I believe it was DiMaggio.Originally posted by Michaels07
"there is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time or last time. I owe him my best"
Who can the quote be attributed too?
I believe it was DiMaggio.Originally posted by Michaels07
"there is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time or last time. I owe him my best"
Who can the quote be attributed too?
it was . i put all his quotes up...Originally posted by BobbyMurcerFan
I believe it was DiMaggio.
Quotations From Lefty Gomez
"A lot of things run through your head when you're going in to relieve in a tight spot. One of them was, "Should I spike myself?"
"He (Jimmie Foxx) has muscles in his hair."
"I'd rather be lucky than good."
"I'm the guy that made Joe DiMaggio famous."
"I talked to the ball a lot of times in my career. I yelled, "Go foul. Go foul."
"I've got a new invention. It's a revolving bowl for tired goldfish."
"I was the worst hitter ever. I never even broke a bat until last year when I was backing out of the garage."
"No one hit home runs the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings, then take off for the stands."
"One rule I had was make your best pitch and back up third base. That relay might get away and you've got another shot at him."
"The secret of my success was clean living and a fast outfield."
"When Neil Armstong first set foot on the moon, he and all the space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. I knew immediately what it was. That was a home run ball hit off me in 1933 by Jimmie Foxx."
Last edited by thecaptain; 05-10-02 at 09:28 AM.
"We may have to call off Family Day."
-- Yankees general manager Lee MacPhail, after Yanks pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapped wives, children, and family dogs in 1972.
Was Lee related to Larry MacPhail, who was part of a group that bought the yanks in 1945? Is he related to the guy working for the Cubs right now?
That can't be right.... everyone knows the moon landing was in 1969, and Lefty pitched in the 1930's....Originally posted by thecaptain
Quotations From Lefty Gomez
"When Neil Armstong first set foot on the moon, he and all the space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. I knew immediately what it was. That was a home run ball hit off me in 1973 by Jimmie Foxx."
Thanks penguin4 i think is 1933.i will change it.Lefty was something else . this is what he said to the scooter........."Kid, is your mother in the stands? (Rizzuto replied yes) Well, stay here and talk to me a little and she'll think you're giving advice to the great Lefty Gomez." - Hall of Fame Pitcher Lefty Gomez
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel
i think they are from the same family..Lee MacPhailOriginally posted by Bozidar
Was Lee related to Larry MacPhail, who was part of a group that bought the yanks in 1945? Is he related to the guy working for the Cubs right now?
Born: Oct. 25, 1917
Baseball
AL president (1974-83); president of owners' Player Relations Committee (1984-85); also GM of Baltimore (1959-65) and NY Yankees (1967-74); son of Larry and father of Andy.
Quotations From Bill Klem
"An angry player can't argue with the back of an umpire who is walking away."
"Baseball is more than a game to me, it's a religon."
"Fix your eye on the ball from the moment the pitcher holds it in his glove. Follow it as he throws to the plate and stay with it until the play is completed. Action takes place only where the ball goes."
"Gentleman, he was out because I said he was out." - statement made after being shown a photo of a blown call
"It ain't nothin' till I call it."
"I told the umpires to walk back at least thirty-five feet from home plate. That reduced the arguements."
"Son, when you pitch a strike, Mr. Hornsby (Roger) will let you know."
"That guy in a twenty-five cent bleacher seat is as much entitled to know a call as the guy in the boxes. He can see my arm signal even if he can't hear my voice."
"The best umpired game is the game in which the fans cannot recall the umpires who worked it."
"The most cowardly thing in the world is blaming mistakes upon the umpires. Too many managers strut around on the field trying to manage the umpires instead of their teams."
"There are one-hundred fifty-four games in a season and you can find one-hundred fifty-four reasons why your team should have won every one of them."
"Your job is to umpire for the ball and not the player."
Quotations From Cal Hubbard
"Being an umpire wasn't such a tough job. You really have to understand only two things and that's maintaing discipline and knowing the rule book."
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it."
"I always hated to throw a guy out of a game but sometimes it was necessary to keep order."
"The call that always seemed the toughest to me was the slide and tag play at second. You can see it coming, but you don't know which way the runner is going to slide, where the throw is going to be, and how the fielder is going to take the throw."
"When it was time for a player to go, he went."
Quotations From Honus Wagner
"I don't want my picture in any cigarettes, but I also don't want you to lose the ten dollars, so I'm enclosing my check for that sum."
"In all my years of play, I never saw an ump deliberately make an unfair decision. They really called them as they saw 'em."
"I never have been sick. I don't even know what it means to be sick. I hear other players say they have a cold. I just don't know what it would feel like to have a cold - I never had one."
"I won't play for a penny less than fifteen hundred dollars"
"There ain't much to being a ballplayer, if you're a ballplayer."
"Things were changing fast by that time, women were beginning to come to the ball parks. We had to stop cussing."
Quotations From Paul Waner
"Be relaxed and don't wave the bat, don't clench it. Be ready to hit down with the barrel of the bat. Just swing it and let the weight drive the ball."
"If a pitcher sees you fiddling with the bat, he'll stall until your arms are tired before you even get a chance to hit."
"Let the pitcher move first, then, as he draws his arm back, you draw the bat back and you are ready."
"On the road, I liked to be booed, I really did. Because if they boo you on the road, it's either because you're a sorehead or because you're hurting them."
ahh, sort of a precursor to Reggie's "Fans don't boo nobodies." thing huh?Originally posted by thecaptain
Quotations From Paul Waner
"On the road, I liked to be booed, I really did. Because if they boo you on the road, it's either because you're a sorehead or because you're hurting them."
