Quotes
Here are a bunch of great qoutes. There aren't a lot of them, and they're mostly taken out of
The Best of Baseball, by Paul Adomites
. Others I've just heard, or I've gotten from other people. Anyway, here they are:
"He says hello on opening day and goodbye on closing day, and in between he hits .350" -Mickey Cochrane
"I know, but I had a better year than Hoover," -Babe Ruth upon being informed that his salary demand was $5,000 higher than president at the time H. Hoover
"I don't care if half the league strikes. This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another" -Commisioner Ford Frick to Cardinals players planning to strike when Jackie Robinson and St. Louis came to town
"Show me a good loser and I'll show you an idiot" -Leo Durocher
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all this time." -Jim Bouton
"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain." -Leo Durocher
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." -Yogi Berra
"There's never been anybody like this kid we got from Joplin. He has more speed than any slugger and more slug than speedster-and nobody has ever had more of both of them together." -Bob Deindorfer on Mickey Mantle
"Washington-first in war, first in peace, last in the American League." -Charles Dryden on Washington Senators.
"There's always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time. I owe him my best." -Joe DiMaggio
"Sixty. Count 'em, Sixty. Let's see some other SOB match that!" -Babe Ruth after his 60th
"It ain't over 'till it's over." -Yogi Berra
"The fans want home runs. I've assembled a pitching staff to please the fans." -Casey Stengel on the New York Mets
"I don't know alot about politics, but I know alot about baseball." -Richard Nixon, 1981
"When I got to the mound, catcher Johnny Oates reminded me the lower mask was his and the upper one was the umpire's." -Relief Pitcher Doyle Alexander
"People say baseball players should go out and have fun. No way. To me, baseball is pressure. I always feel it. This is work. The fun is afterwards, when you shake hands." -Dennis Eckersly.
"The old fan used to yell, 'Kill the Umpire!'. The new fan tries to do it." -Psychiatrist Arnold Beissner
"At my age, I'm glad to be named the greatest living anything."--Joe DiMaggio upon hearing himself called the greatest living ballplayer at 66
"There are three types of players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens." -Tom Lasorda
"See the ball, hit the ball, run like hell." -Tony Gwynn on how he hits
"Lots of people look up to Billy Martin. That's because he knocked 'em down." -Jim Bouton
"There are two theories to hitting a knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither one works." -Charley Lau
Ty Cobb on being told he would only hit .300 against modern pitchers: "You've got to remember, I'm 73 years old now."
"There are only two places in this league: first place and no place." -Tom Seaver
"During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ball player will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years in the majors without ever hitting the ball." -Mickey Mantle
"The secret of managing a ball club is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the five who are undecided." -Casey Stengel
Mickey Mantle on teammates Whitey Ford and Billy Martin: "If I hadn't met those two guys at the start of my career I would have lasted another five years."
"I have only one superstition, and that's to touch all the bases when I hit a home run." -Babe Ruth
"We have pitchers from all over. Rivera's from Panama, Hernandez is from Cuba, Irabu's from Japan...and Boomer Wells is from Mars." -Joe Girardi
"Young man, when you throw a strike, Mr. Hornsby will let you know." -Bill Klem, umpire to a protesting Rookie pitcher
Wee Willie Keeler: "Keep your eye on the ball and hit 'em where they aint."
"You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat." -Christy Mathewson
"It would have been a hell of a lot more fun if I had never hit those 61 home runs. All it ever brought me was headaches." -Roger Maris
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." -Satchel Paige
"Some ball yard." -Babe Ruth after seeing Yankee stadium for the first time
"All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street people will say, 'there goes the greatest hitter that ever lived'." -Ted Williams
"Don't quit until every base is uphill." -Babe Ruth
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." -Lou Gehrig