Sparky Quotes & Sayings

Managing is not running, hitting, or stealing. Managing is getting your players to put out one hundred percent year after year. — Sparky Anderson

Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings. — Sparky Anderson

Glad you're back to normal. The makeup and the dress were a lot more intimidating than the dagger."
"Get going, Sparky, before I skewer you."
"Sparky? — Rick Riordan

Mike Laga will make you forget about every power hitter that ever lived. — Sparky Anderson

Dwayne's only companion at night was a Labrador retriever named Sparky. Sparky could not wag his tail - because of an automobile accident many years ago, so he had no way of telling other dogs how friendly he was. He had to fight all the time. His ears were in tatters. He was lumpy with scars. *** — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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. — Sparky Anderson

The only reason I'm coming out here tomorrow is the schedule says I have to. — Sparky Anderson

Sparky Lyle went from Cy Young to Sayonara. — Graig Nettles

It took only three years for Jonathan Papelbon to surpass Bill Campbell, Lee Smith, Tom Gordon, Sparky Lyle, Derek Lowe, Jeff Reardon, Ellis Kinder, and Dick Radatz as he climbed the franchise leader board into second place all-time for saves. Papelbon closed out 2008 with 113 career saves - and on July 1, 2009, with his 20th save of the season he surpassed Bob Stanley to become the all-time franchise leader in saves. — Tucker Elliot

If a team is in a positive frame of mind, it will have a good attitude. If it has a good attitude, it will make a commitment to playing the game right. If it plays the game right, it will win-unless, of course, it doesn't have enough talent to win, and no manager can make goose-liver pate out of goose feathers, so why worry? — Sparky Anderson

A baseball manager is a necessary evil. — Sparky Anderson

Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut. — Sparky Anderson

Will someone please tell me why you all call me 'Sparky'?" she burst out in frustration. "And if I get stabbed one more time tonight I'm going to lose it!" she added, rounding on Jason, who was sneaking up behind her holding a stapler. — Josephine Angelini

Good seasons start with good beginnings. — Sparky Anderson

In photographs taken from the sky, cities resembled circuit boards. It was no surprise, really, that there were sparky misfirings, dangerous connections. Even traffic, Alice concluded, set up a kind of static in the air, let loose vibrations and uncontainable agitation. Freighted with more than they could absorb, with city intentions, citizens moved in designs of inexplicable purpose. — Gail Jones

You're looking, moment by moment and scene by scene, how you can tell the most interesting story. So, we had this great short and we knew that we had a story about a boy and his dog. Because we had that pure emotional core, we could go on crazy tangents and always come back to Victor and Sparky. When I wrote in stuff like Weird Girl and the cat poop, Dutch Day and the windmill, it felt like it was part of Tim's universe. — John August

I'll be fine." She felt terrified, but she wasn't about to admit it. She drew her dagger Katoptris and tried to look confident. "Anyone gets close, I'll skewer them." Jason hesitated. "I'll leave you the pack. If I'm not back in five minutes - " "Panic?" she suggested. He managed a smile. "Glad you're back to normal. The makeup and the dress were a lot more intimidating than the dagger." "Get going, Sparky, before I skewer you." "Sparky?" Even offended, Jason looked hot. It wasn't fair. Then he made his way to the stairs and disappeared into the dark. — Rick Riordan

He's (Willie Stargell) such a big strong guy he should love that porch. He's got power enough to hit home runs in any park, including Yellowstone. — Sparky Anderson

No manager ever won no ballgames. — Sparky Anderson

But like everything else in the world that sounds good, freedom is an illusion. And in this case, I had no more choice than a man strapped into Old Sparky who is told he's free to stay alive as long as he can when they throw the switch. I looked up at Roger the Pirate. His smile looked kind of mean all of a sudden. "Quit smirking," I told him. He didn't answer. I followed my sister and Chutsky into the park. — Jeff Lindsay