I had Paul Waner as part of my all time draft on another board -- he was in my outfield with Billy Hamilton and Willie Mays...he was quite an interesting character besides being a great player...
there's a story in Bill James' book about him --
In 1940, when Frankie Frisch was managing the Pirates and Waner was near the end of his career, Frisch found a whiskey bottle in the Pirate clubhouse. "Waner," yelled Frisch, holding up the bottle, "Is this yours?"
"Does it have anything in it?" Waner asked.
"It's half full," replied Frisch.
"Well, it can't be mine," Waner replied. "If it was mine, it would be empty."
different times huh?
by the way, enjoying your quotes captain...nice thread.
Quotations From Eddie Mathews
"I don't know where Hank Aaron will break Ruth's record but I can tell you one thing - ten years from the day he hits it three million people will say they were there."
"I'm just a beat up old third baseman. I'm just a small part of a wonderful game that is a tremendous part of America today."
"It's only a hitch when you're in a slump. When you're hitting the ball its called rhythm."
"My mother used to pitch to me and my father would shag balls. If I hit one up the middle close to my mother, I'd have some extra chores to do. My mother was instrumental in making me a pull hitter."
"When you're a kid, what fun the game is! You grab a bat and glove and ball, that's it. I know what Ted Williams and Stan Musial meant when they said it got tougher to get in shape every year."
"Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps."
"Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson."
"I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em."
"If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer."
"I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw."
"It's not hard. When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But when I'm hitting, I hit anybody"
"They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it."
"Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching."
"When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody."
consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider; then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first thirty feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it had crossed the plate."
"I have a darn good job, but please don't ask me what I do."
"I love to play this game of baseball - I love putting on this uniform."
"I never realized that batting a little ball around could cause so much commotion. I now know how Lindbergh must have felt when he returned from St. Louis."
"The first principle of contract negotiations is don't remind them of what you did in the past - tell them what you're going to do in the future."
"The key to hitting for high average is to relax, concentrate, and don't hit the fly ball to center field."
"There is no one correct way to bat, and so of course there is no one correct stance for it."
"There was never a day when I was as good as Joe DiMaggio at his best. Joe was the best, the very best I ever saw."
"When a pitcher's throwing a spitball, don't worry and don't complain, just hit the dry side like I do."
"You wait for a strike, then you knock the ................ out of it."
"A couple years ago they told me I was too young to be president and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them." - President John F. Kennedy at the 1962 All Star Game
"An outfield composed of Cobb, Speaker and Ruth, even with Ruth, lacks the combined power of DiMaggio, Musial and Williams." - Connie Mack
"He could have hit .300 with a fountain pen." - Joe Garagiola
"How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away." - Vin Scully
"I've had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third." - Carl Erskine
"Once Musial timed your fastball, your infielders were in jeopardy." - Warren Spahn
"Sometimes I sit in my den at home and read stories about myself. Kids used to save whole scrapbooks on me. They get tired of them and mail them to me. I'll go in there and read them, and you know what? They might as well be about Musial and DiMaggio, it's like reading about somebody else." - Mickey Mantle
"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
"They can talk about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial and all the rest, but I'm sure not one of them could hold cards and spades to Williams in his sheer knowledge of hitting. He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market, and could spot at a glance mistakes that others couldn't see in a week." - Carl Yastrzemski
"When you're a kid, what fun the game is! You grab a bat and glove and ball, that's it. I know what Ted Williams and Stan Musial meant when they said it got tougher to get in shape every year." - Eddie Mathews
"As a batter, his only weakness is a wild pitch." - Bill Rigney
"But when he (Willie Mays) was in California, whites refused to sell him a house in their community. They loved his talent, but they didn't want him for a neighbor." - Jackie Robinson
"He was something like zero for twenty-one the first time I saw him. His first major league hit was a home run off me and I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out." - Warren Spahn
"I can't believe that Babe Ruth was a better player than Willie Mays. Ruth is to baseball what Arnold Palmer is to golf. He got the game moving. But I can't believe he could run as well as Mays, and I can't believe he was any better an outfielder." - Sandy Koufax
"I can't very well tell my batters don't hit it to him. Wherever they hit it, he's there anyway." - Gil Hodges
"If he could cook, I'd marry him." - Leo Durocher
"I'm not sure what the hell charisma is, but I get the feeling it's Willie Mays." - Ted Kluszewski
"I think it's incredible because there were guys like Mays and Mantle and Henry Aaron who were great players for ten years... I only had four or five good years." - Sandy Koufax
"I used to dream how good it would be to be Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. My dreams have died. Even the rotten rings (World Series) aren't what they're supposed to be. I'll buy my own diamonds. I can afford it now. No one gives you anything, you've got to get it for yourself." - Reggie Jackson
"Joe Louis, Jascha Heifetz, Sammy Dave and Nashua rolled into one." - Leo Durocher describing Mays
"Snider, Mantle and Mays. You could get a fat lip in any saloon by starting an argument as to which was best. One point was beyond argument, though. Willie was by all odds the most exciting." - Red Smith
"The only man who could have caught that ball just hit it." - radio announcers everywhere
"There are 499 Major League ballplayers. Then there's Willie Mays" - SABR member
"There have been only two geniuses in the world. Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare." - Tallulah Bankhead
"They invented the All-Star game for Willie Mays." - Ted Williams
"(Ruth) never played a night game, he never hit against fireball relief pitching, he never traveled cross-country for a night game and played a day game the next day, he never performed before millions of television viewers, he never had to run on artificial turf. It is the changes in the game, the modern factors that have made the game more difficult, that bring Babe in here as number three, behind Mays and Aaron. His feats were heroic. So were theirs. They simply did them under tougher conditions." - Maury Allen
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring..." - Rogers Hornsby
"Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit..." - Babe Ruth
pitcher needs two pitches, one they're looking for and one to cross them up."
