Quote Archive
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[Yogi Berra][Rocky Bridges][Harry Caray][Jerry Coleman][Lefty Gomez][Bill Lee][Nolan Ryan][Casey Stengel][Bob Uecker]
Quotes from Hank Aaron, Gene Autry, Sparky Anderson, and more!
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Other quotes from Modecai Brown, Don Baylor, Rocky Bridges, Bobby Bonilla, Bill Buckner, and more!
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Quotes from Norm Cash, Roger Clemens, Ty Cobb, Jose Canseco, Roberto Clemente, and more!
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Quotes from Leo Durocher, Dizzy Dean, Rich Donnelly, Don Drysdale, Joe DiMaggio, and more!
"I told [GM] Roland Hemond to go out and get me a big name pitcher. He said, 'Dave Wehrmeister's got 11 letters. Is that a big enough name for you ?'" - Eddie Eichorn, White Sox owner
"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing. I told him I wanted to be a real Major League baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the USA
"Not only will I be changing diapers at home, now I will be changing them in the clubhouse." - Jim Eisenreich, 38 year old Marlins outfielder and father of three children 6 and younger, on the youthful look of Florida's roster
"I've had a pretty good success facing Stan (Musial) by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third base." - Carl Erskine
"My favorite umpire is a dead one." - John Joseph "Johnny" Evers
"He fakes a bluff." - Ron Fairly, announcer
"Last night, I neglected to mention something that bears repeating." - Ron Fairly, announcer
"Let no one accuse baseball of not being tough on drugs. During his baseball career, Steve Howe was given 7 lifetime suspensions." - Bill Ferraro, baseball fan
"‘Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.’ Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: ‘He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.’
‘Fixed the World’s Series?’ I repeated.
The idea staggered me. I remembered of course that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919 but if I had thought of it all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people – with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby
"I could never play in New York. The first time I came into a game there, I got into the bullpen car and they told me to lock the doors." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles
"I'm superstitious. Every night after I got a hit I ate Tex-Mex food and drank tequila. I had to stop hitting or die." - Tim Flannery, SD Padres, on the end of his hitting streak
"If you do this, you will be suspended from the league. You will be outcasts. I don't care if half the league strikes. Those who do it will encounter quick retribution. All will be suspended and I don't care if it wrecks the National League for five years. This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another. The National League will go down the line with Robinson, no matter the consequences. You will find if you go through with your intentions that you will have been guilty of complete madness." - NL President Ford Frick, on the threatened boycott by the St Louis Cardinals, 1947
"Nellie was the toughest out for me. In twelve years I struck him out once, and I think the umpire blew the call." - Whitey Ford, New York Yankees pitcher, on Nellie Fox
"He is the greatest player I ever played with and one of my best friends. Mickey and I had a lot of fun." - Whitey Ford, Hall of Fame pitcher on Mickey Mantle
"It was as though I had my own tool bench out there with me." - Whitey Ford, Yankee pitcher, on himself cheating
"That just shows you how this league has gone to hell." - Left-hander Chuck Finley, on his selection as American League player of the week
"He makes too many senseless errors. He has this little gong that goes off, saying, 'Hey, this time I'll do something different.' That's when I swallow my tobacco." - San Francisco Giants manager Charlie Fox, on Tito Fuentes, his second baseman, 1973
"I'm supposed to be writing a book, and I can hardly read." - Mark "The Bird" Fidrych
"Everyobody thinks of baseball as a sacred cow. When you have the verve to challenge it, people look down thier noses at you. There are a lot of things wrong with a lot of industries...baseball is one of them." - Curt Flood (Cardinals OF)
Quotes from Lefty Gomez, Joe Garagiola, A. Bartlett Giamatti, Lou Gehrig and many others!
"It is the sport that a foreigner is least likely to take to. You have to grow up playing it, you have to accept the lore of the bubble gum card, and believe that if the answer to the Mays-Mantle-Snider question is found, then the universe will be a simpler and more ordered place." - David Halberstam
"He [Lew Burdette] would make coffee nervous." - Fred Haney
"I have a good feeling about this club. But that could be gas." - Mike Hargrove (Cleveland Indians manager), upon the Indians advancing to the 1998 ALCS.
"Sparky is the only guy I know who's written more books than he has read." - Ernie Harwell (broadcaster), on Sparky Anderson's autobiography "They Call Me Sparky".
