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Other authors named Sparky:
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Author's popularity: 3
Vote:  
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If you like or dislike this author in general or one or more of their quotes in particular, please give us your feedback by clicking on the icon to vote for, or the icon to vote against them.
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Popularity: 4
Vote: | A baseball manager is a necessary evil. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind then the manager is a success. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | Casey knew his baseball. He only made it look like he was fooling around. He knew every move that was ever invented and some that we haven't even caught on to yet. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I don't believe a manager ever won a pennant. Casey Stengel won all those pennants with the Yankees. How many did he win with the Boston Braves and Mets? |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | I only had a high school education and believe me, I had to cheat to get that. |
Popularity: 6
Vote: | I understand people who boo us. It's like going to Broadway show, you pay for your tickets and expect to be entertained. When you're not, you have a right to complain. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | If I hear Bowie Kuhn say just once more he's doing something for the betterment of baseball, I'm going to throw-up. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | If you have to choose between power and speed and it often turns out you have to make that choice, you've got to go for speed. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | It's a terrible thing to have to tell your fans, who have waited like Detroit's have, that their team won't win it this year. But it's better than lying to them. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I've got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There's no future in it. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | The great thing about baseball is when you're done, you'll only tell your grandchildren the good things. If they ask me about 1989, I'll tell them I had amnesia. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | The only reason I'm coming out here tomorrow is the schedule says I have to. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | The only thing I believe is this: A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The players make the manager, it's never the other way. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | They say the first World Series is the one you remember most. No, no no. I guarantee you don't remember that one because the fantasy world you always dreamed about is suddenly real. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | They're loyal Royal all the way. But, they're not tough fans, a player does not have to worry about being insulted there. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | We're the best team in baseball, but not by much. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | You give us the pitching some of these clubs have and no one could touch us, but God has a way of not arranging that, because it's not as much fun. |
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Biography
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George Lee "Sparky" Anderson (born February 22, 1934) is the only manager in the history of Major League Baseball to win the World Series while leading clubs in both leagues. He piloted the National League's Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships, then added a third title in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers of the American League. It is interesting to note that either manager in the 1984 Series would have been the first to win in both leagues, since San Diego Padres (NL) manager Dick Williams had previously won the series with the Oakland Athletics (AL).
Anderson was a "good field, no-hit" middle infielder as a player. He played one full season in the major leagues, as the regular second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. However, a .218 average with no power ended his big-league career at that point.
He played the next four seasons at Triple-A Toronto in the International League, but never got a second chance in the majors. Finally, in 1964, Anderson moved into the manager's job in Toronto. He won four pennants as a minor league manager between 1964 and 1968, then spent 1969 as a coach for the San Diego Padres. Finally, in 1970, Anderson was named manager of the Reds.
He won 102 games and the pennant in his first season, but then lost the World Series in five games to the Baltimore Orioles. After an injury-plagued 1971, the Reds came back and won another pennant in 1972, losing to the Oakland Athletics. They took the National League West division title in 1973, then finished a close second to the Los Angeles Dodgers a year later.
Finally, in 1975, the Reds blew the division open by winning 108 games, swept the playoffs and then edged the Boston Red Sox in a drama-filled, seven-game World Series. They repeated in 1976 by winning 102 games and ultimately sweeping the New York Yankees in the Series.
When the aging Reds finished second to the Dodgers in each of the next two seasons, Anderson was fired. The Reds would not make the playoffs again for a dozen years.
He moved on to the young Detroit Tigers after being hired as their new manager on June 14, 1979. The Tigers became a winning club almost immediately, but didn't get into contention until 1983, when they finished second. In 1984, Anderson won the first of two Manager of the Year Awards.
A year later, Detroit opened the season 35-5 (a major league record) and breezed to a 104-58 record. They swept the Kansas City Royals in the playoffs and then beat the San Diego Padres in the World Series for Anderson's third world title.
Anderson led the Tigers to the majors' best record in 1987, but the team was upset in the playoffs by the Minnesota Twins. He won his second Manager of the Year Award that year. After contending again in 1988, the team collapsed a year later.
He probably did his best managerial job in 1991, when the Tigers finished last in batting average, first in batting strikeouts and near the bottom of the league in most pitching categories, but still led their division in late August before settling for a second-place finish. The secret was a power-packed lineup led by sluggers Cecil Fielder, Mickey Tettleton and Rob Deer which led the league in home runs and walks that season.
He retired from managing after the 1995 season with a lifetime record of 2194-1834, for a .545 percentage. He was elected to the United States Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 2000. He was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame the same year.
On May 28, 2005, during pre-game ceremonies in Cincinnati, Anderson's jersey number, 10, was retired by the Reds.
Trivia * In 1979, Sparky guest-starred as himself on an episode of (appropriately enough) WKRP in Cincinnati. The episode was titled "Sparky."
* Sparky earned the nickname "Captain Hook" because of his tendency to pull underperforming pitchers early in the game.
...(more on Wikipedia)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sparky Anderson".
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