Former Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers manager George “Sparky” Anderson died Thursday at the age of 76. Anderson was a three-time World Series champion and the first manager ever to lead a team from each league to a title.
Anderson went by many nicknames—Sparky became as much his name as any—but was most famous for being “Captain Hook,” a moniker given to him by the starting pitchers he made a habit of removing sooner and more readily than any other manager in baseball history. Anderson started a trend in that regard: The rise of relief pitching and beginning of the end for the complete game essentially coincide with the start of his Cincinnati tenure.
Anderson became one of the giants of the game from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s and changed the way the game is played forever. Who else has fundamentally altered the sport during its history? Which men have meant enough to the game to really change the course of its history? Here are five men who made the baseball world spin on new axes.