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Reunited Sparky could join Perez on Hall of Fame stage
Posted: Wednesday January 12, 2000 04:21 PM
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The thought has already overwhelmed Sparky Anderson. There's a good chance that the former Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers manager could go into baseball's Hall of Fame this summer along with Tony Perez, one of his former players on the Big Red Machine. In Anderson's estimation, nothing could be finer. "Oh my goodness," Anderson gushed, in a telephone interview from his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. "Yes, that would be a great moment." Perez, who was Anderson's first baseman with the Reds, was elected to the Hall on Tuesday along with Carlton Fisk. They will be inducted in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 23. Anderson is a leading contender for selection by the veterans' committee, which meets Feb. 29 in Tampa, Fla. He managed the Reds to World Series titles in 1975-76 and led the Tigers to one in 1984. Reds second baseman Joe Morgan and catcher Johnny Bench already are enshrined. Anderson and Perez would make four members of the Big Red Machine -- Pete Rose, a fifth potential candidate, is ineligible for the Hall of Fame because of his lifetime ban for gambling. "It's going to be something to join my teammates," Perez said. "It's going to be great to be there with Johnny and Joe. It would be something special to go in with Sparky at the same time. That was something I was really looking at this year when I saw his name." The feeling is mutual. Anderson has a great fondness for Perez and his family. "I wish every athlete in all of sports, not just baseball, could act like this man," he said. "Never once in his career did I see him throw a helmet. He never once threw a bat. He never once made an alibi. He never did much talking to the newspapers. "He wasn't in for all of that. He came to play. He loved to win, but he did not make a big deal where people could find out. He had it inside him." Perez's consistency at driving in runs got him into the Hall. Anderson's credentials reflect the bottom line for a manager -- his 2,194 career victories with the Reds and Tigers is the third-highest total in major league history. Anderson got emotional at the thought of induction. "In the world that I lived in for all those years, there's nothing that ever tops it," Anderson said. "You could hit five grand slams in a game and that would never top being inducted into the Hall of Fame. "There's a big difference going into something that will be there until the world is destroyed. That's -- woo, it's kind of scary. That's the house where all the great ones live." Anderson has participated in two games at the Hall of Fame but has never gone through it. "I always made myself a promise that I would never go inside the Hall of Fame unless I made it," he said. "I'm not one of those people who likes to go in and walk around and see everybody. "I've always thought about it. I've always said this: If you go into this game and start your career and you don't think about making that, you don't belong in the game. To me, that's the greatest. Every young player who starts his first year, that should be his goal." Anderson hasn't thought about which team he would represent -- Cincinnati or Detroit -- if he's chosen. "That would be the hardest decision I have ever made in my life," he said. "It's so unfair either way. I was in one place [Detroit] for 17 years and another for nine years. But if I had not been at the first one with those guys, I would never have gotten to the second one. So it's a very hard thing." The Reds chose Anderson for induction into their Hall of Fame last season, but the ceremony had to be postponed. Anderson, who turns 66 on Feb. 22, required triple bypass surgery last July. Anderson walks for an hour each day, plays golf and said he feels better than he had in years. He's looking forward to coming to Cincinnati for induction in the Reds' Hall sometime. "That would be nice," he said. "That's always coming home."
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