Tom Crean

Tom Crean was an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer from County Kerry. He left the family farm near Annascaul to enlist in the British Royal Navy at the age of 15. In 1901, while serving on HMS Ringarooma in New Zealand, he volunteered to join Robert Falcon Scott's 1901–04 British National Antarctic Expedition on Discovery, thus beginning a distinguished career as an explorer during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Crean was a member of three of the four major British expeditions to Antarctica during this period. After the Discovery Expedition he joined Captain Scott's 1911–13 Terra Nova Expedition, which saw the race to reach the South Pole lost to Roald Amundsen, and ended in the deaths of Scott and his polar party. During this expedition Crean's 35-mile (56 km) solo walk across the Ross Ice Shelf to save the life of Edward Evans led to him receiving the Albert Medal. His third Antarctic venture was the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition on Endurance led by Ernest Shackleton, in which he served as Second Officer. After Endurance became beset in the pack ice and sank, he was a participant in a dramatic series of events including months spent drifting on the ice, a journey in lifeboats to Elephant Island, and an open boat journey of 800 nautical miles (920 statute miles, 1,500 km) from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Upon reaching South Georgia, Crean was one of the party of three which undertook the first land crossing of the island, without maps or proper mountaineering equipment.

His contributions to these expeditions earned him three Polar Medals, and a reputation as a tough and dependable polar traveller. After the Endurance expedition Crean returned to the Navy, and when his naval career ended in 1920 he moved back to County Kerry. In his home town of Annascaul, he and his wife Ellen opened a public house called the "South Pole Inn". He lived there quietly and unobtrusively until his death in 1938.

Theodore Maynard

Theodore Maynard was an English poet, literary critic, and historian. He grew up in England until 1920, and afterwards he moved to America and lived there until his death. Although he considered himself primarily a poet, during his lifetime he was best known and most influential as an historian of Roman Catholicism, especially in the United States.

Aleksander Rodchenko

Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.

Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."

Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg to a working class family. His family moved to Kazan in 1909, after the death of his father at which point he studied at the Kazan School of Art under Nikolai Feshin and Georgii Medvedev, and at the Stroganov Institute in Moscow. He made his first abstract drawings, influenced by the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, in 1915. The following year, he participated in "The Store" exhibition organized by Vladimir Tatlin, who was another formative influence in his development as an artist.

Rodchenko was appointed Director of the Museum Bureau and Purchasing Fund by the Bolshevik Government in 1920. He was responsible for the reorganization of art schools and museums. He taught from 1920 to 1930 at the Higher Technical-Artistic Studios (VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN).

In 1921 he became a member of the Productivist group, which advocated the incorporation of art into everyday life. He gave up painting in order to concentrate on graphic design for posters, books, and films. He was deeply influenced by the ideas and practice of the filmmaker Dziga Vertov, with whom he worked intensively in 1922.

Impressed by the photomontage of the German Dadaists, Rodchenko began his own experiments in the medium, first employing found images in 1923, and from 1924 on shooting his own photographs as well. His first published photomontage illustrated Mayakovsky's poem, "About This," in 1923.

From 1923 to 1928 Rodchenko collaborated closely with Mayakovsky (of whom he took several striking portraits) on the design and layout of LEF and Novy LEF, the publications of Constructivist artists. Many of his photographs appeared in or were used as covers for these journals. His images eliminated unnecessary detail, emphasized dynamic diagonal composition, and were concerned with the placement and movement of objects in space.

Throughout the 1920s Rodchenko's work was abstract often to the point of being non-figurative. In the 1930s, with the changing Party guidelines governing artistic practice, he concentrated on sports photography and images of parades and other choreographed movements.

Rodchenko joined the October circle of artists in 1928 but was expelled three years later being charged with "formalism." He returned to painting in the late 1930s, stopped photographing in 1942, and produced abstract expressionist works in the 1940s. He continued to organize photography exhibitions for the government during these years. He died in Moscow in 1956.

Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher

Frank Jack Fletcher was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. Fletcher was the operational commander at the pivotal Battles of Coral Sea and of Midway. He was the nephew of Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher.

Fletcher was born in Marshalltown, Iowa on April 29, 1885. Appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy from his native state in 1902, he graduated from Annapolis on February 12, 1906 and commissioned an Ensign on February 13, 1908 following two years at sea.

The early years of his career were spent on the battleships Rhode Island, Ohio, and Maine. He also spent time on USS Eagle and USS Franklin. In November 1909 he was assigned to USS Chauncey, a unit of the Asiatic Torpedo Flotilla. He assumed command of USS Dale in April 1910 and March 1912 returned to Chauncey as Commanding Officer. Transferred to USS Florida in December 1912 he was aboard that battleship during the United States occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, in April 1914. For distinguished conduct in battle at Veracruz he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Fletcher became Aide and Flag Lieutenant on the staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet in July 1914. After a year at this post, he returned to the Naval Academy for duty in the Executive Department. Upon the outbreak of World War I he served as Gunnery Officer of USS Kearsarge until September 1917, after which he assumed command of USS Margaret. He was assigned to USS Allen in February 1918 before taking command of USS Benham in May 1918. For distinguished service as Commanding Officer USS Benham, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of patrolling European waters and protecting vitally important convoys, he was awarded the Navy Cross.

From October 1918 to February 1919 he assisted in fitting out USS Crane at San Francisco. He then became Commanding Officer of USS Gridley upon her commissioning. Returning to Washington, he was head of the Detail Section, Enlisted Personnel Division in the Bureau of Navigation from April 1919 until September 1922.

He returned to the Asiatic Station, having consecutive command of the USS Whipple, USS Sacramento, USS Rainbow, and Submarine Base, Cavite. He served at the Washington Navy Yards from March 1925 to 1927; became Executive Officer of USS Colorado; and completed the Senior Course at the Naval War College, Newport in June 1930.

Fletcher became Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet in August 1931. In the summer of 1933 he was transferred to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Following this assignment he had duty from November 1933 to May 1936 as Aide to the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Claude A. Swanson. He assumed command of USS New Mexico, flagship of Battleship Division THREE in June 1936. In December 1937 he became a member of the Naval Examining Board, and became Assistant Chief of Bureau of Navigation in June 1938. Returning to the Pacific between September 1939 and December 1941 he became Commander Cruiser Division THREE; Commander Cruiser Division SIX; Commander Cruiser's Scouting Force; and Commander Cruiser Division FOUR.

On January 1, 1942, Rear Admiral Fletcher took command of Task Force 17 built around the carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5). He, a surface fleet admiral, was chosen over more senior officers to lead a carrier task force. He learned air operations on the job while escorting troops to the South Pacific. He was junior TF commander under tutelage of the experts: Vice Admiral William Halsey during the Marshalls-Gilberts raids in February; Vice Admiral Wilson Brown attacking the enemy landings on New Guinea in March; and had aviation expert Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch with him during the first battle at Coral Sea.

In May 1942, he commanded the task forces during the Battle of the Coral Sea. This battle is famous as the first carrier-on-carrier battle fought between fleets that never came within sight of each other.

Fletcher with Yorktown, Task Force 17, had been patrolling the Coral Sea and rendezvoused with Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch with USS Lexington (CV-2), Task Force 11, and a tanker group. Fletcher finished refueling first and headed West. On hearing the enemy was occupying Tulagi, TF 17 attacked the landing beaches, sinking several small ships before rejoining Lexington and an Australian cruiser force under Rear Admiral John Gregory Crace on May 5.

The next day, intelligence reported a Japanese invasion task force headed for Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and a Carrier Strike Force was in the area, The morning of May 7 Fletcher sent the Australian cruisers to stop the transports while he sought the carriers. His combat pilots sank Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō, escorting the enemy troop ships, — "Scratch one flat top." radioed Lt. Commander Robert Dixon flying back to the USS Lexington. Meanwhile, Japanese carrier planes of Rear Admiral Chuichi Hara found the American tanker USS Neosho (AO-23), and severely damaged (days later sunk by USS Henley (DD-391) it after several all-out attacks, believing they had found a carrier, and sinking her escorting destroyer USS Sims (DD-409).