"You know Earl. He's not happy unless he's not happy." - Elrod Hendricks, Baltimore Orioles catcher, on Earl Weaver and his complaining to umpires
"Catching a flyball is a pleasure, but knowing what to do with it after you catch it is a business." - Tommy Henrich
"We're ballplayers. We fail most of the time." - Dave Henderson
"Sometimes the hitter get a hit, sometimes I strike them out, but in niether case does anyone die." - Orlando 'El Duque' Hernandez (NY Yankees pitcher)
"A slick way to outfigure a person is to get him figuring you figure he's figuring you're figuring he'll figure you aren't really figuring what you want him to figure you figure." - Whitey Herzog, St. Louis Cardinals manager
"With those who don't give a damn about baseball, I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them." - Art Hill, "I Don't Care if I Never Come Back"
"I'd rather him pitch a crucial game for me drunk, then anyone I've ever known sober. He was that good." - Rogers Hornsby (Cardinals 2B, Manager), on Grover Cleveland Alexander
"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
"I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it." - Rogers Hornsby
"I'll tell you, I don't know what we ate during the off day, but we better eat more of it." - A's manager Art Howe, after Oakland hit a club record eight homers against California. Seven different players homered, tying a big league record.
"I slipped and the ball got away from me with nothing on it. Maybe it is lucky it hit Lou, instead of going over the plate." - Carl Hubbell (NY Giants pitcher), on Lou Gehrig in the World Series
"The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time." - Catfish Hunter, pitcher
"No baseball fan has to explain his mania to any other baseball fan. They are a fraternity. It is less easy, often it is hopeless, to try to explain it to anyone else. You grow technical, and you do not make sense. You grow sentimental, and you are deemed soft in the head. How, the benighted outsider ask you with no little condescension, can you grow sentimental about a cold-blooded professional sport?" - John K. Hutchens
"It was his solemn duty to catch a ball that wasn't in the stands." - Monte Irvin (Newark Eagles OF, May 6, 1981), on Willie Mays
"Baseball has done more to move America in the right direction than all of the professional patriots with all their cheap words." - Monte Irvin, OF for Newark Eagles
"I didn't come to New York to be a star. I brought my own star with me." - Reggie Jackson
"Ryan is the only guy who puts fear in me. Not because he can get you out but because he can kill you." - Reggie Jackson (Oakland A's OF), on Nolan Ryan
"Ryan's the only guy to put fear in me. You just hoped to mix in a walk so you could have a good night and go 0-for-3." - Reggie Jackson, on Nolan Ryan
"The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play." - Reggie Jackson
"Fans don't boo nobodies." - Reggie Jackson
"The only way I'm going to get a Gold Glove is with a can of spray paint." - Reggie Jackson
"The guy's ridiculous. No one hits home runs like that. I'm telling you, man, it's ridiculous." - Derek Jeter (New York Yankees, SS), on Yankee rookie left fielder Shane Spencer, who in his first 67 regular season at bats hit 10 dingers (three grand slams) and two homers in his first postseason series.
"When they operated, I told them to put in a Koufax fastball. They did - but it was Mrs. Koufax's." - Tommy John (NY Yankees pitcher), on his arm surgery - now known as the "Tommy John" procedure
"I'm a light eater. When it gets light, I start eating." - Tommy John, NY Yankees pitcher
"Maybe they should see if his body is corked." - Howard 'Hojo' Johnson (NY Mets), on Bo Jackson, from Sports Illustrated, October 19, 1986
"There is a catcher that any big league club would love. His name is Gibson...he can do everything. He hits the ball a mile. And he catchs so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow." - Walter Johnson (Washington Senators pitcher), on Josh Gibson, catcher for the Kansas City Monarchs
"I went through Cleveland once and it was closed." - Jay Johnston (Philadelphia Phillies OF)
"I don't know why ballplayers like to moon. Maybe it's the only way some of them can figure out how to express themselves." - Jay Johnston, on mooning Merv Griffin
"Some guys live for crunch time. I'm one of them." - Chipper Jones, Atlanta third baseman
"They can't get any rougher on us unless they show up with Uzis." - David Justice (Cleveland Indians OF), on the New York fans, before playing Game 6 of the 1998 ALCS.
