old no-name manager at the end of the 1969 season. After his firing nine years later, he was mourned by fans throughout Reds Country as though they’d lost a loved one. In between, the “Main Spark” (a nickname he picked up from the name of his pre-game radio show) led the Reds to five divisional crowns, four World Series appearances and two world championships. Anderson died Thursday at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., of complications from dementia. He was 76. He became just as famous – and every bit as colorful – as the great players he managed in Cincinnati: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez, all Hall of Famers except Rose, who has been kept out by a gambling scandal. “I was 35 years old when I went into Cincinnati in 1970,” Anderson recalled a few years ago. “When I came out nine years later, the guys had made me a star. Over those nine years, they averaged 96 wins. I tell people, ‘Just think what I could have done if I had some players!” And yet, for all his self-deprecating humor, Anderson’s plaque hangs in Cooperstown, N.Y. among his former players. Anderson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. On induction day that summer, he still couldn’t believe it. “You look around, you say to yourself, ‘My goodness …how could a young man from Bridgewater, South Dakota, 600 people, and couldn’t play ever be in front of a microphone, and they’re talking about the third-winningest manager?” George Lee Anderson was born on Feb. 22, 1934, in Bridgewater, S.D. He played in the minor leagues for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and made the major leagues as a starting second baseman for the the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. His playing career was forgettable except for one thing: That’s where he obtained the nickname, “Sparky.” As Anderson described it in his 1990 book “Sparky,” he spent more time as a young player arguing with umpires than making plays on the bases. “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.” After he stopped playing, Anderson began coaching. He was a manager in the minor leagues for five years, then was hired as a coach in 1969 with the San Diego Padres. A year later, he was managing the Reds. He made a lasting impression. Fans in Cincinnati can still imitate the Anderson walk out to the Riverfront Stadium mound to remove a pitcher -- hands in his warmup jacket, signaling to the bullpen with his right or left hand to indicate which reliever, and then taking a long or short stride to make sure he got across the first base foul without stepping on it. If there is a sportswriter who didn’t love Sparky for his ease with a good quote, his genuine warmth for people and deep love of the game, that scribe has never revealed it. He’d give the first wave of reporters to his pre-game office one set of quotes, and then make up an entirely new batch for the second wave. One scribe recalled the Main Spark talking away in his office right up to game time. “Excuse me,” Anderson finally said. “They’re about to play the national anthem.” Anderson never gave the impression that he regarded himself as anything but the luckiest man on the face of the earth. His position players adored him – some of his starting pitchers had other adjectives to describe him – and typical of those who adored him was Rose, whom Anderson named captain upon getting the managerial job in Cincinnati. “I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit for Sparky,” Rose would go on to say, more than once. Anderson, whose nicknames also included “Captain Hook” thanks to his penchant for removing any starting pitcher showing even the least sign of struggling, was a bigger-than-life character who never acted like it. He was part Casey Stengel (non-sequiturs), part John McGraw (terrific in-game tactician) and part Connie Mack (statesman of the game). In the pantheon, Anderson ranks right up there with all them. At the time of his retirement from baseball in 1995, Anderson’s 2,194 victories were third in baseball history, behind only Mack and McGraw. Until 2006, when Tony LaRussa matched the feat, Anderson was the only manager to have won world championships in both leagues. LaRussa, who won titles with the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, later said he thought Anderson shouldn’t have to share that achievement. “I said it once and I’ll say it again,” LaRussa told the New York Times in 2006. “I have such a respect and affection for Sparky that I believe he’s one of the greatest -- not just managers -- but baseball men and ambassadors for the game. “It’s such a great honor he should really have this alone.” Anderson managed the Detroit Tigers to the flag in 1984. He was the team’s manager from mid-1979 to 1995. Those 17 seasons at the helm were the most in Tigers history. And yet when it came time to go into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, there never seemed to be any doubt in Sparky’s mind which cap he would wear. On the day his beloved friend, former Reds general manager Bob Howsam, died on Feb. 19, 2008, Sparky explained why Cincinnati would always be No. 1 to him. “People (in Detroit) said, ‘Why wear a Reds cap? Why not a Tigers cap? You were in Detroit for 17 years.’ “I said, ‘Because of Bob Howsam. Without Bob Howsam, I don’t ever get to Detroit,’.” he said. At the time Howsam hired him, Anderson had never managed above the Triple-A level. Anderson’s relationship with Howsam was marked by mutual respect and trust. Anderson wasn’t afraid to make controversial decisions, and none raised more eyebrows than his decision to move Pete Rose to third base in 1975. Howsam was out of town at the time, and while Anderson didn’t have to secure anybody’s permission to move Rose to third, he did tell a few people. Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman didn’t believe it until he saw it, and he says he’ll never forget Rose’s first chance. “The first batter up – Ralph Garr – hit an absolute screamer to Pete’s glove side. Pete breaks to his left, stumbles, fields the ball, recovers and gets up and throws him out. He looked like a monkey playing with a football. It was incredible.” The next day, Howsam called Chief Bender, the Reds director of player personnel. Bender’s phone rang. It was Howsam. “I looked at paper this morning,” began Howsam, “and the box score said ‘Pete Rose – third base.’ That’s a mistake, right?” “No, Bob. Sparky put him at third base.” “Oh my god,” said Howsam. The Reds went on to win the World Series that season, and would repeat in 1976. Two years later, following two second-place finishes in their division, the Reds fired Anderson after he refused to replace any of his coaches. “I’ve seen people write and say, ‘Bob Howsam fired you,’ ” recalled Anderson. “Or ‘Dick Wagner (Howsam’s No. 2 man) fired you.’ “No, they didn’t. I fired myself. I was told to let three of my coaches go, and I wouldn’t do it. I’d brought them in, and I wasn’t going to take them out. They had no choice but to fire me. I wouldn’t do what they wanted.” It wasn’t the first time Anderson hadn’t done what they wanted. It was just the first time he got fired for it. But with Anderson, there were no hard feelings. When Howsam died, Anderson said “this man changed my entire life, my home, everything.” Anderson said Howsam was the greatest general manager he’d ever met. “He was precious to me,” Anderson said. And Anderson’s memory remains precious to Reds fans. He always paid them tribute when he returned to the Queen City. “People know what they have here,” said Anderson during a memorable final farewell in 2002 to Riverfront Stadium, dubbed by former Reds beat writer Bob Hertzel in the Big Red Machine years as “The Land of Ahs.” “I say it all the time,” began Anderson. “If you’ve never played in Cincinnati, you’ve never played. And when I say Cincinnati, we’re actually saying all the way down to Louisville, and over to Portsmouth and up to Columbus: Reds Country.” And to the end, Sparky was its king.[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bengaled Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Tigre Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Great baseball man. Great man, period. RIP, George. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooler Posted November 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 [url="http://twitter.com/#!/bhofheimer_espn"][b][color="#333333"]bhofheimer_espn[/color][/b][/url] [color="#999999"]bill hofheimer[/color] sad news re passing of Sparky Anderson today. ESPN Classic tribute tonite will incl 1975 [url="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23worldseries"][color="#2d76b9"]#worldseries[/color][/url] gm 7 (reds vs red sox) beg at 8p [url="http://twitter.com/#!/bhofheimer_espn/status/29691965449"][size="2"][color="#999999"]31 minutes ago[/color][/size][/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 [quote name='oldschooler' timestamp='1288898903' post='937321'] [url="http://twitter.com/#!/bhofheimer_espn"][b][color="#333333"]bhofheimer_espn[/color][/b][/url] [color="#999999"]bill hofheimer[/color] sad news re passing of Sparky Anderson today. ESPN Classic tribute tonite will incl 1975 [url="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23worldseries"][color="#2d76b9"]#worldseries[/color][/url] gm 7 (reds vs red sox) beg at 8p [url="http://twitter.com/#!/bhofheimer_espn/status/29691965449"][size="2"][color="#999999"]31 minutes ago[/color][/size][/url] [/quote] Cool! But I have the game on DVD so I can watch it any time I want. I'd rather see Game 4 of the 1976. Rest in Peace, Sparky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooler Posted November 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 [url="http://twitter.com/#!/CincinnatiReds"][b][color="#333333"]CincinnatiReds[/color][/b][/url] [color="#999999"]Cincinnati Reds[/color] "We'll miss you, Sparky!" graphic on the Great American Ball Park videoboard. [url="http://plixi.com/p/54950669"][color="#2d76b9"]http://plixi.com/p/54950669[/color][/url] [color="#2d76b9"][/color][url="http://twitter.com/#!/CincinnatiReds/status/29696447273"][size="2"][color="#999999"]18 minutes ago[/color][/size][/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooler Posted November 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 [size="5"][b]Mike Brown on Sparky Anderson[/b][/size] Posted by jreedy November 4th, 2010, 5:11 pm Bengals president and owner Mike Brown expressed his condolences over the passing of former Reds manager Sparky Anderson on Thursday. In 1975, when the Reds beat the Red Sox in seven games in the World Series, the Bengals finished 11-3 and won the AFC Central. The .786 winning percentage stands as the best season in team history. “Sparky has a special place not just in baseball lore in Cincinnati, but in all sports history,” Brown said. “The Big Red Machine teams he led were one of Cincinnati’s biggest claims to fame during his tenure, and they remain that even now. Everyone admired him, including baseball fans of all stripes, and I put myself in that number.” http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2010/11/04/mike-brown-on-sparky-anderson/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MULLY Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 God love Sparky! I wish Marvin had this fire! NSFW Language [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgJ2jFVp1bc[/youtube] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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