The great baseball manager, who skippered the Cincinnati Red and Detroit Tigers to 2,194 wins, has died. From the Wash Post obit:
Mr. Anderson could be a stern disciplinarian, particularly when he enforced Cincinnati’s austere dress code and no-facial-hair policy of the 1970s. In Detroit, he was appalled when his players went on the road wearing jeans and running shoes.
“This is Sunday,” he told his players. “On Tuesday, I better see everybody in slacks, shirt and jacket.”
When one player complained that he didn’t own a jacket, Mr. Anderson replied, “You do now.”
Mr. Anderson said that “a good manager is never liked,” but over time, fans and players came to have a deep admiration for him.
“With Sparky, it was never just about baseball,” his star shortstop with the Tigers, Alan Trammell, said in 2000. “He helped make us better people, as well as players. He was another father figure.”
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