Sparky Anderson taught me this a long time ago: 'There's three ways you can treat a person. You can pat 'em on the butt, you can kick 'em in the butt, or you can leave 'em alone.' — Pete Rose

I don't know why the players make such a big fuss about sitting in the first class section of the plane. Does that mean they'll get there faster? — Sparky Anderson

The players make the manager, it's never the other way. — Sparky Anderson

Success isn't something that just happens - success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared. — Sparky Anderson

Chris Pittaro is the best rookie I've had in 15 years. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

Am I a great manager? Huh. I was blessed to have a front office that found great talent, and then I was smart enough to stay the hell out of their way. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

It took exactly one month of regular season play for fans to accept Sparky [Anderson] - posting a 16-6 record out of the gate has that kind of effect. — Tucker Elliot

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. — Sparky Anderson

Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I'll win a pennant every year. — Sparky Anderson

Draw your own moral from this, Sparky. And remember at the center of the cult of personality called stardom there is just a big empty hole. Awards don't matter. Acclaim doesn't matter. Only your craft matters. — John Varley

We had been seen. The thought stayed with me as I disposed of the leftovers - how could it not? I drove with one eye on the rearview mirror, waiting for the blinding burst of blue light to flare at my bumper and the brief harsh whoop! of a siren. But nothing came; not even after I ditched Valentine's car, climbed into mine, and drove carefully home. Nothing. I was left entirely at liberty, all alone, pursued only by the demons of my imagination. It seemed impossible - someone had seen me at play, as plainly as it was possible to be seen. They had looked at the carefully carved pieces of Valentine, and the happy-weary carver standing above them, and it would not take a differential equation to arrive at a solution to this problem - A plus B equals a seat in Old Sparky for Dexter, and someone had fled with this conclusion in perfect comfort and safety - but they had not called the police? It — Jeff Lindsay

When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: A stodgy parent is not fun at all! What a child wants - and DESERVES - is a parent who is SPARKY! — Roald Dahl

The man I marvel at is the one that's in there day after day, and night after night and still puts the figures on the board. I'm talking about Pete Rose, Stan Musial, the real stars. Believe me, especially the way we travel today, flying all night with a game the next night and then the next afternoon, if you can play one-hundred and sixty-two games, you're a man. — Sparky Anderson

I managed 26 years and found out when I retired I didn't own the game. I thought I owned it when I was managing all those years. You can climb to the top of the mountain, get down on your knees and kiss the ground, because you'll never own that mountain. That mountain is only owned by one single person, and he'll never give it up. That's the way baseball is. — Sparky Anderson

You're gonna lose some ball games and you're gonna win some ball games and that's about it. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

Inner peace is not found in things like baseball and world championships. As long as I feel I've done the best job I possibly could, I'm satisfied. — Sparky Anderson

Pete (Rose) doesn't run with celebrities and he can't stand the phonies. His big buddy in LA ain't Sinatra, it's a funny old groundskeeper. — Sparky Anderson

You can be whoever you want to be, you just have to want it bad enough. — Sparky Anderson

He's (Jose Canseco) built like a Greek goddess. — Sparky Anderson

Our pitching could be better than I think it will be. — Sparky Anderson

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? — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

Ask me again, Tristan read on his cell phone.
Ask what? he sent back.
Why I call you Sparky. Michael fumbled with the keys, not looking up.
Well, sure, why? Tristan sent back.
You light me up, came the answer, and Tristan's nimble fingers stopped on the keys. He stared hard at the small screen on his phone, the text message right there, waiting to see if he would send a reply. He just sat and stared till his phone turned off, unable to look up into the oh-so-blue eyes of the man who had sent it. — Z.A. Maxfield

We're the best team in baseball, but not by much. — Sparky Anderson

Very few who manage a big league club are successful, fewer still are the ones who experience success over an extended period of time, but to achieve a level of success so extraordinary that it is given a category all it's own - "The Big Red Machine" - places Sparky [Anderson] in one of the most exclusive and elite clubs in baseball history. — Tucker Elliot

