Sparky Anderson spoke up for commissioner Bud Selig after some fans booed him. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — To the applause of fans from Bridgewater, S.D., Cincinnati and many points in between, George (Sparky) Anderson was in his element Sunday as he gave one of the final big public speeches.

        “It was 10 times greater than I thought it would be,” Anderson said after his Hall of Fame induction. “You try to imagine what it what might be like, but you can't. It is an overwhelming thing.”

        His best moments came when he was thanking the 45 Hall of Famers on the stage behind him for making the game what it is today.

        “If you don't think this is the greatest game of all, then you should just get out because you are missing it all,” Anderson said.

        Anderson managed for nine seasons in Cincinnati, and 17 in Detroit. He won World Championships in both leagues, and finished as the third most winning manager of all-time behind only John McGraw and Connie Mack.

Sparky salutes to the crowd. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        He gave profuse thanks to Big Red Machine architect Bob Howsam, the Reds general manager.

        “He had the courage to take a chance on a 35-year-old no-name who he believed to have the qualities to manage his team,” Anderson said.

        Anderson had the crowd laughing when he said he had been treated so well in Cooperstown by everybody — “They make me feel important,” he said — that he told his wife, Carol, that he was going to start acting important.

        “It won't do you any good,” Sparky said his wife had told him. “Nobody's going believe anything you have to say.”

        Anderson is so beloved because he never felt himself bigger than the game or the 25th man on his roster. But his success on the field was because he understood personalities and how to blend them, his former All-Star catcher, Johnny Bench, said. Bench was one of those applauding loudest Sunday.

Sparky delivers his speech. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        Anderson said anybody who doesn't think baseball is special simply needs to travel to Cooperstown to witness one of these induction cere monies. This was the first time Anderson had been, and it left him in awe.

        “I look at all these great players, and I ask myself, "How in earth did I get here among these fellows,' ” Anderson said. “My god, a kid born in a town of 600 (in Bridgewater) in the Hall of Fame? How can that be?”

        A group of 13 folks from Bridgewater had driven the 2 1/2 days it took to reach Cooperstown.

        “Sparky is one of the greatest ambassadors the game has ever had -- maybe the greatest,” said George Guenther of Bridgewater, S.D. “We have signs up saying “Home of Sparky Anderson,” and ballfields named for him, but we are going to raise some money to start a Sparky Anderson museum.”

        The Freeman family of Montgomery said they were big Anderson fans — as well as fans of Tony Perez and Marty Brennaman — and said the huge event Sunday was well worth the drive.

        “There was only one Big Red Machine,” said Scott Freeman, 39, “and this day reminds you all over again just how great they were.”

Hall of Fame induction colored Red Perez feels like a king Sparky: Happy, humble, grateful Brennaman creates stir with Rose remark Rose in Cooperstown but not at Hall SULLIVAN: Hall is worth the wait Reds may have long wait now RETURN TO HALL OF FAME PAGE

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