"A sore arm is like a headache or a toothache. It can make you feel bad, but if you just forget about it and do what you have to do, it will go away. If you really like to pitch and you want to pitch, that's what you'll do."
"He was something like zero for twenty-one the first time I saw him. His first major league hit was a home run off me and I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie (Mays) forever if I'd only struck him out."
"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."
"I felt like, wow what a great way to make a living. If I goof up, there's going to be a relief pitcher coming in there. Nobody's going to shoot (he had just returned from WWII) me."
"I'm probably the only guy who worked for (Casey) Stengel before and after he was a genius."
"Once Musial timed your fastball, your infielders were in jeopardy."
"The difference between winning nineteen games and winning twenty for a pitcher is bigger than anyone out of baseball realizes. It's the same for hitters - someone who hits .300 looks back on the guy who batted .295 and says 'tough luck buddy."
"Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers - .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation. And those are the two things that keep a ballplayer in business."
"What is life, after all, but a challenge? And what better challenge can there be than the one between the pitcher and the hitter."
"When I throw a ground ball, I expect it to be an out, maybe two."
"You don't just throw the ball - you propel it."
"I don't know if we're the oldest batter, but we're certainly the ugliest." - Yogi Berra in 1965
"I don't think Spahn will ever get into the Hall of Fame. He'll never stop pitching." - Stan Musial
Great lines, I'm sitting here at work, trying to hide the laughs and the tears are running down my face.Originally posted by thecaptain
Quotations From Bob Uecker
"Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat."
"Baseball hasn't forgotten me. I go to a lot of old-timers games and I haven't lost a thing. I sit in the bullpen and let people throw things at me. Just like old times."
"Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets."
"I didn't get a lot of awards as a player. But they did have a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly."
"If a guy hits .300 every year, what does he have to look forward to? I always tried to stay around .190, with three or four RBI. And I tried to get them all in September. That way I always had something to talk about during the winter."
"I had slumps that lasted into the winter."
"I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel and when his manager Herman Franks came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel's suitcase."
"I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture."
"I led the league in "Go get 'em next time."
"In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs."
"I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don't even get printed."
"I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for three-thousand dollars. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn't have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up."
"One time, I got pulled over at four a.m. I was fined seventy-five dollars for being intoxicated and four-hundred for being with the Phillies."
"People don't know this but I helped the Cardinals win the pennant. I came down with hepatitis. The trainer injected me with it."
"Sporting goods companies pay me not to endorse their products."
"Sure, women sportswriters look when they're in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?"
"The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud."
"The highlight of my career? In '67 with St. Louis, I walked with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in an intersquad game in spring training."
"Let's face it. Umpiring is not an easy or happy way to make a living. In the abuse they suffer, and the pay they get for it, you see an imbalance that can only be explained by their need to stay close to a game they can't resist."
"The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up."
"When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I looked in the other team's dugout and they were already in street clothes."
"When I looked at the third base coach, he turned his back on me."
Bob Uecker
"Generally in the Little League you're up against a good pitcher who throws like hell. What does the coach say? Get a walk. Isn't that beautiful way to learn to hit? For four years you stand up there looking for a walk."
"He (Roberto Clemente) looked like he was falling apart when he ran. Looked like he was coming apart when he threw. His stance at the plate was ridiculous, he really looked less like a ball player than anyone I'd ever seen. It was a crazy thing. The only thing that made him look sensational was the results."
"I never slept when I lost. I'd see the sun come up without ever having closed my eyes. I'd see those base hits over and over and they would drive me crazy."
"My feeling is that when you're managing a baseball team, you have to pick the right people to play and then pray a lot."
"There is no doubt that someone who tries to throw a curve or pitch at any early age before he's developed, before his hand is big enough to grip the ball correctly, will damage his arm."
"When I was with Houston at the end of my career, Bob Gibson walked up to me one day when I was running in the outfield. He asked me why I didn't quit and said what a shame it was that I was ruining a great career and just trying to hang on. Years later, I saw Gibson trying to do the same thing."
"When Mickey Mantle bunted with the wind blowing out in Crosley Field." Sports Illustrated article describing his best All Star moment.
"Close don't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades."
"I don't see anyone playing in the major leagues today (1982) who combines both the talent and the intensity that I had. I always tried to do the best. I knew I couldn't always be the best, but I tried to be."
"I don't see why you reporters keep confusing Brooks and me. Can't you see that we wear different numbers."
"If I had one wish in the world today, it would be that Jackie Robinson could be here to see this happen." - 1974 press conference on being the first black manager.
"If the guys on the bench were as good as the guys you have out there, they'd be out there in first place."
"I had no trouble communicating, the player's just didn't like what I had to say."
"I have heard of managers who encourage players not to slide hard for fear they will get hurt and be lost from the lineup for a time. That is why you occasionally see a player go into second base on a double-play ball and not even bother to slide. I wonder, could Ty Cobb sit though plays like that and hold his lunch?"
"It's nice to come into a town and be referred to as the manager of the Cleveland Indians instead of as the first black manager."
"Managers don't have as much leverage as they used to have. We can't really be the boss. If I say to a veteran player, 'If you don't perform, you may be sent back to the minors, they look at me and say, 'Who are you kidding? I'm not going anyplace. I've already had three years in the major leagues and you can't send me back to the minor leagues without my ok.'"
"No, I don't think my presence will cause an increase in black attendance at Cleveland. People come out to see the players. When do you see a manager anyway? When he's out on the field arguing with the umpires, making a fool of himself and you know you can't win, and when he brings out the line-up card."
"Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn't let that pitcher get me out. They say you can't hit if you're on your back, but I didn't hit on my back. I got up."
