The Pecan Park Eagle

Sparky Anderson, Baseball Hall of Fame, 2000

Sparky Anderson died yesterday, Thursday, November 4, 2010, of complications from dementia. He was 76 and he passed away in a Thousand Oaks, California hospice after a brief stay. He leaves behind enough wins as an MLB manager at Cincinnati and Detroit to qualify for 6th place on the all time leader board.

Sparky Anderson was the first manager to win World Series crowns for clubs in both big leagues and the only manager to become the career wins leader for two different clubs. When he finally retired after the 1995 season, Sparky was in 3rd place in wins, trailing only the legends Connie Mack and John McGraw. He has since been surpassed by Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre.

Anderson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. What doesn’t show up on his plaque at Cooperstown quite so easily was his uncanny ability to read, relate to, and get the most production out of his players. I had a brief encounter with Sparky charm in the summer of 2009 and it was powerful. If he diagnosed his players as clearly and as easily as he tabbed me, it’s no wonder he won two big ones for the Reds and another for the Tigers. I was ready to run through walls in appreciation for his treatment of me at the completion of the 2009 Knuckle Ball in Houston in August of that year,

I had never met Sparky before that evening, but I had read a poem that evening that I had written in honor of the late Joe Niekro. It was simply a small part of the program.

As we all were leaving the banquet at Minute Maid Park at night’s end. Sparky caught my eye from across the room. As he did, he abruptly changed course and began working his way through the crowd toward me.

I will never forget the smile on his face when he finally reached me. The smile is framed around the quick hard hug he then gave me with these simple words: “Thank you, my man!” Then he nodded approvingly and went away, framing my only direct human contact with Sparky Anderson in each of our separately long lifetimes as just one special moment in mine.

How lucky could I possibly be? That large moment with Sparky Anderson was as close as I’ll ever come to knowing what it feels like to hit a big league home run. And I have Sparky Anderson to thank for it. He didn’t have to fight the crowd to come thank me, an otherwise total stranger, but he did. And I shall be forever humbled and grateful that he did.

Where is that wall? I’ll run through it now. And I’ll do it for Sparky Anderson, God rest his sweet soul.

The following list was put together at Wikipedia. It reads like a Hall of Fame of the great ones who have managed in the game of baseball throughout the Modern Era long enough to pile up the most wins as managers. I hope you will find the chart both useful and fun to review. And please share your comments and questions here in response to this column.

The chart also helps remind us: The Sparky Andersons of baseball don’t come around everyday, but when they do, they usually stay long enough to get great results over time.

Most MLB Managerial Wins, All Time, Through 2010 Season:

Rank	Name	Wins	Losses	Pct.
1	Connie Mack *	3,731	3,948	.486
2	John McGraw *	2,763	1,948	.586
3	Tony La Russa	2,638	2,293	.535
4	Bobby Cox	2,504	2,001	.556
5	Joe Torre	2,326	1,997	.538
6	Sparky Anderson *	2,194	1,834	.544
7	Bucky Harris *	2,158	2,219	.493
8	Joe McCarthy *	2,125	1,333	.615
9	Walter Alston *	2,040	1,613	.558
10	Leo Durocher *	2,008	1,709	.540
11	Casey Stengel *	1,905	1,842	.508
12	Gene Mauch	1,902	2,037	.483
13	Bill McKechnie *	1,896	1,723	.524
14	Lou Piniella	1,835	1,713	.517
15	Ralph Houk	1,619	1,531	.514
16	Fred Clarke *	1,602	1,181	.576
17	Tommy Lasorda *	1,599	1,439	.526
18	Dick Williams *	1,571	1,451	.520
19	Jim Leyland	1,493	1,518	.496
20	Clark Griffith *	1,491	1,367	.522
21	Earl Weaver *	1,480	1,060	.583
22	Miller Huggins *	1,413	1,134	.555
23	Al Lopez *	1,410	1,004	.584
24	Jimmy Dykes	1,406	1,541	.477
25	Dusty Baker	1,405	1,284	.522
26	Wilbert Robinson *	1,399	1,398	.500
27	Chuck Tanner	1,352	1,381	.495
28	Ned Hanlon *	1,313	1,164	.530
29	Cap Anson	1,296	947	.578
30	Charlie Grimm	1,287	1,067	.547
31	Frank Selee *	1,284	862	.598
32	Whitey Herzog *	1,281	1,125	.532
33	Bruce Bochy	1,274	1,300	.495
34	Billy Martin	1,253	1,013	.553
34	Bill Rigney	1,239	1,321	.484
36	Joe Cronin	1,236	1,055	.484
37	Harry Wright *	1,225	885	.581
38	Mike Hargrove	1,188	1,173	.503
39	Hughie Jennings *	1,184	995	.543
40	Lou Boudreau	1,162	1,224	.487
41	John McNamara	1,160	1,233	.485
42	Davey Johnson	1,148	888	.564
43	Tom Kelly	1,140	1,244	.478
44	Frankie Frisch	1,138	1,078	.514
45	Art Howe	1,129	1,137	.498
46	Bobby Valentine	1,117	1,072	.510
47	Danny Murtaugh	1,115	950	.540
48	Frank Robinson	1,065	1,176	.475
49	Billy Southworth *	1,044	704	.597
50	Red Schoendienst	1,041	955	.522
51	Steve O’Neill	1,040	821	.559
52	Felipe Alou	1,033	1,021	.503
53	Jim Fregosi	1,028	1,095	.484
54	Jack McKeon	1,011	940	.518
55	Chuck Dressen	1,008	973	.509