On May 8, at first light, "round three opened." Fletcher launched seventy-five aircraft, Hara sixty-nine. Fitch had greater experience in handling air operations, and Fletcher had him direct that function, as he was to do again later with Noyes at Guadalcanal. Shokaku was hit, but not damaged below waterline; it slunk away. Zuikaku had earlier dodged under a squall. The Japanese attack put two torpedoes into Lexington, which was abandoned that evening. Yorktown was hit near her island, but survived. Hara failed to use Zuikaku to achieve victory and withdrew. The invasion fleet without air cover, also withdrew, thereby halting the Port Moresby invasion. Fletcher had achieved the objective of the mission at the cost of a carrier, tanker, and destroyer. In addition, his Wildcats had beaten Japanese air groups, 52 to 35, and had damaged Shokaku,; neither Japanese carrier would be able to join the fight at Midway the following month.

This was the first WWII battle in which the Imperial Japanese Navy had been stopped. In battles in Pearl Harbor, East Indies, Australia, Ceylon they had defeated the British, Dutch, and Asiatic Fleets, and had not lost a fleet ship larger than mine sweepers and submarines.

In June 1942, he was the Officer in Tactical Command at the Battle of Midway with two task forces, his usual TF 17 with quickly repaired Yorktown, plus TF 16 with USS Enterprise and USS Hornet. Vice Admiral William Halsey normally commanded this task force, but became ill and was replaced by Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance. When aircraft from four Japanese carriers attacked Midway Island, the three U.S. carriers, warned by broken Japanese codes and waiting in ambush, attacked and sank three enemy carriers – Akagi, Kaga, Soryu. Enterprise and Hornet lost seventy aircraft. Return attack damaged Yorktown. Fletcher's scouts found the fourth carrier and Enterprise with Yorktown planes then sank Hiryu. At dusk, Fletcher released Spruance to continue fighting with TF 16 the next day. During the next two days, Spruance found two damaged cruisers and sank one. The enemy transport and battle fleets got away. A Japanese submarine, I-168, found crippled Yorktown and sank her and an adjacent destroyer, USS Hammann. Japan had had seven large carriers (six at Pearl Harbor and one new construction) – four were sunk at Midway. This did not win the war, but evened the odds between Japanese and American fleet carriers.

As the U.S. took the offensive in August 1942, Vice Admiral Fletcher commanded the Task Force 61's invasion of Tulagi and Guadalcanal by the 1st Marine Division. Close air support was provided at Tulagi. The invasion of Guadalcanal was uncontested, Fletcher withdrew his carriers from dangerous waters when they were no longer needed. Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner's offloading of supplies did not go as well as expected, he did not tell Fletcher, and then had to withdraw the transports after Fletcher left. The Marines refer to this as the 'Navy Bugout', but the 17,000 Marines were in little danger from a construction battalion. The few US carriers could not be risked against multi-engine, land based, torpedo bombers, when they were needed for combat against carriers. He chose to withdraw on the third morning to prepare for the inevitable Japanese counterattack.

Fletcher used the carriers he had saved two weeks later when he fought a superior Japanese fleet intent on counter-invasion in the carrier aircraft Battle of the Eastern Solomons. He started the engagement and sank his sixth carrier, Ryujo, The ensuing battle was essentially a giant aerial dog fight interspersed with ship borne antiaircraft fire. The U.S. lost 20 planes, the Japanese lost 70. Enterprise was hit by three bombs and Chitose was nearly sunk, but survived. The enemy withdrew without landing troops on Guadalcanal. They had to resort to the Tokyo Express : overnight delivery of a few hundred troops and supplies by destroyers. Fletcher, as always, was second guessed by non-combatants, and was criticized by Admiral Ernest King, in Washington, for not pursuing the Combined Fleet as it withdrew. This criticism may have affected the decision to not return Fletcher to his command after his flagship, the carrier Saratoga (CV-3), was torpedoed and damaged by a Japanese submarine on August 31, 1942. Fletcher himself was slightly injured in the attack on Saratoga, suffering a gash to his head and was given his first leave after eight months of continuous combat.

