SAD NEWS FROM BASEBALL
Sparky Anderson, long-time manager of the Cincinnati Reds, and then later a long-time manager of my favorite baseball team growing up, the Detroit Tigers, died today.  He was 76.

I realize this topic isn't exactly Moebius-related.  But then again, maybe it is.  He managed the Tigers from 1979 (when I was 17, still living at thome in Michigan, and a huge Tigers fan) until 1995.  And even though I never met him, I always felt like I knew him.  Sparky (whose real name was George, and when he wasn't around baseball, that's what he wanted people to call him) was immensely quotable, and the Detroit news media ate him up.  He was always, during the season, doing interviews and being quoted in the paper, and so as a huge fan I always gobbled up all he had to say.  And I'd like to think that some of it rubbed off on me.  He also wrote a book about the 1984 Tigers' World Series championship season.  I read that too.

Sparky's teams won a lot of games, and so certainly that was one reason Tiger fans like myself admired him.  The 1984 Tigers won 104 games and the World Series title, and that was the first time a Detroit team of whom I was a huge fan had won anything...at all.  It was a great moment for us Michigan folks.  I'll always be glad Sparky helped bring it to us.  But beyond that, if you read Sparky's book and read his quotes throughout the seasons he managed, other lessons emerged...

For example, I remember that he always used to say that, even though he'd had big success, that he knew he wasn't bigger than the game.  "Baseball is way bigger than me," he'd say.  "When I'm gone, baseball will go on like it always has."  And of course he was right; and, a few years ago, when I had to leave a job and a place where I'd been for a long time, what Sparky said came back to me.  It helped me.  It also reminds us not to get a big head, not to be arrogant.  There's a lot of things bigger than we are.  The world doesn't revolve around us.  It's important to remember that.  Whenever the Tigers won a game, for example, Sparky would quick hop out of the dugout, quick shake the winning pitcher's hand, and then quick turn around and go right back in and disappear.  He didn't want to call attention to himself by lingering on the field.  It was the way he was.  He acted on his principles.

I remember that Sparky Anderson was usually a happy guy, an upbeat guy.  That's a good way to be.  He seemed to be the happiest not just when his teams not only won, but won games in tough circumstances, when things hadn't been going well, when the odds were against them.  It showed hard work and toughness.  Those are good qualities for life, too.  Those are qualities we with Moebius Syndrome or facial differences can use...

Anyway, when I was in my teens and early 20s, I was still a shy kid.  I wasn't too social, I didn't go out much.  What that did was to help make me and keep me a big sports fan.  I didn't worry that I wasn't going out...I had games to watch on TV, my favorite teams to keep track of.  Maybe that wasn't the best attitude for me to have...I certainly recognize that now.  But that was the way it was.  And so it sure was nice, during those times, for Sparky to have been around and to have helped one of my favorite teams get a lot better.  And to bring fans like me a championship, eventually.  Thanks...

And what I really should say is, thanks, George.  Because George, a normal guy, a father, grandfather, husband...that was a huge part of him.  Sparky was his baseball persona when the games were going and the bright lights were on.  But really he was George...and I bet right now he'd want me to call him that.

Still, I thank him for giving us the gift of Sparky. 
And I hope all who remember him also remember the principles he lived by and, perhaps unwittingly, was teaching, not only to his players, but to all of us.

"You always pass failure on your way to success." -Mickey Rooney

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing
your enthusiasm." -Sir Winston Churchill