Redleg Nation · May 17, 2019
Rookie Reds Managers that never made it one season
As a rookie Reds manager in 1970, Sparky Anderson’s Cincinnati Reds were 70-30 after their first hundred games.
After a hundred games, no one was saying “Sparky Who?’ anymore. They knew. To be sure, Sparky had a talented team. But he still made some bold decisions after spring training that had a direct impact on that team.
He took a 19-year old rookie pitcher north to Cincinnati who had just one minor league season under his belt. That pitcher’s name was Don Gullett.
He took a pitcher who was 7-14 in Triple A Indianapolis the year before north to Cincinnati. And that pitcher, Wayne Simpson, was 14-1 and enroute to the Rookie of the Year award in 1970 when his arm blew out.