Farewell Sparky

1978 Topps #401

I was saddened to read about the passing of Sparky Anderson today. Sparky seemed like a good guy and he will be missed.

A few Sparky Anderson quotes:

• "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."
• "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."
• "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."

A 1977 interview with Sparky Anderson:

1976 Topps #104 - Cincinnati Reds

• 
  The Reds were my favorite team when I was growing up. I really liked watching Bench, Rose, Morgan, Concepcion, etc. play. I remember really being ticked off when the Big Red Machine started to break up in the late 70s. It was unbelieveable that they'd trade Tony Perez and let Pete Rose sign with another team. I also couldn't believe that they could actually fire Sparky Anderson!
• A fun thing to try with these team cards is to enlarge them and see how many players can be identified without looking up uniform numbers.

• Sparky had a great record as a manager. From 1970-1988 he had only one sub-.500 season (1971--.488). His later years with the Tigers were up and down, but he still definitely deserved induction to the Hall of Fame.

• Here is Sparky's Hall of Fame page. Sparky retired with the third-highest win total in history (only behind Connie Mack and John McGraw). Bobby Cox and Tony LaRussa have passed him, and Joe Torre is only four wins away, but they all took more seasons to do it.

A baseball manager is a necessary evil.
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.
Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I'll win a pennant every year.