"Probably the most dramatic change in pitching I've observed in my years in baseball has been the disappearance of the knockdown or brushback pitch. This is why record numbers of home runs are flying out of ballparks, why earned run averages are soaring, and why there are so few twenty game winners in the majors."
"The baselines belongs to the runner, and whenever I was running the bases, I always slid hard. I wanted infielders to have that instant's hesitation about coming across the bag at second or about standing in there awaiting a throw to make a tag. There are only twenty-seven outs in a ballgame, and it was my job to save one for my team every time I possibly could."
"The fan is the one who suffers. He cheers a guy to a .350 season then watches that player sign with another team. When you destroy fan loyalties, you destroy everything."
"There's absolutely no way you can go barreling into second and dump a guy on a double play, like you should do, when you've been fraternizing with him before a game.
"Fifty years from now I'll be just three inches of type in a record book."
"I could field as long as I can remember, but hitting has been a struggle all my life."
"If your not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he'll be ready to take your job."
"I'll play out the string and leave baseball without a tear. A man can't play games his whole life."
"I'm a guy who just wanted to see his name in the lineup everyday. To me, baseball was a passion to the point of obsession."
"I'm a Major League third baseman. If you want to go play in a parking lot, I'm supposed to stop the ball." (Reply given before game one of the 1970 World Series in regards to if he thought he would have a problem playing on Astroturf for the first time)
"It's a pretty sure thing that the player's bat is what speaks loudest when it's contract time, but there are moments when the glove has the last word."
"I've always said when I broke in I was an average player. I had an average arm, average speed and definitely an average bat. I am still average in all of those."
"I've never been hurt by a ground ball, and yet I've got more false teeth (from a batting cage hit) than a Polish fullback. Funny, isn't it."
"I wouldn't mind seeing someone erase my record of hitting into four triple plays."
"This is my best time of the year (spring training). Heck, once the season starts, I go to work."
"Whether you want to or not, you do serve as a role model. People will always put more faith in baseball players than anyone else."
Above anything else, I hate to lose."
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead."
"But, when he (Willie Mays) was in California, whites refused to sell him a house in their community. They loved his talent, but they didn't want him for a neighbor."
"How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts."
"I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label."
"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being."
"It kills me to lose. If I'm a troublemaker, and I don't think that my temper makes me one, then it's because I can't stand losing. That's the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first."
"I've been riding on cloud nine since the election (HOF), and I don't think I'll ever come down. Today, everything is complete."
"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."
"Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade."
"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."
"The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time."
"The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it."
"You're going to be a great player, kid (Mickey Mantle)." - After the 1952 World Series
"When he (Richard Nixon) took the oath of office, he pledged to be the president for 100% of the people, and I challenge the president to prove that he is being the president for 100% of the people."
Brooks never asked anyone to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore, people named their children after him." - Gordon Beard
"Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league." - Pete Rose
"He can throw his glove out there and it will start ten double plays by itself." - Sparky Anderson
"He charged everything. He reacted as the ball was coming off the bat, sometimes as it was coming to the bat!" - George Brett
"He didn't look fast, in fact he was kinda slow, but he was always there. On double plays when he had to come a long way, he had this way of just rolling across the bag and flipping the ball under his arm. He was the best second baseman (Cuban Winter League) I have ever seen." - Orlanda Pena
"He's not at his locker yet, but four guys are over there interviewing his glove." - Rex Barney to reporters looking to interview Brooks after the 1970 World Series
"He was the best defensive player at any position. I used to stand in the outfield like a fan and watch him make play after play. I used to think WOW, I can't believe this." - Frank Robinson
"How many interviews, how many questions - how many times you approached him and got only courtesy and decency in return. A true gentleman who never took himself seriously. I always had the idea he didn't know he was Brooks Robinson" - Joe Falls of the Detroit News
"I don't see why you reporters keep confusing Brooks and me. Can't you see that we wear different numbers." - Frank Robinson
"I don't think, in all the years I managed them, I ever spoke more than thirty words to Frank and Brooks Robinson." - Earl Weaver
"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
"I will become a left-handed hitter to keep the ball away from that guy." - Johnny Bench
"There's not a man who knows him who wouldn't swear for his integrity and honesty and give testimony to his consideration of others. He's an extraordinary human being, which is important, and the world's greatest third baseman of all time, which is incidental." - John Steadman of The News American
"Very nice . . . where do they plug Mr. Hoover in?" - Lee May
"You know it's a crime for anybody to have as much fun as Robby's having . . . and making money for it." - Robin Roberts
One of the great all time quotes!!Originally posted by thecaptain
"I don't see why you reporters keep confusing Brooks and me. Can't you see that we wear different numbers." - Frank Robinson
Keep 'em coming thecaptain!! Thanks!!