In November 1942, he became Commander, Thirteenth Naval District and Commander, Northwestern Sea Frontier to calm the public fear of invasion from the north. A year later, he was placed in charge of the whole Northern Pacific area, holding that position until after the end of World War II, when his forces occupied northern Japan. He also held that command when he ordered the front to bombard the Kurile Islands and other operations as well.

Vice Admiral Fletcher was appointed to the Navy's General Board in 1946 and retired as Chairman of that governing board in May 1947 with the rank of full Admiral. He retired to his county estate, Araby, in Maryland.

Many of Fletcher's papers were lost in combat, he declined to reconstruct his papers from Pentagon archives and sit with Samuel Eliot Morison, who was writing the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, and in return received no consideration by Morison, an attitude picked up by later authors.

Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher died on April 25, 1973, four days before his 88th birthday at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Herbert Wehner

Herbert Richard Wehner was a German politician.

Herbert Wehner was born in Dresden. His father was active in his labor union and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). More radical than his father, Wehner joined the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1927. He was elected to the state legislature of Saxony in 1930. After Hitler came to power in 1933, he participated in the communist resistance against the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. In 1935 he went into exile in Moscow. After being sent to Sweden on party business in 1941, he was arrested and interned in 1942.

Upon his return to Germany in 1946, Wehner joined the Social Democratic Party. In 1949 he became a member of the Bundestag (the German parliament) and remained an elected member until his retirement from politics in 1983. Wehner was instrumental in the SPD's adoption of the Godesberg Program in which the party repudiated a fixation on Marxist ideology and broadened its appeal. In 1966 he was named Federal Minister for All-German Affairs in the CDU–SPD coalition government of Kurt Kiesinger. When the SPD assumed the reins of government under Willy Brandt, Wehner became chairman of the SPD parliamentary fraction. He was known as a hard disciplinarian who kept his members in line.

During his tenure in the Bundestag Wehner became famous (or infamous) for his heckling style, often hurling personal insults at members with whom he disagreed. He holds the record for official censures handed down by the presiding officer.

Wehner died in 1990 in Bonn, Germany after a long illness.

George Adamson

George Adamson, the "Baba ya Simba" ("Father of Lions"in Swahili language) of Africa, was one of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation and an author. He and his wife Joy Adamson are best known through the book and film Born Free, which is based on the true story of Elsa, an orphaned lioness cub they raised and later released into the wild.

Adamson was born in Dholpur, Rajasthan, India (then British India). He first visited Kenya in 1924. After a series of adventures, which included time as a gold prospector, goat trader, and professional safari hunter, he joined Kenya's game department in 1938 and was Senior Game Warden of the Northern Frontier District. Six years later he married Joy. It was in 1956 that he came to have Elsa the lioness who would gain world fame and affection.

George Adamson retired as a game warden in 1961 and devoted himself to his many lions. In 1970, he moved to the Kora National Reserve in northern Kenya to continue the rehabilitation of captive or orphaned big cats for eventual reintroduction into the wild. George and Joy separated in 1970, but continued to spend Christmas together until she was murdered on January 3rd, 1980.

On 20 August 1989, the 83-year-old Adamson was shot to death at Kora Reserve by Somalian bandits when he went to the aid of a tourist. He is buried at the reserve next to the lion Boy.

Ian Anderson

Ian Scott Anderson is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock band Jethro Tull.

Ian Anderson's father ran the RSA Boiler Fluid Company in East Port, Dunfermline. He spent the first part of his childhood in Edinburgh, where he went to Roseburn Primary School from 1953 to 1958. Edinburgh was an influence that has dominated his artistic output ever since. He would return much later in life to live in Scotland for several years.

His family moved to Blackpool in the North West of England in 1959, where he gained a traditional education at Blackpool Grammar School, before going on to study fine art at Blackpool College of Art from 1964 to 1966. Much of his work referring to this period suggests a somewhat turbulent upbringing.

While a teenager, Anderson took a job as a sales assistant at Lewis' department store in Blackpool, then as a vendor on a newsstand. He later said it was reading copies of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express during his lunch breaks that gave him the inspiration to play in a band.

In 1963, he formed The Blades from among school friends: Barriemore Barlow (drums), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Michael Stephens (guitar). This was a soul and blues band, with Anderson on vocals and harmonica - he had yet to take up the flute.

