[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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        MR. SPARKY ANDERSON INDUCTED INTO BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Mr. 
George Lee ``Sparky'' Anderson, who will be inducted into the National 
Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York on July 23, 2000. 
Mr. Anderson spent 26 seasons as a manager in the Major Leagues, 17 of 
these with the Detroit Tigers. During this time, he was recognized not 
only as one of the best managers in the game of baseball, but also as 
one of the best ambassadors for the game of baseball.
  Mr. Anderson was born on February 22, 1934, in Bridgewater, South 
Dakota. Upon graduation from high school, he signed with the Brooklyn 
Dodgers. He spent six years in the minor leagues before being called up 
to the major leagues by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. He was the 
regular second baseman for the Phillies that year, and was recognized 
as an intelligent, hustling player. He had a batting average of .218, 0 
home runs and 34 runs batted in. He earned the nickname ``manos de 
oro'' from his teammates: ``the man with the golden hands.''
  As it turned out, 1959 was the only year Mr. Anderson spent in the 
major leagues as a player. He never left the game of baseball, though, 
and in 1964 he became the manager of a minor league team in Toronto. In 
1969, he accepted a coaching position with the San Diego Padres, and 
prior to the 1970 season the Cincinnati Reds named him as their 
manager.
  It quickly became apparent that managing suited Mr. Anderson well. 
Not only did it provide him with the opportunity to utilize his immense 
knowledge of the game of baseball, it also highlighted his ability to 
relate to and motivate players. Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, a member of 
the Reds during Mr. Anderson's years there and now a wonderful and 
respected baseball commentator, once said, ``Sparky had a way of making 
everybody look in the mirror at themselves. As far as I'm concerned, 
that's the key to being a good manager.''
  Under Mr. Anderson's guidance, the Reds became the dominant team of 
the 1970's. The team became known as The Big Red Machine for its 
ability to produce runs, led by such great offensive players as Morgan, 
Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Ken Griffey, Sr. Mr. Anderson 
earned the nickname ``Captain Hook'' for his innovative employment of 
relief pitchers, which was not the common practice of the time. This 
combination of offense and strategic wizardry proved to be lethal for 
opponents. In his first year with the team, the Reds won 102 games and 
the National League Pennant. From 1972-76, the Reds averaged more than 
one hundred wins per season, won three more National League pennants, 
and won back-to-back World Series Championships in 1975 and 1976.
  After nine years in Cincinnati, Mr. Anderson came to the Detroit 
Tigers in 1979. The Tigers were struggling at the time, but possessed a 
core of young, talented players, including Jack Morris, Lou Whitaker, 
Alan Trammell and Lance Parrish. Mr. Anderson molded this group of 
unique personalities into a team of champions. In 1984, just five years 
after his arrival, the team started 35-5--still the best 40-game start 
in the history of Major League Baseball--and never stopped their 
winning ways, ultimately bringing the Detroit Tigers their first World 
Series Championship since 1968. Very few people in the City of Detroit 
have forgotten Kirk Gibson's home run off the San Diego Padres' Goose 
Gossage in the eighth inning of Game 5, the hit which sewed up the 
series for the Tigers.
  Mr. Anderson retired from managing the Tigers in 1995, having led the 
team to one more pennant win in 1987. Ultimately, in his 26 seasons as 
a Major League manager, nine with the Reds and 17 with the Tigers, his 
teams won 2,194 games, placing him third all-time, behind just Connie 
Mack and John McGraw. He was named Manager of the Year three times, 
twice in the National League and once in the American League. He is the 
only manager in the history of the game to win a World Series in both 
the American and National Leagues; he is the only manager to win 100 
games in one season in both leagues; and he is the only manager to have 
over six hundred career victories in each league. His 34-21 mark in the 
postseason remains the best winning percentage for a manager in Major 
League history.
  During his seventeen years in Detroit, Mr. Anderson became an 
important member of the community, and not because his position as 
Manager of the Detroit Tigers. His involvement with many charitable 
organizations led him to found his own in 1987. The organization is 
called CATCH, Caring Athletes Team for Children's & Henry Ford 
Hospitals, but is better known as ``Sparky Anderson's Charity for 
Children.'' The mission of CATCH is to improve the quality of life of 
pediatric patients at Children's & Henry Ford Hospitals in the State of 
Michigan. Since its inception, CATCH has issued grants to Children's 
Hospital of Michigan and Henry Ford Hospital of Detroit for 
approximately $1.4 million. In addition, the charitable organization 
has built an endowment of $4.5 million. When he founded CATCH, Mr. 
Anderson said ``there is nothing in this world that you will ever do 
that's better than helping a child.'' The growth of this endowment will 
allow ``Sparky Anderson's Charity for Children'' to continue helping 
children long into the future.
  I thank Mr. Anderson for all that he has done for the City of Detroit 
and the State of Michigan. He spent his life in baseball quite simply 
because he loved the game, and he has never stopped believing that he 
is indebted to the game for the doors it opened for him, and the life 
it afforded him. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, then, is having 
successfully given back to the game of baseball more than it gave to 
him, because he certainly has done this. He stands out as one of the 
best ambassadors for baseball in the history of the game, a sports 
figure who managed to give as much to his community as he did to his 
team. I know that he is loved and revered in the State of Michigan not 
only because of the World Series championship he helped bring to the 
City of Detroit in 1984, but also because of the manner in which he 
handled himself over the course of his seventeen years there. He became 
an important part of the Detroit community--his place there transcended 
wins and losses.
  I am sure that Mr. Anderson will enjoy this special occasion with his 
wife, Carol, who has been with him through the entire journey, and 
their family. On behalf of the entire United States Senate, I 
congratulate Mr. Sparky Anderson on his induction into the National 
Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. Though he will enter the Hall 
wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform, I know that the Detroit Tigers, the 
City of Detroit and the State of Michigan will always hold a special 
place in his heart, just as Sparky continues to hold a special place in 
the hearts of millions of Michiganians.

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