Hall of Fame Manager

Sparky Anderson, the first manager to win World Series championships with teams from both the National and American leagues, died on Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76.

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One of his players, Pete Rose, once declared, "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit for Sparky."

George Lee Anderson, known to all as Sparky, was a Hall of Fame baseball manager who won World Series in Cincinnati and Detroit and was among the all-time leaders in career victories. Mr. Anderson, who died Thursday at age 76 of complications of dementia in a California hospice, came by his nickname for picking arguments in his playing days—a habit he developed to compensate for shortcomings with the bat.