By 1965, the group had turned into the John Evan Smash, comprising a larger line-up. It broke up within a couple of years, by which time Anderson had moved to Luton. There he met drummer Clive Bunker and guitarist and fellow vocalist Mick Abrahams from fellow blues band McGregor's Engine. Along with Glenn Cornick, a bassist he had met through John Evan, he created the first incarnation of the band with which he was to stay for over 40 years: Jethro Tull.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at London's Hammersmith Odeon, March 1978At this time Anderson abandoned his ambition to play electric guitar, allegedly because he felt he would never be "as good as Eric Clapton". As he himself tells it in the introduction to the video "Live at the Isle of Wight", he traded his electric guitar in for a flute which, after some weeks of practice, he found he could play fairly well in a rock and blues style. According to the sleeve notes for the first Tull album, "This Was", he had been playing the flute only a few months when the album was recorded. His guitar practice was not wasted either, as he continued to play acoustic guitar, using it as a melodic as well as rhythmic instrument. As his career progressed, he added soprano saxophone, mandolin, keyboards and other instruments to his arsenal.

His famous tendency to stand on one leg while playing the flute came about by accident. As related in the "Isle of Wight" video, he had been inclined to stand on one leg while playing the harmonica, holding the microphone stand for balance. During the long stint at the Marquee Club, a journalist described him, wrongly, as standing on one leg to play the flute. He decided to live up to the reputation, albeit with some difficulty. His early attempts are visible in the "Rock and Roll Circus" film appearance of Jethro Tull. In later life he was surprised to learn of iconic portrayals of various flute playing divinities, particularly Krishna and Kokopelli, which show them standing on one leg.

While Anderson has recorded a small number of critically-acclaimed projects under his own name, and frequently makes guest appearances in other artists' work, he has been identified in the public eye as the frontman of Jethro Tull for 40 years.

This is undoubtedly because a signature motif of Anderson's career has been a highly distinctive stage image, which has often been counter to the prevailing rock music culture. While he has habitually drawn inspiration from British folklore - at different times deploying stylistic elements of Medieval jester, Elizabethan minstrel, English country squire and Scottish laird - at other times he has appeared as astronaut, biker, pirate and vagrant. His personae often involve a large degree of self-parody.

As a flautist, Anderson is self-taught; his style, which often includes a good deal of flutter tonguing and occasionally singing or humming (or even snorting) while playing, was influenced by Roland Kirk. In 2003 he recorded a composition called Griminelli's Lament in honour of his friend, the Italian flautist Andrea Griminelli. In the 1990s he began working with simple bamboo flutes. He uses techniques such as over-blowing and hole-shading to produce note-slurring and other expressive techniques on this otherwise simple instrument.

Anderson plays several other musical instruments, including acoustic and electric guitar, bass, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles.

He has recorded several songs on which he plays all the instruments as well as carrying out all the engineering and production (such as 1988's "Another Christmas Song"). His earliest foray into one-man recording was apparently on the popular Tull piece "Locomotive Breath". Unable to get his ideas across to the rest of the band verbally, he laid down percussion and guitar tracks himself before adding vocals and then bringing in the others, at a time when tracks were usually recorded with all band members in the studio. Ironically this is one of the most vital pieces on the 1971 Aqualung album and is a mainstay of Tull's stage show.

Anderson's music blends styles such as folk, jazz, blues, rock and pop. His lyrics are frequently complex, (mostly) tongue-in-cheek criticism of the absurd rules of society and/or religion ("Sossity, You're a Woman"; "Hymn 43"; "Thick as a Brick"). He often combines lyrics with other leitmotifs such as folk, mythological, fantastic ("The Minstrel in the Gallery", "Jack-in-the-Green", "Broadsword and the Beast"). In the 1990s and 2000s, Anderson's songs often capture 'snapshots' of his daily life ("Old Black Cat", "Rocks on the Road").

In recognition of his life-long contribution to popular music, Anderson received two honours in 2006: the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement and an honorary Doctorate of Literature at Heriot-Watt University, on 11 July 2006.