"When he took BP everybody would kind of stop what they were doing and watch." - Jim Kaat, former pitcher, on Mickey Mantle
"Every ballpark used to be unique. Now, it's like women's breasts - if you've seen one, you've seen 'em both." - Jim Kaat, former pitcher
"Baseball is a lot like life. The line drives are caught, the squibbers go for base hits. It's an unfair game." - Ron Kanehl
"I keep my eyes clear and I hit 'em where they ain't." - Wee Willie Keeler
"I told him I wasn't tired. He told me, 'No, but the outfielders sure are.'" - Texas Rangers pitcher Jim Kern on the manager who removed him from a game, 1979
"I'm working on a new pitch. It's called a strike." - Jim Kern
"[Burleigh Grimes] always looked like a man who was about to commit assault and battery when he threw the ball." - John Kieran
The best umpired game is the game in which the fans cannot recall the umpires who worked it. If they don't recognize you, you can enjoy your dinner knowing you did a perfect job. - William J Klem, umpire.
"Baseball is more than a game to me, it's a religion."- William J Klem (umpire), seen on Klem's Hall of Fame plaque
"Son, when you pitch a strike Mr. Hornsby will let you know." - William J Klem (umpire), to a rookie pitcher who complained that the pitches Rogers Hornsby didn't swing were called balls.
"The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for reviews." - Sandy Koufax
"I played with him for nine years and marveled at how hard he hit and how fast he ran. How can anyone ever forget the catch he made on Gil Hodges' line drive to save Don Larsen's perfect game?" - Tony Kubek, former shortstop, on Mickey Mantle
"We're 24 morons and a Mormon." - John Kruk (Philadelphia Phillies 1B), describing the Phillies when Dale Murphy joined the team.
"It's amazing that fans want to see me play. It's kind of scary. I guess that's what is wrong with our society." - John Kruk (Philadelphia Phillies 1B), on being chosen an All-Star starter in 1993
"I'd rather have my leg cut-off than do that all day. You just hope it hits your bat in a good spot." - John Kruk (Philadelphia Phillies 1B), on hitting a knuckleball.
"I try to dumb down out there. They tell you to stay within yourself, so that's what I do. Mentally, I'm not gonna out-think myself to often." - John Kruk (Philadelphia Phillies 1B), on hitting.
"I would think I drive most hitting coaches crazy. During one single at-bat I used six different stances on six pitches. Oh yeah, I also struck out. So what do I know?" - John Kruk (Philadelphia Phillies 1B)
"I wanted to kill Mitch. But they told me I couldn't, it was illegal." - John Kruk, on Mitch Williams, after the Phillies closer blew a save and the game stretched on for 6 hours
"I'd rather be in a prison cell with Mike Tyson, and let him beat my butt all day long, than go through that again." - John Kruk, Philadelphia Phillies 1B, on the last place '92 season
"I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player." - John Kruk
When told they would be raising the fences the following year, Jerry Koosman asked, "Won't there be a lot of balls rolling under?" - Jerry Koosman
"He had about him a touch of royalty." - Bowie Kuhn (commissioner), on Roberto Clemente
"The door would be opened wide to the buying of success by the more affluent clubs, public suspicion would be aroused, traditional and sound methods of player development and acquisition would be undermined and our efforts to preserve competitive balance would be greatly impaired." - Bowie Kuhn, on voiding the sale of Rudi, Fingers and Blue for $3.5 million by the World Champion Oakland A's, June 1976
"I believe in the Rip Van Winkle Theory: that a man from 1910 must be able to wake up after being asleep for seventy years, walk into a ballpark and understand baseball perfectly." - Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of Baseball (1969-1984)
"When he went up for his last at-bat, I looked up at the scoreboard and saw his stats: 69 home runs, 144 RBIs, and I'm thinking, 'Look at that; that's not a season, that's a career.'" - Tom Lampkin (St. Louis Cardinals catcher), on best friend and teammate Mark McGwire, 1B, after the 1998 season
"Casey Stengel just can't keep from being Casey Stengel." - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner of Baseball, on Stengel's thumbing his nose at Colonel Jacob Ruppert during a World Series game after an inside the park home run by Stengel
"I don't know how anyone can put on a uniform and not care about winning." - Dave LaPoint
"There are only two things that will prevent him from greatness: a knife and a fork." - Frank Lane, on Boog Powell
"I remember he used to get very mad at himself if he failed to hit. I'll never forget how hard he played all the time, especially the catch he made in my perfect game." - Don Larsen, who pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, on Mickey Mantle
"I say this from the bottom of my heart, that if you don't root for the Dodgers, you might not get into Heaven." - Tommy Lasoda
"I'm in a slump. I go to bed and I'm hungry. I sit down at the table and I get romantic." - Tommy Lasoda, LA Dodgers manager
