Sparky Anderson, who managed Cincinnati’s powerful Big Red Machine to baseball dominance in the 1970s and became the first manager to win World Series championships in both the National and American Leagues, died on Thursday at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76.

His death was announced by the Reds, whom he managed to championships in 1975 and ”76, and the Detroit Tigers, whom he took to a World Series title in 1984. Anderson had been placed in hospice care at his home because of complications of dementia, his family said in a statement Wednesday.

Anderson was only 35 when he was named manager of the Reds for the 1970 season, having spent nearly his entire baseball career in the minor leagues.

“Everybody knows the story about how the headline in the paper the day I was hired read, ‘Sparky Who?’” he once told The Cincinnati Enquirer. But he began to look the part of a grizzled veteran manager, his hair turning prematurely white soon afterward and his craggy features suggesting a budding Casey Stengel.

Anderson drew on his keen sense of baseball strategy, his ability to deal with players as individuals and his obsession with winning. He was sometimes called Captain Hook for removing his starting pitchers at the first signs of trouble, but his maneuvering previewed the accepted wisdom of today’s game.

The Big Red Machine featured a lineup with the future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez along with Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo.

Anderson managed the Cincinnati Reds to four pennants and two World Series titles in the 1970s, a memorable seven-game victory over the Boston Red Sox in 1975 and a sweep of the Yankees in 1976.

After nine years in Cincinnati, he managed Detroit for 161⁄2 seasons, capturing his third World Series championship when the 1984 Tigers defeated the San Diego Padres in five games.

When he retired after the 1995 season, Anderson had won the most games of any manager in both Reds and Tigers history, and his 2,194 victories overall placed him third on the career list, behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. He is now No. 6.