He remains widely regarded as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, and the only one who uses it as his main instrument. He is also considered the first rock musician to utilize a a classical orchestral instrument and develop music to use it as a lead instrument. Other flute players to gain recognition now include Walter Parazaider of Chicago, Burton Cummings of The Guess Who, Ian McDonald of King Crimson, Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues, Thijs van Leer of Focus, Chris Wood of Traffic, Andrew Latimer of Camel, Jerry Eubanks of The Marshall Tucker Band and Peter Gabriel during his years with Genesis, however none but Gabriel and Wood gained anything close to the amount of recognition utilizing the instrument.

Irving Fields

Irving Fields is an American pianist and lounge music artist who was born in New York City, New York.

Some of his most noteworthy compositions include "Miami Beach Rhumba", "Managua, Nicaragua" and "Chantez, Chantez," covered by Dinah Shore in the 1940s.

Irving Fields' most famous album is Bagels and Bongos, a Jewish-inflected Latin jazz recording that sold 2 million copies after its release in 1959. He also recorded Bikinis and Bongos, dedicated to Hawaiian music, and Pizzas and Bongos, inspired by Italian rhythms.

At 93 years-old, Irving Fields is still making personal appearances. He also recently wrote a theme song for YouTube.

Irving Fields currently plays six nights a week at Nino's Tuscany, an Italian restaurant on W. 58th Street between 6th and 7th Ave. in New York. Previous to his position at Nino's Tuscany, Mr. Fields performed at the East River Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant located on First Avenue and E. 61st Street. Upon leaving, he transferred the job to his protege, Albert Aprigliano, who considers Irving Fields to be his mentor.

Sparky Anderson

George Lee "Sparky" Anderson is a former Major League Baseball manager. 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.

Anderson has resided for many years in Thousand Oaks, California. He was known as "Sparky" during his time in baseball, but in private life goes by his given name of "George". Anderson is famous for his superstition of not walking on the foul lines on the baseball field. His superstition was so great that he used to nearly trip on the field to avoid walking on the foul lines, as if he would trip on them.

Anderson was a "good field, no-hit" middle infielder as a player. After playing the 1955 season with the Texas League Fort Worth Cats as an apprenticeship in the farm system of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played one full season in the major leagues, as the regular second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. However, a .218 average with no power ended his big-league career at that point.

He played the next four seasons with the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League, but never got a second chance in the majors. Finally, in 1964, Anderson moved into the manager's job in Toronto and later handled minor league clubs at the A and Double-A levels, including a season (1968) in the Reds' minor league system.

During this period, he managed a pennant winner in four consecutive seasons: 1965 with the Rock Hill Cardinals of the Western Carolinas League, 1966 with the St. Petersburg Cardinals of the Florida State League, 1967 with the Modesto Reds of the California League and 1968 with the Asheville Tourists of the Southern League. It was during the 1966 season that Sparky's club lost to Miami 4-3 in 29 innings, which remains the longest pro game played (by innings) without interruption.

He made his way back to the majors in 1969 as a coach for the San Diego Padres. He was briefly a member of the California Angels coaching staff during the 1969-70 offseason, but within days of being hired in Anaheim, he was offered the opportunity to succeed Dave Bristol as manager of the Reds. His appointment reunited Anderson with Reds' general manager Bob Howsam, who had hired him as a minor-league skipper in the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati organizations.

Anderson won 102 games and the pennant in his first Major League season as manager, but then lost the World Series in five games to the Baltimore Orioles. After an injury-plagued 1971 season, the Reds came back and won another pennant in 1972, but lost to the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. They took the National League West division title in 1973, then finished a close second to the Los Angeles Dodgers a year later.

Finally, in 1975, the Reds blew the division open by winning 108 games, swept the National League Championship Series and then edged the Boston Red Sox in a drama-filled, seven-game World Series. They repeated in 1976 by winning 102 games and ultimately sweeping the New York Yankees in the Series. Over the course of these two seasons, Anderson's Reds compiled an astounding 14-3 record in postseason play against the Pirates, Philles, Red Sox and Yankees, winning their last 8 in a row in the postseason after triumphing against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, and then winning seven straight games in the 1976 postseason.