"The only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure." - Tommy Lasoda
"There really is a Big Dodger in the Sky and I think he has come down and taken over Hersheiser's body." - Tommy Lasorda, after Hersheiser's eighth no-run job in ten starts 1988
"I knew June was Pedro [Guerrero]'s favorite month, so I told him that in the U.S., June had sixty days. I'd see him in July and say, 'Well, Pedro, it's June 52 and I see you're still hot.'" - Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda, after Pedro Guerrero hit 15 home runs in June and .460 in July
"Guys ask me, don't I get burned out? How can you get burned out doing something you love? I ask you, have you ever got tired of kissing a pretty girl?" - Tommy Lasorda
"If he raced his pregnant wife he'd finish third." - Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, on catcher Mide Scioscia, 1988
"There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works." - Charlie Lau, Royals' batting coach
"George Brett could roll out of bed Christmas morning and hit a line drive." - Charlie Lau
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards." - Vernon Law, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher
"When you're through learning, you're through." - Vernon Law
"The lefthander's first good look at the leftfield wall, the Green Monster in Fenway, is an automatic reason for massive depression. And that's when it's viewed from the dugout." - Bill 'Spaceman' Lee, Boston Red Sox pitcher
"The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he's going to be. You take a team with twenty-five assholes and I'll show you a pennant. I'll show you the New York Yankees." - Bill "Spaceman" Lee
"We're on a first-number basis with each other. He calls me 3 and I call him 2." - Bill Lee (1977 Red Sox uniform number 37) on Mark "The Bird" Fidrych (number 20 for the Tigers)
"Something was definitely happening to me...my brain would start clicking into another dimension or time warp... it was as if everything was in 3-D, and I could visually grasp all three sides at once. Aside from that, I didn't get much of a buzz." - Bill "Spaceman" Lee on using pot
"Winning is better than the next worse thing." - Bill Lee
"The other day they asked me about mandatory drug testing. I said I believed in drug testing a long time ago. All through the '60s I tested everything." - Bill Lee
"Do they leave it there during the game?" - Bill Lee, on first seeing Fenway's Green Monster
"I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out." - Bill Lee, on how he stayed relaxed in pressure situations
"Our pain isn't as bad as you might think. Dead people don't suffer." - Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee, whose team had blown six games against the Yankees late in the 1978 season
"You have two hemispheres in your brain -- a left and a right side. The left side controls the right side of your body and right controls the left half. It's a fact. Therefore, left-handers are the only people in their right minds." - Bill Lee
"You should enter a ballpark the way you enter a church." - Bill Lee
"The only way to pitch to Tony is throw the ball down the middle and hope he hits it at someone." - Al Leiter (NY Mets pitcher), on Tony Gwynn
"He's a very lucky man. He escapes the dictatorial reign of a ruthless tyrant and ends up working for George Steinbrenner." - David Letterman (talk show host), on Orlando Hernandez
"I heard doctors revived a man who had been dead for 4-1/2 minutes. When they asked him what it was like being dead, he said it was like listening to Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto during a rain delay." - David Letterman
"Police have arrested the man who was pictured throwing snowballs at Giants Stadium. If convicted, he may face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. If it turns out he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, he'll be signed by the Yankees." - David Letterman
"The fattest man in all of professional sports. I mean the guy is a balloon. He must weight 300 pounds. The guys doing the ballgame, not once do they mention that this guys is enormous. They pretend the guy couldn't be in better shape. He's a load. Not once, when they see this mammonth figure, this silo, get up in the bullpen ... I just want them to say, "Terry Forster's warming up. He's a lefthander, an ERA of 3.5. What a fat tub of goo." - David Letterman
"The Cubs are just never quite good enough, and have invested 90 years in the proof....of all the fine examples of consistent imperfection, the Cubs are the poster bunch..." - Bernie Lincicome (Chicago Tribune sports columnist), discussing the Chicago Cubs' 1998 season
"Rome wasn't born in a day." - Johnny Logan, Milwaukee Braves shortstop
"I'll have pie a la mode with ice cream." - Johnny Logan
"I heard his footprints coming down the hall." - Johnny Logan
"I will perish this trophy forever." - Johnny Logan
"I know the name but I can't replace the face." - Johnny Logan
"Best player ever? I'd have to go with the immoral Babe Ruth." - Johnny Logan
After playing an exhibition game in Canada, Logan was surprised to learn that "even the kids speak French."