After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that." - Reggie Jackson
"After the game, Jackie Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand. He said, 'You're a helluva ballplayer and you've got a great future.' I thought that was a classy gesture, one I wasn't then capable of making. I was a bad loser. What meant even more was what Jackie told the press, 'Mantle beat us. He was the difference between the two teams. They didn't miss DiMaggio.' I have to admit, I became a Jackie Robinson fan on the spot. And when I think of that world Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had without doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game. And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma." - Mickey Mantle
"All of us had to wait for Jackie." - Pitcher Joe Black
"Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson." - Willie Mays
"Give me five players like Robinson and a pitcher and I'll beat any nine-man team in baseball." - Manager Charlie Dressen
"He led America by example. He reminded our people of what was right and he reminded them of what was wrong. I think it can be safely said today that Jackie Robinson made the United States a better nation." - American League President Gene Budig
"He knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don't know how he held up. I know I never could have." - Duke Snider
"He struck a mighty blow for equality, freedom and the American way of life. Jackie Robinson was a good citizen, a great man, and a true American champion." - President Ronald Reagan
"He was a therapist for the masses by succeeding, by doing it with such style, flair and drama. He helped level baseball off, to make it truly a game for black and white, with excellence the only test for success." - Jesse Jackson
"He was the greatest competitor I've ever seen. I've seen him beat a team with his bat, his ball, his glove, his feet and, in a game in Chicago one time, with his mouth." - Duke Snider
"He was the only player I ever saw in a rundown who could be safe more often than out. He ran as if his head was on a swizzle, back and forth, back and forth, until he could get out of it." - Bobby Bragan
"I don't care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a $&^%!*@ zebra. I'm the manager of this team and I say he plays." - Leo Durocher
"If it wasn't for him the Dodgers would be in the second division." - Red Schoendienst
"If I were in Jackie Robinson's shoes, I probably never would have made it." - Bob Gibson
"In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about Musial, Williams and Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time." - Hank Aaron
"Jackie Robinson is the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports." - Sportswriter Jimmy Cannon
"Jackie Robinson was the best athlete ever to play Major League Baseball." - Ralph Kiner
"Jackie, we've got no army. There's virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I'm afraid that many fans will be hostile. We'll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I'm doing this because you're a great ballplayer, a fine gentleman." - Branch Rickey
"Robinson did not merely play at center stage. He was center stage; and wherever he walked, center stage moved with him." - Roger Kahn in The Boys of Summer
"There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than Robinson." - Branch Rickey
"They call his name in a way no other player's name is called. They plead to shake his hand or ask for his autograph. They touch his clothes as he walks by, unhurrying, pleasant, friendly, cooperative, because Jackie has never lost sight of what the game has meant to him, and what he has meant, means now, and will always mean to his people." - Milton Gross
"Thinking about the things that happened, I don't know any other ball player who could have done what he did. To be able to hit with everybody yelling at him. He had to block all that out, block out everything but this ball that is coming in at a hundred miles an hour. To do what he did has got to be the most tremendous thing I've ever seen in sports." - Shortstop Pee Wee Reese
"Whether your name is Gehrig or Ripken, DiMaggio or Robinson, or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That's all I've ever tried to do." - Cal Ripken, Jr.
"And if I have my choice between a pennant and a triple crown, I'll take the pennant every time."
"Ed (Runge), you're the second best umpire in the league. The other twenty-three are tied for first."
"I knew when the ball was going out (over the Green Monster). It was something I worked into the decoy, but it used to tick the pitchers off. Bill Monbouquette used to say, 'Can't you at least make it look like you can catch it?' Meanwhile, the ball would be on its way over the fence to a spot three-quarters of the way out to the railroad tracks."
"If that guy (Mickey Mantle) were healthy, he'd hit 80 home runs."
"I loved the game. I loved the competition. But I never had any fun. I never enjoyed it. All hard work all the time."
"I'm very pleased and very proud of my accomplishments, but I'm most proud of that (hitting four-hundred home runs and three-thousand hits). Not (Ted) Williams, not (Lou) Gehrig, not (Joe) DiMaggio did that. They were Cadillacs and I'm a Chevrolet."
"I remember I was a scared rookie, hitting .220 after the first three months of my baseball season, and doubting my ability."
"I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day and I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it."
"I was a lousy hitter in May doing the same things that made me a great hitter in June."
"I was lucky enough to have the talent to play baseball. That's how I treated my career. I didn't think I was anybody special, anybody different."
"The moment the game (AL Pennant versus the Twins) was over I sprinted for the dugout. The fans were pouring onto the field. If they'd caught me they'd have torn my uniform into shreds for souvenirs."
"The three-thousand hitting thing was the first time I let individual pressure get to me. I was uptight about it. When I saw the hit going through, I had a sigh of relief more than anything."
"They can talk about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial and all the rest, but I'm sure not one of them could hold cards and spades to Williams in his sheer knowledge of hitting. He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market, and could spot at a glance mistakes that others couldn't see in a week."
"This is a strange game."
"You don't always make an out. Sometimes the pitcher gets you out."
"He's a dull, boring potato farmer from Long Island who just happened to be a great ballplayer. But he was the worst dresser in organized baseball. He made Inspector Clouseau look like a candidate for Mr. Blackwell's list of best-dressed men. He had the same London Fog raincoat during his entire career. We'd throw it in trashcans all around the league, and somehow it mysteriously made its way back." - Pitcher Bill Lee
"I know - I know all about you. Look, kid, don't ever - ya 'understand me? - don't ever let anyone monkey with your swing." - Outfielder Ted Williams
"There can be little doubt that Carl Yastrzemski was the master of Wall-ball defense. An infielder as a collegian at Notre Dame, Yastrzemski had the coordination, the instincts, and the work ethic to make the Wall work for him. He was among the American League's outfield assist leaders annually until baserunners learned to stop going for two when they clanged one off the Wall. Yaz could decoy better than any outfielder and routinely pretended he was ready to catch a ball that he knew was going to carom off the Wall. Sometimes this would make runners slow down or stop altogether. Yaz had another Wall habit that annoyed some Boston pitchers. When a slugger unloaded on a meatball from a Sox hurler, Yaz would sometimes stand motionless, hands on hips, staring forward as the ball sailed over his head, over the screen, and out toward the Mass. Turnpike. He didn't want to give the hitter the satisfaction of turning around, and sometimes it was a message to a Boston pitcher who may have thrown the wrong pitch to the wrong guy." - Dan Shaughnessy in Fenway (2000)
"Yaz did it all the time. We'd be on the road and he'd call, 'C'mon, we're going to the ballpark.' I'd say, 'Christ, it's only one o'clock. The game's at seven.' He lived, breathed, ate, and slept baseball. If he went 0-for-4, he couldn't live with it. He could live with himself if he went 1-for-3. He was happy if he went 2-for-4. That's the way the man suffered." - Outfielder Joe Lahoud
Less than a foot made the difference between a hero and a bum."
