[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S14430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SPARKY ANDERSON

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, ``It was the best of times. It was 
the worst of times.'' It was 1984, and the Detroit Tigers won it all, 
from opening day in April until the final game of the World Series in 
October, a perfect season, never out of first place, with Sparky at the 
helm. It is 1995, a not so perfect season; in fact, a bummer of a 
season, with Sparky at the helm, getting a look at the new, young 
players, and most likely closing out the 1984 era.
  On Sunday, October 1, in Baltimore, the Orioles play the Tigers in 
the last regular game of the season. But to me, what is most poignant 
is that I believe we will be seeing Sparky Anderson in a Detroit Tigers 
uniform for the last time. And when he leaves the field that day, along 
with Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, the last of the 1984 Tigers' team 
will be gone.
  Sparky Anderson is baseball. As a kid, his dream was to be a player, 
but from all early indications--he played only 1 year in the majors--he 
was meant to be a manager. He studied the game constantly from boyhood 
to this day. When he sits in the dugout, you can see those eyes darting 
around the field, taking in every movement of everyone on the field and 
at the plate, incessantly studying and instructing his players, both 
veterans and rookies.
  Sparky Anderson has a remarkable record as a manger. He is the third 
winningest manager in big league history--only Connie Mack and John 
McGraw won more games. But he is the only manager to win a World Series 
in each league, with the Cincinnati Reds and the Tigers, and he is the 
first to win 100 games in each league. He is, without question, headed 
for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  Every indication is that Sparky will be leaving the Detroit Tigers 
and will announce this shortly after the season ends on October 1. But, 
I do not think Sparky will leave baseball. He will be in some baseball 
uniform next year. I am sure that we will turn on the television some 
day and see Sparky going to home plate to hand the umpire the starting 
lineup, we will see him sitting in the dugout, chewing his bubblegum or 
his sunflower seeds, and his eyes will be darting around the field, and 
we will see him walk to the pitcher's mound in the late innings, with 
that familiar skip to avoid stepping on the third base foul line.
  Maybe we will get to see one of those nose-to-nose arguments with the 
umpire, and we will certainly look forward to hearing a post-game 
analysis, and in spite of that fractured English of his, we will get a 
first rate lesson in the way this great game of baseball works, for 
more than anything else, Sparky is a baseball purist, a lover of the 
game and totally loyal to the institution we call baseball.
  Detroit will miss Sparky Anderson, but we hope he will hang around 
the game long enough to break John McGraw's record, and maybe even, 
someday, overtake the record of the great Connie Mack.

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