George ” Sparky” Anderson managed the Cincinnati Reds (1970-1978) and the Detroit Tigers (1979-1996) his way. Though Sparky was not a fan of the math- and probability-driven savants that introduced new metrics and measures of a team’s and ballplayer’s performance, his approach to on-field strategy aligns quite neatly to the principles that men like Bill James and his successors established in the late 1970s and beyond. This episode demonstrates how Sparky managed in a manner that many advocates of advanced statistics would approve, but also how and why he managed from the heart as well.

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Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin

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