Big Red Machine Wasn’t as Much Fun to Drive as Detroit’s Model

Sparky Anderson managed some of the great teams in baseball history--the Cincinnati Big Red Machine of the 1970s-- but says his Detroit Tigers’ improbable success this season is more satisfying.

“It’s been the most fun I’ve had in baseball, definitely,” he told the Washington Post. “There are some times when you can’t worry about, ‘Why are we doing this?’ or, ‘How are we doing that?’ You just have to be happy that we are doing it.

“I remember that, back at the end of spring training, Bo (Schembechler, the Tigers’ president) asked me if I thought we could be a .500 ballclub this year. I told him I didn’t think so. That shows you how much I know.”

Add Anderson: “Don’t sell Sparky’s contributions to all of this short,” said Tony La Russa, manager of the Oakland Athletics. “He’s the dean. He’s the guy all the rest of us are measured by.

“He’s changed with the game, and he’s continued to be successful. What he’s done with this team has been absolutely amazing. That’s as much as I’ve ever seen a manager get out of a group of players. He is the master, isn’t he?”

Trivia time: What NBA team was represented in three consecutive sixth-man-of-the-year awards?

Forgettable quotes: Bob Whitfield, Stanford’s left tackle and Outland Trophy candidate from Banning High School in Wilmington, said a few days before the Cardinal played fourth-ranked Washington that his team would stage “the biggest upset in history when we beat them by 60 points.”

And: “Washington’s through. Quote me on it. They’re done.”

Washington won, 42-7.

“We didn’t play too bad for a 60-point underdog,” Husky defensive tackle Steve Emtman said.

Remember when . . . : On this date in 1974, it took the St. Louis Cardinals 25 innings--7 hours 4 minutes--to beat the New York Mets. A record 202 batters went to the plate; Felix Millan and John Milner had 12 appearances apiece.

On this date in 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the all-time hit leader with his 4,192nd hit, breaking Ty Cobb’s record. Rose lined a 2-and-1 pitch against the San Diego Padres’ Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s last game in the majors.

Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, with Kevin McHale in 1984 and ’85 and Bill Walton in ’86.

Quotebook: Boston Red Sox Manager Joe Morgan, on playing before only 1,695 fans Monday in Cleveland: “No, we couldn’t afford to go to sleep playing this team. Besides, there was one guy yelling at us from the stands and you could hear him all night with this crowd, so we had to stay awake.”