"I felt fine a week ago, so I was getting pretty anxious. There's only so much rehab you can do, only so much batting practice you can take, and my wife is already pregnant. I needed to get back out there and play again." - Brewers Pat Listach in July, finding his options limited as he waited to come off the DL, where he'd been since June 28
"When you're in a slump, it's almost as if you look out at the field and it's one big glove." - Vance Law
"Throwing people out of a game is like learning to ride a bicycle--once you get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun." - Ron Luciano, umpire
"No one ever grew up intending to be an umpire, except perhaps my friend Bill Haller. His brother Tom wanted to be a catcher, so an affinity for masks must run in that family." - Ron Luciano, umpire
"Umpire's Heaven is a place where he works third base every game. Home is where the heartache is." - Ron Luciano
"I had bad days on the field. But I didn't take them home with me. I left them in a bar along the way home." - Bob Lemon, New York Times, August 15, 1976
"The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen." - Bob Lemon
"They should move first base back one step to eliminate all those close plays." - John Lowenstein
"October doesn't care what your name is." - Mike Lupica
"I knew I was in for a long year when we lined up for the national anthem on opening day and one of my players said, 'Every time I heard that song I have a bad game.'" - Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland, 1986
"The bases were drunk, and I painted the black with my best yakker. But blue squeezed me, and I went full. I came back with my heater, but the stick flares one the other way and chalk flies for two bases. Three earnies! Next thing I know, skipper hooks me and I'm sipping suds with the clubby." - Ed Lynch, Mets' pitcher
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Quotes from Mike Marshall, Mark McGwire, Joe Magrane, Tug McGraw, Billy Martin, and more!
"Y is for Young, the magnificent Cy. People batted against him, but I never knew why." - Ogden Nash
"When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both." - Graig Nettles
"It's a good thing Babe Ruth isn't here. If he was, George Steinbrenner would have him bat seventh and say he's overweight." - Graig Nettles
"We've got a problem here. Luis Tiant wants to use the bathroom and it says no foreign objects in the toilet." - Graig Nettles
"People recognize me wherever I go, where it used to be just New York. I guess people who aren't even baseball fans watch the World Series. I was driving down the freeway in Los Angeles over the winter and a guy pulled up next to me and gave me the finger." - Graig Nettles
"What we need is a second-base coach." - Graig Nettles
"I believe salaries are at their peak, not just in baseball, but all sports. It's quite possible some owners will trade away, or even drop entirely, players who expect $200,000 salaries. There's a superstar born every year... But still there is no way clubs can continue to increase salaries to the level some players are talking about." - Peter O'Malley, 1971.
"He knows what that piece of wood is made for, and it's not to clean off his shoes." - Johnny Oates (Texas manager) on Shane Spencer
"We set the table, but no one ate." - Johnny Oates (Rangers manager), said after his team left 14 runners on base in an 8-3 loss to Oakland
"No one can stop a home run. No one can understand what it really is, unless you have felt it in your own hands and body. As the ball makes its high, long arc beyond the playing field, the diamond and the stands suddenly belong to one man. In that brief, brief time, you are free of all demands and complications." - Sadaharu Oh, Tokyo Giants Outfielder and All-Time Homerun Leader
"When I was in the big leagues, I was a big fundamental guy. I moved runners over. I squeezed them in. I played good defense. I've seen a lot of guys who didn't make the major leagues because they didn't know how to play the fundamentals." - Jose Oquendo, on his managerial debut
"I ain't ever had a job. I just always play baseball." - Satchel Paige (Kansas City Monarchs pitcher)
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?" - Satchel Paige
"Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move." - Satchel Paige
"I wasn't trying to show anybody up. It just takes me a long time to get around the bases. By the time I got to shortstop I was exhausted." - Mark Parent (Phillies catcher), on being accused of running out a home run too slowly.