A message To the children who have read this book. When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important. A stodgy parent is no fun at all! What a child wants -and DESERVES- is a parent who is SPARKY! - Danny, the champion of the world. — Roald Dahl

The trick is to realize that after giving your best, there's nothing more to give. — Sparky Anderson

As the late baseball manager Sparky Anderson put it: Losing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good. — L. Jon Wertheim

What make Gatsby so damn great - like da book's title indicatin' - is dat unlike da rest of deez shallow rich folk, Gatsby actually believe in somethin': love, dawg. He build himself a new identity jus' for Daisy. Errybody else straight-up empty inside. — Sparky Sweets

I'm beginning to see Brooks [Robinson] in my sleep. If I dropped a paper plate, he'd pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first. — Sparky Anderson

When Tim asked me to do Frankenweenie, he had his original sketches from before he did the short, of what Sparky looked like, and he drew Victor and some of the other crucial people. The remarkable thing about working with Tim is that, once he's read a script, he sketches out everybody else. — John August

Every 24 hours the world turns over on someone who was sitting on top of it. — Sparky Anderson

But I wanted less. I wanted so very much less. And while there were tiny bubbles of "is this what you really want?" all along, I was in denial about it until about forty-five minutes ago. Pretty led to bicker, bicker led to divorce, and divorce led to bitter. I didn't want pretty, then separated. I didn't want bitter; I wanted forever. I wanted swoony, sparky, maddening, sexy love. And if we were going to fight, we'd fight, not bicker. Bickering's the worst. — Alice Clayton

I only had a high school education and believe me, I had to cheat to get that. — Sparky Anderson

Sparky Lyle threw me a slider, and it wound up in the seats. We won, and it was a memorable moment. — Richie Allen

I often think about this, that is, I imagine to myself that here is Vera, dead, totally motionless, lying on the table, in a coffin... and I too, of course can no longer live. But for some reason this gives me pleasure, a terrible amount of pleasure to imagine so the one I love: earlier I imagined grandmother and then my fiance in this manner, even my favorite animals, Sparky our cat with the fiery bursts of red on his gray-black fur.

("Thirty-Three Abominations") — Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal

Sparky's the only guy I know who's written more books than he's read. — Ernie Harwell

Explaining why he was forced to cut a utility player: You just got caught in a position where you have no position. — Sparky Anderson

I cannot get rid of the hurt from losing, but after the last out of every loss, I must accept that there will be a tomorrow. In fact, it's more than there'll be a tomorrow, it's that I want there to be a tomorrow. That's the big difference, I want tomorrow to come. — Sparky Anderson

Say what you want about Hitler, but he trained killers. You train kids in their early years and you can do anything you want with that child. - Sparky Anderson, manager of the Detroit Tigers, trying to explain why he prefers younger ballplayers — David James Duncan

I hope the car they (Sport Magazine who awarded it to the World Series MVP) give him (Brooks Robinson) has an extra large glove box. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

Sparky Anderson wasn't just my favorite manager ... he was my mom's favorite manager. — Tucker Elliot

My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work. — Sparky Anderson

Problem with (John) Wockenfuss getting on base is that it takes three doubles to score him. — Sparky Anderson

This game has taken a lot of guys over the years who would have had to work in factories and gas stations and made them prominent people. I only had a high school education, and believe me, I had to cheat to get that. There isn't a college in the world that would have me and yet in this business you can walk into a room with millionaires, doctors, professional people and get more attention than they get. I don't know any other business where you can do that. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

It is a blessing to have pretty people around me. I like people who are sparky, positive. Evil, dark people are repelled by me: 'Oooh no! Too much sunlight.' — Geri Halliwell

The day I got a hit off (Sandy) Koufax was when he knew it was all over. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

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. — Sparky Anderson

Success is the person who year after year reaches the highest limits in his field. — Sparky Anderson

I've changed my mind about it (DH) - instead of being bad, it stinks. — Sparky Anderson

I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench. — Sparky Anderson

Pete Rose is baseball. — Sparky Anderson