"What, and give him (the batter) a chance to think on my time."
"What do you want me to do? Let those sons of bitches stand up there and think on my time."
He (Jackie Robinson) knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don't know how he held up. I know I never could have."
"He (Jackie Robinson) was the greatest competitor I've ever seen. I've seen him beat a team with his bat, his ball, his glove, his feet and, in a game in Chicago one time, with his mouth."
"In the split second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches the plate you have to think about your stride, your hip action, your wrist action, determine how much, if any the ball is going to break and then decide whether to swing at it."
"Man, if I made one million dollars I would come in at six in the morning, sweep the stands, wash the uniforms, clean out the office, manage the team and play the games."
"My high salary for one season was forty-six thousand dollars and a Cadillac."
"The field was even greener than my boy's mind had pictured it. In later years, friends of ours visited Ireland and said the grass there was plenty green all right, but that not even the Emerald Isle itself was as green as the grass that grew in Ebbets Field."
"The sport to which I owe so much has undergone profound changes, but it's still baseball. Kids still imitate their heroes on playgrounds. Fans still ruin expensive suits going after foul balls that cost five dollars. Hitting streaks still make the network news and hot dogs still taste better at the ballpark than at home."
"Today's baseball players are walking conglomerates. They have fantastic salaries, multiple investments, but we had one thing they don't have today, the train ride. We didn't always like it, but those rides kept us close as a team and as friends. Something you can't get on a two hour plane ride that used to take you fifteen hours on a train."
"We wept, Brooklyn was a lovely place to hit. If you got a ball in the air, you had a chance to get it out. When they tore down Ebbets Field, they tore down a little piece of me."
"What a player does best, he should practice least. Practice is for problems."
Baseball gives a growing boy self poise and self reliance."
"Baseball is a man maker."
"Baseball is the exponent of American Courage, Confidence, Combativeness, American Dash, Discipline, Determination, American Energy, Eagerness, Enthusiasm, American Pluck, Persistency, Performance, American Spirit, Sagacity, Success, American Vim, Vigor, Virility."
"I was not able to understand how it could be right to pay an actor, or a singer, or an instrumentalist for entertaining the public and wrong to pay a ball player for doing exactly the same thing."
"No human mind may measure the blessings conferred by the game of base ball on the soldiers of the Civil War. It had its earliest evolution when soldiers, North and South, were striving to forget their foes by cultivating, through this grand game, fraternal friendships with comrades in arms."
"Professional baseball is on the wane. Salaries must come down or the interest of the public must be increased in some way."
"The genius of our institutions is democratic - Base Ball is a democratic game."
"Two hours is about as long as any American can wait for the close of a baseball game, or anything else for that matter."
"Gehrig had one advantage over me. He was a better ballplayer." - Gil Hodges
"Gehrig never learned that a ballplayer couldn't be good every day." - Hank Gowdy
"Gifted with no flair whatever for the spectacular, except as it might be produced by the solid crash of bat against ball at some tense moment, lost in the honey days of a ballplayer's career in the white glare of the great spotlight that followed Babe Ruth, he nevertheless more than packed his share of the load." - Sportswriter Bill Corum of the Journal American
"He just went out and did his job every day." - Hall of Famer Bill Dickey
"He was the guy who hit all those home runs the year Ruth broke the record." - Franklin P. Adams
"His greatest record doesn't show in the book. It was the absolute reliability of Henry Louis Gehrig. He could be counted upon. He was there every day at the ballpark bending his back and ready to break his neck to win for his side. He was there day after day and year after year. He never sulked or whined or went into a pot or a huff. He was the answer to a manager's dream." - Sportswriter John Kieran in The New York Times
"I did not go there to look at Gehrig. I did not even know what position he played, but he played in the outfield against Rutgers and socked a couple of balls a mile. I sat up and took notice. I saw a tremendous youth, with powerful arms and terrific legs. I said, here is a kid who can't miss." - Yankee scout Paul Krichell
"I had him for over eight years and he never gave me a moment's trouble. I guess you might say he was kind of my favorite." - Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy
"I never heard of Gehrig before I came here and I always thought Babe Ruth was a cartoon character. I really did. I mean, I wasn't born until 1961 and I grew up in Indiana." - Yankee legend Don Mattingly (1985)
"I never knew how someone dying could say he was the luckiest man in the world. But now I understand." - Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle farewell address (1969)
"It has been aptly said that while Ruth was the Home Run King, Gehrig was the Crown Prince. Joe DiMaggio must therefore have been heir apparent." - Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack
"It may have been a child's perversity, but I like to think now that I was in tune with changing times when I selected not the Babe, but Gehrig as my hero. Handsome, shy, put together along such rugged lines that he was once screen-tested - wrapped in a leopard skin - in Hollywood for the role of Tarzan, a devastating hitter with men on base, Gehrig served perfectly as the idol of a small boy soon to reach adolescence." - Frank Graham in Farewell to Heroes (1981)
"I took the two most expensive aspirins (he was the starter, had a headache, and sat out to let Gehrig play game 1 of the streak) in history." - Wally Pipp
"I would not have traded two minutes of the joy and the grief with that man for two decades of anything with another." - Eleanor Gehrig
"Lou Gehrig was a guy who could really hit the ball, was dependable and seemed so durable that many of us thought he could have played forever." - George Selkirk
"Lou Gehrig was to baseball what Gary Cooper was to the movies: a figure of unimpeachable integrity, massive and incorruptible, a hero. Today, both are seen as paradigms of manly virtue. Decent and God-fearing, yet strongly charismatic and powerful." - Kevin Nelson in The Greatest Stories Ever Told About Baseball (1986)
"Lou was the kind of boy that if you had a son, he's the kind of person you'd like your son to be." - Yankee Sam Jones
"Mr. Barrow, there is only one answer to that, Mr. Gehrig (contract was only one-thousand dollars more) is terribly underpaid." - Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio
"So they unhitched the Iron Horse from the old wagon, but Marse Joe McCarthy didn't order him to be taken behind the barn and destroyed." - Sportswriter John Kieran in The New York Times
"There was absolutely no reason to dislike him, and nobody did." - Sportswriter Fred Lieb
"They can talk about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial and all the rest, but I'm sure not one of them could hold cards and spades to Williams in his sheer knowledge of hitting. He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market, and could spot at a glance mistakes that others couldn't see in a week." - Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski
"They didn't get along. Gehrig thought Ruth was a big-mouth and Ruth thought Gehrig was cheap. They were both right." - Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri
"Whatever Lou does in the future doesn't count. He has had fourteen great seasons, and I mean great. If I could have only ten of them, I'd be satisfied. Here's a fellow who has lasted 'til he's thirty-six, and only this morning I was wondering, and me twenty-four, how long I'll last. Say, if I could go ten more years, 'til I'm thirty-four, I'd be glad to call it a career." - Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio
"I did not go there to look at Gehrig. I did not even know what position he played. But he played in the outfield against Rutgers and socked a couple of balls a mile. I sat up and took notice. I saw a tremendous youth, with powerful arms and terrific legs. I said, ...Here is a kid who can't miss."