"Hitters get paid a lot of money to hit. Let's face it, man, sometimes they just do." - Andy Pettitte (NY Yankees pitcher, 8-27-98)
"Don Larsen used to pich so slow it ought to have been equipped with backup lights." - Shirley Povich
"One thing anyone can go through is a slump. Unless you're Greg Maddux, it's going to happen to everybody." - Mike Piazza, Dodgers' catcher
"I have no clue what any of this means. For all I know, we don't even have signs." - Angels reliever Troy Percival, who didn't understand any of third base coach Rick Burleson's signs when asked to go to the plate for his first career at-bat
"I took the two most expensive asprins in history." - Wally Pipp on his decision to sit out a game with a headache which let Lou Gehrig into the lineup
"I don't believe in ice. It's too cold, for one thing." - Paul Quantrill (Toronto Blue Jays pitcher), one of the few pitchers who doesn't ice his arm after each outing.
"The batter still hits a grounder. But in this case the first bounce is 360 feet away." - Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City Royals pitcher), on what happens when his sinker isn't working.
"Natural grass is a wonderful thing for little bugs and sinkerball pitchers." - Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City Royals pitcher)
"It helps to be stupid if you're a relief pitcher. Relievers had to get into a zone of their own. I just hope I'm stupid enough." - Dan Quisenberry, former Royals' reliever
"I've seen the future and it's much like the present, only longer." - Dan Quisenberry
On the best thing about baseball: "There's no homework." - Dan Quisenberry
"Most pitchers fear losing their fastball and, since I don't have one, the only thing I have to fear is fear itself." - Dan Quisenberry
"I became a better pitcher when I found a delivery in my flaw." - Dan Quisenberry
R Quotes from Jackie Robinson, Pete Rose, Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Mickey Rivers, and more!
S
Quotes from Ozzie Smith, Willie Stargell, Don Sutton, George Steinbrenner, and more!
"Maybe they'll trade me for a bag of balls...." - Bob Tewksbury (Twins' pitcher), on being a hot commodity before he went on the disabled list.
"I got a sore throat and a cough just from spending two weeks on the phone talking to those clowns [other general managers]. I think when it comes to trading, the American League is 98 percent air and about two percent balloon." - Syd Thrift, as Yankee general manager, 1989
"[Before that,] I couldn't drive home Miss Daisy." - Boston outfielder Lee Tinsley, on driving in his first three RBIs of the season
"The majority of American males put themselves to sleep by striking out the batting order of the New York Yankees." - James Thurber
"Willie Mays and his glove: where triples go to die." - Dodgers executive Fresco Thompson.
"I bought the Braves for two reasons. To get an autographed baseball without pleading for it and to get good seats." - Ted Turner (Atlanta Braves owner)
"When they smile, blood drips off their teeth." - on agents, Ted Turner, Atlanta Braves owner
"I'm not very smart. I think I can prove that. Who would accept a job with Marge Schott's dog, Ted Turner, and George Steinbrenner as your boss?" - Peter Ueberroth, commissioner
"Good pithing will always beat good hitting and vice versa." - Bob Veal
"I played third base like Brooks ... Mel Brooks." - Andy Van Slyke
"I couldn't have driven Miss Daisy home today." - Andy Van Slyke
On his Earth Day contributions: "I plan to replace all divots in the outfield." - Andy Van Slyke
On the difference between being home or on the road: "On the road when you do downstairs for coffee in your underwear, they throw you out of the kitchen." - Andy Van Slyke
"They had better defense at Pearl Harbor." - Andy Van Slyke
"He (Ozzie Smith) plays like he's on a mini-trampoline or wearing helium kangaroo shorts." - Andy Van Slyke
"The biggest adjustments from the minors was learning to spend $45 in meal money." - Andy Van Slyke
"I have an alka seltzer bat. You know, plop, plop, fizz, fizz. When pithcers see me walk to the plate, they say 'Oh what a relief it is'" - Andy Van Slyke
When asked if he died and could be reincarnated who would he come back as? "My wife. Then I could see how wonderful I am." - Andy Van Slyke
"A rabbit didn't have to think to know what to do to dodge a dog...The same kind of instinct told Babe Ruth what to do and where to be." - Sammy Vick
"That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on the ball." - Bill Veeck, 1976
"I have discovered in 20 years of moving around a ballpark, that the knowledge of the game is usually in inverse proportion to the price of the seats." - Bill Veeck
"We used to go to the racetrack after spring training practice in my day. Four of us would chip in fifty cents each to go to the two-dollar window. Yesterday I asked a player how he did at the track. He said 'my horse won.' I said, 'how much did it pay?' The player said, 'no, coach, I didn't bet on the horse, I own it.'" - Mickey Vernon, Yankee coach, 1985
"Who cares how long they are as long as they're over the fence." - Robin Ventura on a tape-measure homer
"I don't think my insurance company would think that's a good idea." - Boston's Tim Wakefield, who pitched a complete-game six-hitter a day after being involved in a minor car accident, when it was suggested that he copy the pre-game routine before every start
"The shutout doesn't matter. It's the 'W'. You want to have the 'W' instead of the 'L'." - David Wells (NY Yankees' pitcher), following Game 1 of the 1998 ALCS in which Wells had a shutout going into the ninth when he gave up a two-run homer with one out (Yankees beat Indians 7-2).
