Sparky Anderson once said this about managing: "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?"
And: "My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work."
And: "We averaged 96 wins my nine years in Cincinnati. We had Bench, Rose,
Morgan, Perez, Foster, Griffey, Concepcion and Geronimo. Imagine what I
could have done if they (the Reds front office) had given me some players!"
There were other quotes. Many, many others.
George Foster was an amazing slugger, and I was at an early age when I became a big fan of his. It is hard for folks to remember when hitting 50 homers was a landmark event. In 1977, Foster hit 52 homers. It was the first time that someone had broken the 50 mark since Willie Mays in 1965. The runner-up to Foster in 1977, Jeff Burroughs, had 41 homers. Mike Schmidt won the homer crown in 1976 with 38 dingers. In 1974, Schmidt led the league with 36. So when I was young, 52 seemed awesome. He was this skinny guy with a higher than average voice and a huge baseball bat colored jet black named "Black Beauty." He was awesome. Of course, you contrast those numbers with 2001, when Barry Bonds had 73 homers, Sammy Sosa had 64, Luis Gonzalez had 57, and in the A.L. shortstop Alex Rodriguez had 52 homers. Oh well. Foster's 52-homer season is tied for 25th all-time. There are only two guys in baseball history with a 50-homer season who don't really seem to belong ... for one reason or another. I would put Luis Gonzalez in that category, along with Brady Anderson and his 50 homers in 1996. But Foster belonged, and how.
