Amazin' Avenue, a New York Mets community

This is a great Bob Elliott column on Sparky Anderson's final years as a player and first as a manager - in Toronto. And if one Hall of Fame manager getting his start in Toronto wasn't enough, Anderson was replaced by another first-time manager in Dick Williams who also would go on to the Hall. I love the Blue Jays, but it's sad how Toronto's long history of minor league baseball with the Maple Leafs has become lost to most people. I wish that the Jays would have embraced the history of minor-league ball and tried to bridge it into their story. Can't recall the team ever doing any Maple Leafs-themed event (say an anniversary or player reunion or something). They could have even resurrected some Maple Leaf uniforms for the odd flashback game. But it's all too late now. I've been a Toronto baseball fan for almost 25 years, but born in the early 1970s I still know next to nothing about the city's baseball history before the Jays and my time. Gotta read some books.

Sparky Anderson, the all-time leader among Tigers managers in victories, visibility and inimitable quotations, died today at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76. Anderson’s death came one day after the family announced that he was receiving hospice care at his home because of complications from dementia. From the Detroit Free Press