--Yankee scout Paul Krichell
"There was absolutely no reason to dislike him, and nobody did."
--sportswriter Fred Lieb
"I had him for over eight years and he never gave me a moment's trouble. I guess you might say he was kind of my favorite."
--Yankee manager Joe McCarthy
"I would not have traded two minutes of the joy and the grief with that man for two decades of anything with another."
--Lou Gehrig's wife, Eleanor
"Lou was the kind of boy that if you had a son, he's the kind of person you'd like your son to be."
--Teammate Sam Jones
"Louie was always a good boy."
--Gehrig's mother
Last edited by thecaptain; 06-02-02 at 10:09 AM.
"If you put a baseball and other toys in front of a baby, he'll pick up a baseball in preference to the others."
"It would be useless for any player to attempt to explain successful batting."
"Luck is the great stabilizer in baseball."
"Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week he might have lasted a long time and become a great star."
"The American boy starts swinging the bat about as soon as he can lift one."
"The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but Cobb would drive you crazy."
I love September, especially when we're in it."
"I'm always amazed when a pitcher becomes angry at a hitter for hitting a home run off him. When I strike out, I don't get angry at the pitcher, I get angry at myself. I would think that if a pitcher threw up a home run ball, he should be angry at himself."
"It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know."
"People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life, you can't think about a future without it, so you hang on as long as you can."
"Pittsburgh isn't fancy, but it is real. It's a working town and money doesn't come easy. I feel as much a part of this city as the cobblestone streets and the steel mills, people in this town expect an honest day's work, and I've it to them for a long, long time."
"They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square."
"Trying to hit him (Sandy Koufax) was like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
"You only have a few years to play this game and you can't play it if you're all tied up in knots."
Joe D. said that.
Joe D. said thatOriginally posted by Michaels07
"there is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time or last time. I owe him my best"
Who can the quote be attributed too?
"I had such a great year I didn't want to forget it."
"I know I'm the world's worst fielder, but who gets paid for fielding? There isn't a great fielder in baseball getting the kind of dough I get paid for hitting."
"I want to walk down the street and hear them say, 'Jesus, there goes Dick Stuart.'"
"One night in Pittsburgh, thirty-thousand fans gave me a standing ovation when I caught a hot dog wrapper on the fly."
"Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon."
"I have an Alka Seltzer bat. You know, plop plop fizz fizz. When the pitcher sees me walking up there they say, 'Oh what a relief it is.'"
"If everyone were like him (Mitch Williams) I wouldn't play. I'd find a safer way to make a living."
"It seems like Satan has thrown the DH into our game."
"I've never even hit batting practice before a crowd (1,519 on 4-18-88) that small at Busch."
"Last year we had so many people coming in and out they didn't bother to sew their names on the backs of the uniforms. They just put them there with Velcro."
"My biggest problem in the big leagues is that I can't figure out how to spend forty-three dollars in meal money."
"They wanted me to play third like Brooks so I did play like Brooks - Mel Brooks."
"With the Cardinals everybody would be reading the business section to see what their stocks were doing. You get to this locker room (Pirates) in the morning and everybody is looking at the sports page to see if Hulk Hogan won."
I threw so hard I thought my arm would fly right off my body."
"The smaller the town the more important the ball club was. But if you beat a bigger town they'd practically hand you the key to the city. Any if you lost a game by making an error in the ninth or something like that, well, the best thing to do was just pack your grip and hit the road, because they'd never let you forget it."
"Any team can have a bad century."
"Forbes Field at this moment (Game Seven - 1960 World Series) is an outdoor insane asylum"
"Hey, Hey!"
"If he (Ken Burns) treats this (a Lewis & Clark film) as badly as his Baseball film, they'll wind up in Miami!"
"I imagine myself as the broadcaster for a Cubs-White Sox World Series, a Series that would last seven games, with the final game going extra innings before being suspended because of darkness at Wrigley Field."
"I regard sports first and foremost as entertainment, so dry documentary narration is not for me. I like the 'let's forget our troubles and have some excitement' approach. I'm convinced you can combine this with reporting integrity and accuracy."
"I've always tried to keep in mind that I'm in grass-roots country and I'm grass-roots-born and -reared. I don't use the so-called 'sophisticated approach' to broadcasting that is used in other parts of the country."