During this time, Anderson became known as "Captain Hook" for his penchant for taking out a starting pitcher at the first sign of weakness and going to his bullpen, relying heavily on closers Will McEnaney and Rawly Eastwick.

When the aging Reds finished second to the Dodgers in each of the next two seasons, Anderson was fired. The Reds won the division title again in 1979 but lost three straight to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the League Championship Series. They would not make the playoffs again until they won the World Series in 1990 by sweeping the heavily favored Oakland A's.

Anderson moved on to the young Detroit Tigers after being hired as their new manager on June 14, 1979. The Tigers became a winning club almost immediately, but did not get into contention until 1983, when they finished second to the Baltimore Orioles.

In 1984, Detroit opened the season 35-5 (a major league record) and breezed to a 104-58 record (a franchise record for wins). They swept the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and then beat the San Diego Padres in five games in the World Series for Anderson's third world title. After the season, Anderson won the first of his two Manager of the Year Awards with the Tigers.

Anderson became the first manager to win a World Series for both a National League and American League team. Either manager in the 1984 Series would have been the first to win in both leagues, since San Diego Padres (NL) manager Dick Williams had previously won the series with the Oakland Athletics (AL) in 1972 and 1973. Anderson's accomplishment was equalled in the 2006 World Series, when St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa — who had previously won the World Series with the Oakland Athletics in 1989, and who considers Anderson his mentor — led his team to the title over the Detroit Tigers. Coincidentally, having won a championship while managing the Florida Marlins in 1997, Tigers manager Jim Leyland could have achieved this same feat had the Tigers defeated La Russa's Cardinals in the 2006 World Series.

With a 9-5 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on July 29, 1986 Anderson became the first to achieve 600 career wins as a manager in both the American and National Leagues.

Anderson led the Tigers to the majors' best record in 1987, but the team was upset in the ALCS by the Minnesota Twins. He won his second Manager of the Year Award that year. After contending again in 1988 (finishing second to Boston by one game in the AL East), the team collapsed a year later, losing a startling 103 games. During that 1989 season, Anderson took a month-long leave of absence from the team as the stress of losing wore on him. First base coach Dick Tracewski managed the team in the interim.

In 1991, the Tigers finished last in batting average, first in batting strike outs and near the bottom of the league in most pitching categories, but still led their division in late August before settling for a second-place finish behind the rival Toronto. The team featured a power-packed lineup of sluggers Cecil Fielder, Mickey Tettleton, and Rob Deer, which led the league in home runs and walks that season.

During his managerial career, Anderson was known to heap lavish (and often times undeserved and unfair) praise on his ballplayers when talking to the media. He declared Kirk Gibson "the next Mickey Mantle", which he later acknowledged may have put too much pressure on Gibson early in his career. He said Mike Laga, who played for him in 1984, would "make us forget every power hitter who ever lived." He also said, "Johnny Bench (who played for him in Cincinnati) will never throw a baseball as hard as Mike Heath (a catcher who played for him in Detroit)."

Anderson retired from managing after the 1995 season, reportedly disillusioned with the state of the league following the 1994 strike that had also truncated the beginning of the 1995 season. It is widely believed that Anderson was pushed into retirement by the Tigers, who were unhappy that Sparky refused to manage replacement players during spring training in 1995. He finished with a lifetime record of 2194-1834, for a .545 percentage. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 2000. His Hall of Fame plaque has him wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform. He spent the larger portion of his career managing the Tigers (1970-78 with the Reds, 1979-95 with the Tigers), but he won two World Series with the Reds and one with the Tigers. He chose to wear the Reds cap at his induction in honor of former GM Bob Howsam, who gave Anderson his first chance at a major-league managing job. Anderson was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame the same year. A day in his honor was also held at Detroit's Comerica Park during the 2000 season.

On May 28, 2005, during pre-game ceremonies in Cincinnati, Anderson's jersey number, 10, was retired by the Reds. Anderson's number in Detroit, 11, has been inactive since 1995. However, it has not been officially retired by the Tigers.

In 2006, construction was completed on the "Sparky Anderson Baseball Field" at California Lutheran University's new athletic complex. In 2007, Anderson was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.