This youtube video finally got me to a place where I was able to root a Sprint CDMA pretty quickly. Look in the video description for download links to all the software goods that you'll need.
When I first started searching around, I had a very difficult time finding good info. I did find a lot of crappy outdated, byzantine, confusing, and obtuse docs on how to do this. So I've tried to boil it down below into something short and sweet.
Summary of steps I took (shorter procedure and does not exactly follow the video)
1) Install HTC Sync on a Windows PC to get the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) USB drivers on your PC. You might have to immediately uninstall the program (while leaving the drivers) in order for the RUU (Rom Upgrade Utility) program to run properly, but I can't remember for sure.
2) Run the RUU to install root-vulnerable Android 2.1 2.27.651.5 build on the phone. This will wipe all data.
3) Fire up the phone, skip all the new setup crap, get on wifi network, then download and install the unrevoked apk for Sprint Hero.
http://unrevoked.com/m/unrevoked.apk You'll have to allow installation of untrusted apks. Run the app and pray it finishes w/out errors.
4) Launch Android Marketplace, sign into a google account, accept agreement, then search for, download and install a free terminal emulator from the marketplace. Launch the Terminal Emulator then type in "su". The prompt should change to a root prompt with the hash # sign. I think you also get a popup dialogue asking if you want to allow superuser to do something.
This last step was the one that kept tripping me up. ROM Manager was telling me that the phone wasn't root even though I ran the unrevoked app w/out errors.
Good luck!