"It was a real cliff-dweller." - Wes Westrum, on an extra-inning game
"How baseball is like a church -- Many attend but few understand." - Wes Westrum
"In retrospect, you are always looking back." - Jimy Williams (Boston Red Sox manager, 10-1-98)
"Just because I have money, does that make me any different from these guys here?" - Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams, on bartending in his bar and grill in Pennsauken, PA
"I have an idea what to do about the bullpen, napalm." - Stan Williams (Mariners' pitching coach), after his Mariners relief pitchers blew another lead late in the (1998) season
"Think. Don't just swing. Think about the pitcher, what he threw you last time up, his best pitch, who's up next. Think." - Ted Williams (Boston Red Sox OF)
"All I want out of life is when I walk down the street people say 'There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived'." - Ted Williams
"I got a lot of energy ready to be wasted on somebody." - Mookie Wilson
"All good balls to hit are strikes, though not all strikes are good balls to hit." -Dave Winfield
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
"I slept a real sleep last night for the first time in many a night. When I wasn't lying awake thinking and planning and fighting over that furious pennant race, I was dreaming restless dreams about it." - Joe Wood, on the Cleveland Indians 1920 pennant race
"We hit the ball right where they could show off their defensive ability." - Earl Weaver (Baltimore Orioles manager), after the Orioles lost the 1969 World Series to the Mets.
"I'd rather you walk with the bases loaded." - Earl Weaver, replying to a religious member of the Orioles who had said: "Gee, Earl, you got to walk with the Lord."
"Ecomonics played a role in coming back, sure it did. Ralieghs have gone from $6.50 a carton to $9. But they have these coupons on the back. You get all kinds of things with them, blenders, everything. I saved up enough once and got Al Bumbry." - Earl Weaver
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." - Earl Weaver
"My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.'" - Earl Weaver
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." - Earl Weaver
"When you think about it, a home run is a mistake. The idea is to hit the ball hard, on a line, so the defense can't react to it. Hit it high in the air, which is how most home runs are hit, and most of the time it will be caught. It's a mistake." - Matt Williams, Indians third baseman, always a threat to make a mistake
"When my career is over, and I sit down at the gas station or wherever, and people ask me, 'What was one of your biggest moments?' I'll say, 'Facing Nolan Ryan.'" - Glenn Wilson
"What can you say about Mickey after you say he was one of the greatest? He had talent he didn't realize he had. If he had [Joe] DiMaggio's serious bear-down attitude, there's no telling how great he could have been. With his one good leg, he could outrun everyone." - Gene Woodling on former teammate Mickey Mantle
"Anything less would not have been worthy of me. Anything more would not have been possible." - Boston's Carl Yastrzemski
UNKNOWN
"[The 1892 Cleveland Spiders are] highly successful in the manufacture of nothingness, surrounded by an elliptical fence." - Unknown
Rex Barney would have been the greatest pitcher of all time if the strike zone was high and outside." - Unknown
Rex Barney could throw a baseball through a brick wall if he could hit the brick wall. - Unknown
