Sparky Anderson Quotes

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

Mike Laga will make you forget about every power hitter that ever lived. ~ 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

After being maligned for his lack of offense for much of his career, [César] Gerónimo batted .280 with two home runs, a triple, three runs, and three RBIs vs. Boston during the 1975 World Series, and then he batted .308 with two doubles, two steals, and three runs vs. New York during the 1976 World Series. The man who's defense Sparky Anderson called 'ungodly' became an offensive star on baseball's biggest stage. ~ Tucker Elliot

A baseball manager is a necessary evil. ~ 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good seasons start with good beginnings. ~ Sparky Anderson

Pete Rose is baseball. ~ Sparky Anderson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You know, men do nearly all die laughing, because they know death is very terrible, and a thing to be forgotten till after it has come. T. E. LAWRENCE, IN A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER, 1916 ~ Scott Anderson

My favorite word? Yes. ~ Pamela Anderson

People only stutter at the beginning of the word. They're not afraid when they get to the end of the word. There's just regret. ~ Laurie Anderson

Lily told her about what had happened so far. (If you're interested, you can go back to the beginning of the book and read all the way through to this point again.) ~ M T Anderson

My total year's income from working as hard as I possibly could from writing went from like $30 one year to about $70 the next year. And it made me realize that maybe you couldn't really pay the rent that way. ~ Kevin J. Anderson

On Ecstasy, Joan Rivers looks like Pamela Anderson, so imagine what Pamela Anderson looked like. ~ Tommy Lee

You are the only person I've ever met who goes the other direction from the things she wants ~ Jodi Lynn Anderson

Kill your television! ~ Paul Thomas Anderson

The time has come to arm-wrestle some demons. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

She actually liked the idea that she might be made out of stars. ~ Jodi Lynn Anderson

Dialogue is about freeing human beings from the beliefs and attitudes that make human beings miserable. ~ Oli Anderson

When life sucks, read. They can't yell at you for that. And if they do, then you can ignore them. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

I tend to relate more to people on television who are just themselves, for good or for bad, than I do to someone who I believe is putting on some sort of persona. The anchorman on 'The Simpsons' is a reasonable facsimile of some anchors who have that problem. ~ Anderson Cooper

The whole object of education is ... to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works. ~ Sherwood Anderson

You ready to find out what I can and can't make you do?" - Xander. ~ Natalie Anderson

Information of fundamental importance to the general problem of atomic structure has resulted from systematic studies of the cosmic radiation carried out by the Wilson cloud-chamber method. ~ Carl D. Anderson

What happens in our lives is not really anybody's fault but our own ... When I was in high school, I was in an atheist crowd, and it was the consensus that religion was a crutch. ~ Gillian Anderson

The mission of the playwright is to look in his heart and write, to write whatever concerns him at the moment; to write with passion and conviction. Of course the measure of the man will be the measure of the play. ~ Robert Anderson

I accidentally brought my graphing calculator camping. ~ Ian Anderson

I was in a race to see if I would die from the outside in or the inside out. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Occasionally people ask me how it is I write different types of things, and my answer to that is it's very natural. You get bored writing one kind of thing all the time. ~ Matthew Tobin Anderson

I could never hate you, even if I wanted to. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

You can do bigger and bigger things. For what? ~ Laurie Anderson

Shining in the midnight moonlight, while the King sings love me tender. ~ Laurie Anderson

My morning ritual is to get up and feed the dogs, take my daughter to school, and come home. ~ Richard Dean Anderson

Prince, cast aside these Foreign Airs, which don't speak, 'cept to the Head," said I (without Thought, but only Combustion of the Tongue), crying, "Poor timid Creature, cast them aside, and instead play the Simple Things in your HEART!"
He replied, "What is in my Heart is not simple."
& I says, "Then you han't listened."
& He says, "I listen, & cannot understand its Speech."
& I says, "Then it ain't your Heart you hear."
"The Human Heart," recited he bitterly as if from some damp Lesson, "is a Muscle that operates through Constriction." His Work on the Oysters grew defiant. "I have seen a Heart lying on a Plate, jolted with Electricity. It had as much to say dead as alive."
Now I was terrified at his Past & his Secrets & I asked for no more Music. ~ M T Anderson

She stands on the cliffs, near the old crumbling stone house. There's nothing left in the house but an upturned table, a ladle, and a clay bowl. She stands for more than an hour, goose-bumped and shivering. At these times, she won't confide in me. She runs her hands over her body, as if checking that it's still there, her heart pulsing and beating. The limbs are smooth and strong, thin and sinewy, her hair long and black and messy and gleaming despite her age. You wouldn't know it to look at her, that she's lived long enough to look for what's across the water. Eighty years later, and she is still fifteen. ~ Jodi Lynn Anderson

As in days gone by, maintaining a public reputation for fearlessness is a central consideration for those located within a modern culture of honor (see, e.g., Horowitz, 1983: chap. 5). An honorable person must display heart, must not only be prepared to fight but be seen to, for in the competitive world of honor others will create tests: "There are always people around looking for a fight to increase their share of respect" (Anderson,
1994: 88). Turning the other cheek does no good, avoiding confrontation now will only attract more later. Word that somebody can be taunted or pushed around will inevitably spread. It is therefore far better in the long run to fight and lose than not to fight at all (Canada, 1995: 16). ~ Mark Cooney

We do hear perhaps too many accolades generally aimed at people like Steve Jobs. We have to remember that there are other classic things in life that we undervalue and take them for granted. If you think of the classic lines of the modern jet aircraft, it's really been there since early World War II. ~ Ian Anderson

Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention. ~ Greg Anderson

By the end of that first day, the advance landing forces at Gallipoli had already suffered nearly four thousand casualties, or considerably more than the total number of men Lawrence had projected would be needed to secure Alexandretta. ~ Scott Anderson

It's just a matter of me opening up the page and whatever is written on the page, that's what I'm here to do. ~ Anthony Anderson

Demons do not cry. You became a demon, because you couldn't cry anymore right? Humans cry and when their tears finally run dry, there's nothing left, not a demon nor a monster and one final prayer for death. So, laugh demon. Laugh that arrogant laugh of your and remember I beat you to it. ~ Alexander Anderson

Life was a battle, and Mother a tired and bitter captain ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Steve and Paul had a special bond with ice-creams. ~ Alex Anderson

Nothing good ever happens at lunch. The cafeteria is a giant sound stage where they film daily segments of Teenage Humiliation Rituals. And it smells gross. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson