gov135

"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

"Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young."
Roger Angell

"You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen."
Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day

"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 [Baldham Boars]

"After the Series, the league above the major leagues will draft Orel Hersheiser as number one."
Mike Marshall, after Hersheiser shut Oakland out on three hits and got himself three hits in Game 2 of the 1988 World Series [Baldham Boars]

"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."
Ralph Houk

"Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster."
Joe Adcock

"Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity of a Supreme Court judge, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha."
Time Magazine, 8/25/61

"When you go through a game, make it every pitch like it was the last pitch that you’ll ever call - you’ll have a good game !"
Edwin D. Merrill, American League Umpire

"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes they look too far... They don't have to look any farther than their home because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes."
Bobby Bonilla

"Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports."
Gen. Omar Bradley

"They can hollar at the uniform all they want, but when they hollar at the man wearing the uniform, they're in trouble."
Umpire Joe Brinkman

"Pro-rated at 500 at-bats per year, my 1,081 strike-outs would mean that for 2 years out of the 14 I played, I never touched the ball."
Norm Cash

"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.

"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) [Baldham Boars]

"I think a baseball field must be the most beatiful thing in the world. It's so honest and precise. And we play on it. Every star gets humbled. Every mediocre player has a great moment."
Lowell Cohn in "The Temple of Baseball" (1981) [Baldham Boars]

"When we played softball, I'd steal 2nd base, feel guilty and go back."
Woody Allen

"I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player."
John Kruk

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to safe the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base."

"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. [Freising Grizzlies]

"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 [Freising Grizzlies]

"Errors are part of my image. One night in Pittsburgh, thirty thousand fans gave me a standing ovation when I caught a hot dog wrapper on the fly."
Dick "Stonefingers" Stuart, First Baseman for the Phillies, Pirates, Mets, Dodgers, Angels and Red Sox in the sixties, on himself [Baldham Boars]

"I owe my success to expansion pitching, a short right field fence, and my hollow bats."
Norm Cash, First Baseman for the White Sox and Tigers 1958-74 [Baldham Boars]

"Nobody's gone after Reds with this much vigor since Joe McCarthy."
Jeff Blair of the Montreal Gazette, on the Expos' Shane Andrews, who hit .471 (16-for-34) with six homers and 21 RBI against Cincinnati in August 1996 [Baldham Boars]

"It was as though I had my own tool bench out there with me."
Yankee Pitcher Whitey Ford on himself cheating [Baldham Boars]

"This is a tough park for a hitter when the air conditioning is blowing in."
Bob Boone on the Astrodome in Houston [Baldham Boars]

"I am the most loyal player money can buy."
Don Sutton, Pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics and California Angels [Baldham Boars]

"Last year [1986], in 415 at bats, he had 27 homers and 80 steals. That's 40 home runs and 120 steals for a full year. [...] This year [1987], in 93 at bats, he's hitting .409 with those 12 homers, 27 RBI, 28 runs and 13 steals. For a full year, that projects to ... well, it doesn't project to anything. It's nonsense. More than 70 home runs, 170 RBI, 180 runs, 80 steals. Wayne Gretzky stats for baseball."
Thomas Boswell on Eric Davis [Baldham Boars]

"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 [Baldham Boars]

"There have been only two geniuses in the world: Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare."
Tallulah Bankhead, Actress (1903-1968) [Baldham Boars]

"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.'"
Yankee Coach Mickey Vernon, 1985 [Baldham Boars]

"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. [Baldham Boars]

"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.

"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.

"Expansion's coming up (in 1998), pitching is thin and I'm left-handed."
Former pitcher Tom Browning, who is eyeing a comeback after retiring last spring when he was unable to make the Royals' pitching staff.

"There don't seem to be any quote-unquote pitcher's ballparks in the American League. At least in the National League you can catch a break in St. Louis, Houston, Montreal. In the AL, it's like every park is Coors Field."
Braves left-hander Tom Glavine, on why he thinks there are more home runs hit in the American League.

"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.

"We set the table, but no one ate."
Rangers manager Johnny Oates said Thursday after his team left 14 runners on base in an 8-3 loss to Oakland.

"The last thing you want to do is go down in the history of All-Star game competition as the only injury sustained during the team picture."
Cal Ripken, whose nose was broken by Chicago White Sox reliever Roberto Hernandez, who momentarily lost his balance stepping down off a riser after the AL team picture was taken.

"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 [Baldham Boars]

"Umpire's Heaven is a place where he works third base every game. Home is where the heartache is."
Ron Luciano [Baldham Boars]

"I was hoping we'd be opening at Joe Robbie Stadium against Elmer Milktoast and the Gigiville nine. But unfortunately, it's Bobby Cox and the world champion Atlanta Braves in Atlanta."
New Florida Marlins manager John Boles on his managerial debut.

"You can play for the three-run homer there a lot. Like every inning."
Former Rockies and current Yankees catcher Joe Girardi, on playing at Coors Field.

"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

"There were only two Bash Brothers (Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco), and one's in Boston now. Maybe I can be a Bash Stepchild."
Oakland's Scott Brosius, who has 10 homers, after suggestions he's ready to become a Bash Brother.

"[Before that,] I couldn't drive home Miss Daisy."
Boston outfielder Lee Tinsley, who had his first three RBI of the season Friday against Detroit.

"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 Thursday against California. Seven different players homered, tying a big league record.

"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.

"He's hitting .450. Of course, everybody is hitting .450."
Braves center fielder Marquis Grissom on his son D'Monte, who is playing T-ball at the age of 4.

"The music sounds better, the wine tastes sweeter and the girls look better when we win."
Mark Grace, after the Chicago Cubs ended a six-game losing streak.

"I wasn't scared. I just told them to give me all that hockey equipment."
Roger Clemens who wore Mo Vaughn's forearm pad and Kevin Mitchell's shinguard to get his first major-league hit, after a series of shifts put the DH in left field, forcing the Boston pitcher to bat.

"I was a nervous wreck out there. Swear to God. I felt like I was in the presence of the president."
Mariners reserve catcher John Marzano, after hitting a double and winding up standing next to Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr.

"The ball is smaller, the planets are in line, the hole in the ozone layer is bigger, and so is Juan Gonzalez."
Terry Mulholland, on why more home runs are being hit these days

"The two most important things in life are good friends and a b bullpen."
Bob Lemon

"I was never nervous when I had the ball, but when I let go I was scared to death."
Lefty Gomez

"There were times last year when people looked at the scoreboard and thought my batting average was the temperature."
Buck Martinez

"The only people I ever felt intimidated by in my whole life were Bob Gibson and my Daddy."
Dusty Baker

"I knew it would ruin my arm, but one year of 25-7 is worth five of 15-15."
Steve Stone

"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.

"The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air."
Al Rosen

"I don't get upset over things I can't control, because if I can't control them there's no use getting upset. And I don't get upset over the things I can control, because if I can control them there's no use in getting upset."
Mickey Rivers

"They should move first base back one step to eliminate all those close plays."
John Lowenstein

"Baseball is a lot like life. The line drives are caught, the squibbers go for base hits. It's an unfair game."
Ron Kanehl [Baldham Boars]

"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

"The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play."
Reggie Jackson

"Not true at all. Vaseline is manufactured right here in the United States."
Don Sutton, about the rumors that he uses a foreign substance on the ball

"If I had my career to play over, one thing I'd do differently is swing more. Those 1,200 walks I got.....nobody remembers them."
Pee Wee Reese

"Fans don't boo nobodies."
Reggie Jackson

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?"
Jim Bouton

"I thought I had it. I was twisting around like this. It grazed my glove, hit me on the head, and bounced over. I'll be on ESPN for about a month."
Jose Canseco

"I'm tired of it. I don't want to hear about it anymore."
Bill Buckner

"Looking at the ball going over the fence isn't going to help."
Hank Aaron

"The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back."
Steve Garvey

"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 the time."
Jim Bouton

"Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things."
Manager Danny Murtaugh

"October doesn't care what your name is."
Mike Lupica

"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

"I'm not out here to win a beauty contest."
Kirk Gibson

"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

"When I get the record, all it will make me is the player with the most hits. I'm also the player with the most at bats and the most outs. I never said I was a greater player than Cobb."
Pete Rose

"How come we drive on parkways and park on driveways ?"
Larry Anderson

"That's why I don't talk. Because I talk too much."
Joquin Andujar

"Raise the urinals."
Darrel Chaney on how management could keep the Braves on their toes

"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 covered the Yankees in the '60s, they had players like Horace Clarke, Ross Moschitto, Jake Gibbs and Dooley Womack. It was like the first-team missed the bus."
Broadcaster Joe Garagiola

"The only way I'm going to get a Gold Glove is with a can of spray paint."
Reggie Jackson

"All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill."
Babe Ruth

"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

"I've had so many x-rays that my pitches might take on a subtle glow. It will be tough to pick up my ball. It will look like an opaque-type fog."
Joe Magrane

"Just because I'm left-handed and quotable doesn't mean I'm from another solar system."
Joe Magrane

"The majority of American males put themselves to sleep by striking out the batting order of the New York Yankees."
James Thurber [Baldham Boars]

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf."
Tug McGraw, asked whether he preferred grass or Astroturf

"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

"He's so ugly. When you walked by him, your pants wrinkle. He made fly balls curve foul."
Mickey Rivers, on teammate Danny Napeleon's looks

"I played third base like Brooks ... Mel Brooks."
Andy Van Slyke

"Who cares how long they are as long as they're over the fence."
Robin Ventura on a tape-measure homer

"I'm never satisfied. I can't stand satisifaction. To me, greatness comes from that quest for perfection."
Mike Schmidt

"Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move."
Satchel Paige

"I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it."
Rogers Hornsby

"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

"Always root for the winner. That way you won't be disappointed."
Tug McGraw

"I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball."
Pete Rose

___________________________________________________

I love this stuff. I believe funny, poignant, or otherwise telling quotes help enhance the game.
Any favorites? Any more to add?

For the record, my favorite - "Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things."
Manager Danny Murtaugh

Tex

I think this one signifies how all of us baseball lovers feel. There is nothing in the world that compares to baseball.

djtestudo

You left out the best one ever...

"Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curveball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a Constitutional ammendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents on Christmas morning rather than on Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three nights."
--Crash Davis in Bull Durham

Actually, I dunno if that truly counts...

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

Blu2e354

Those are good

grayman

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gov135
[B]"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes they look too far... They don't have to look any farther than their home because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes."
Bobby Bonilla

What a dramatically level-headed and reasonable thing for a professional athlete in this day and age to say. I wonder who wrote it for him?

__________________
That's right - I'm a guy in a suit eating a Blizzard. F U.

MikeyChalupa

[QUOTE]Originally posted by grayman
[B]A very true quote. But Bobby Bo said that because he doesn't want to HAVE to be a good example for young kids. In other words, he can now go be a complete jerk, (play cards in the dugout during a game, threaten reporters and teammates) and when confronted with why he acts like a punk, just say, "Hey... I never said I was SUPPOSED to be a good example." Charles Barkley often says the same thing, that it isn't his responsibility to provide a role model for your kids.

The fact is that as long as celebrities accept the fame, fortune and exposure that comes with their careers, accept endorsement deals and appear on TV or movies, they will continue to be looked up at by kids. It can't be avoided. Few truly provide that great example. Most conduct themselves at least in a neutral way, and then there are those that if they weren't atheletes or movie stars, you wouldn't even want your kids to know about.

-Mikey

MikeyChalupa

Oh yeah. Here are my favorites:

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base."

--Dave Barry

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many players on the field?"

--Jim Bouton

"Any baseball is beautiful. No other small package comes as close to the ideal in design and utility. It is a perfect object for a man's hand. Pick it up and it instantly suggests its purpose: it is meant to be thrown a considerable distance-thrown hard and with precision. Its feel and heft are the beginning of the sport's critical dimensions; if it were a fraction of an inch larger or smaller, a few centigrams heavier or lighter, the game of baseball would be utterly different.

Hold a baseball in your hand ... Feel the ball, turn it over in your hand; hold it across the seam or the other way, with the seam just to the side of your middle finger. Speculation stirs. You want to get outdoors and throw this spare and sensual object to somebody or, at the very least, watch somebody else throw it. The game has begun."

--Roger Angell in Five Seasons

-Mikey