"There was never any question about his (Enos Slaughter) courage. He proved it by getting married four times."
"Whoo, boy! Next time around, bring me back my stomach!"
Bruce Sutter has been around for a while and he's pretty old. He's thirty-five years old, that will give you some idea of how old he is."
"He fakes a bluff."
"If I had to name the number one asset you could have for any sport I'd say speed. In baseball, all a guy with speed has to do is make contact."
"Last night I neglected to mention something that bears repeating."
"The Giants are looking for a trade but I don't think Atlanta wants to depart with a quality player."
"The wind at Candlestick tonight is blowing with great propensity."
"Fans tend to get too excited by streaks of either kind and I think the press does too. There should be a happy medium."
"I'd rather win two or three, lose one, win two or three more. I'm a great believer in things evening out. If you win a whole bunch in a row, somewhere along the line you're going to lose some too."
"I'm happy for him (Gil Hodges). That is, if you think becoming a big league manager is a good thing to have happen to you."
"Individual grievances and pet peeves have got to go by the wayside. Generally, you don't have to worry about the guys who are playing every day, it's the guys who are sitting on the bench that are the ones that get needles in their pants."
"It's not the winter that bothers me - it's the summers."
"Look at misfortune the same way you look at success - Don't Panic! Do you best and forget the consequences."
"More than anyone else, he's (Hank Aaron) made me wish I wasn't a manager."
"Perhaps the truest axiom in baseball is that the toughest thing to do is repeat."
"A baseball manager is a necessary evil."
"Babe Ruth is dead and buried in Baltimore but the game is bigger and better than ever."
"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."
"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."
"He (Pete Rose) is Cincinnati. He's the Reds."
"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."
"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."
"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?"
"I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench."
"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."
"If I hear Bowie Kuhn say just once more he's doing something for the betterment of baseball, I'm going to throw-up."
"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."
"I only had a high school education and believe me, I had to cheat to get that."
"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."
"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."
"I've changed my mind about it (DH) - instead of being bad, it stinks."
"Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings."
"My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work."
"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."
"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."
"Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut."
"The day I got a hit off (Sandy) Koufax was when he knew it was all over."
"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."
"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."
"The only reason I'm coming out here tomorrow is the schedule says I have to."
"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."
"The players make the manager, it's never the other way."
"They're loyal Royal all the way. But, they're not tough fans, a player does not have to worry about being insulted there."
"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."
"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."
"We're the best team in baseball, but not by much."
"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."
"A fellow has to have faith in God above and Rollie Fingers in the bullpen."
"A manager doesn't hear the cheers."
"Any pitcher who throws at a batter and deliberately tries to hit him is a communist."
"A trade tells you exactly which side of the hill you're on. The terms, the numbers, are like billboards. You don't have to guess."
"Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That's baseball as it should be played - in God's own sunshine. And that's really living."
"Friendships are forgotten when the game begins."
"He is the only man (Sal Maglie) I've ever seen pitch a shutout on a day when he had absolutely nothing."
"In this game of baseball, you live by the sword and die by it. You hit and get hit. Remember that."
"My impression of him (Denny McLain) is that he pitches as well as he has to. He doesn't worry about his ERA. He pitches to win. He's business like and he reacts to the score so he doesn't mind giving up a run or two. When it's close, he's tougher."
"Slow thinkers are part of the game too. Some of these slow thinkers can hit a ball a long way."
"The Giants were supposed to have a new motto, 'Shut up and deal.'"
"The Lord taught me to love everybody, but the last ones I learned to love were the sportswriters."
"There are surprisingly few real students of the game in baseball; partly because everybody, my eighty-three year old grandmother included, thinks they learned all there was to know about it at puberty. Baseball is very beguiling that way."
"There'll be a man on the moon before he (Gaylord Perry) hits a home run."
"The writers want to know were you made your mistake, no how well your curve is breaking
"We play today. We win today. Dassit."
"As long as I've got a chance to beat you I'm going to take it."
"Buy a steak for a player on another club after the game, but don't even speak to him on the field. Get out there and beat them to death."
"Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you."
"God watches over drunks and third baseman."
"How you play the game is for college ball. When you're playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters."
"I come to win."
"I don't care if the guy (Jackie Robinson) is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a $&^%!*@ zebra. I'm the manager of this team and I say he plays."
"If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, "Sorry, Mom," but nobody beats me."
"If you don't win, you're going to be fired. If you do win, you've only put off the day you're going to be fired."
"I made a game effort to argue but two things were against me: the umpires and the rules."
"I'm wearing the same socks, shirt and underwear, too!" - on a winning streak
"I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes."
"In order to become a big-league manager you have to be in the right place at the right time. That's rule number one."
"In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you."
"It was Brooklyn against the world. They were not only complete fanatics, but they knew baseball like the fans of no other city. It was exciting to play there. It was a treat. I walked into that crummy, flyblown park as Brooklyn manager for nine years, and every time I entered, my pulse quickened and my spirits soared."
"Luck? If the roof fell in and Diz (Dean) was sitting in the middle of the room, everybody else would be buried and a gumdrop would fall in his mouth."
"Nice guys finish last."
"Nobody ever won a pennant without a star shortstop."
"Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I'll show you an idiot."
"Some guys are admired for coming to play, as the saying goes. I prefer those who come to kill."
"That (Joe) Medwick never lost a debate in his life, mostly because he didn't bother. He was a one man rampage."
"There are only five things you can do in baseball - run, throw, catch, hit, and hit with power."
"There is a thin line between genius and insanity, and in Larry's (MacPhail) case it was sometimes so thin you could see him drifting back and forth."
"What are we out at the park for, except to win?"
"Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it."
"You argue with the umpire because there is nothing else you can do about it."
"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain."
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