20th-century Baseball Player Quotes

Jackie Robinson

Babe Ruth

Joe DiMaggio

Omar Bradley

Ichiro Suzuki

Mickey Mantle

Yogi Berra

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years, and I have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

When you're a winner you're always happy, but if you're happy as a loser you'll always be a loser.

I have no trouble with the twelve inches between my elbow and my palm. It's the seven inches between my ears that's bent.

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.

The only way to prove that you're a good sport is to lose.

I'm not buddy-buddy with the players. If they need a buddy, let them buy a dog.

I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too.

The ones who want to achieve and win championships motivate themselves.

Your body is just like a bar of soap. It gradually wears down from repeated use.

I wasn't quite sure how a player got to the big leagues. As far as I knew, he was just there one day.

I remember quotes in the paper, 'Here comes the man that New York loves to hate.' Man? None of you have probably ever eaten steak with me or rice and beans with me to understand what the man is about. You might say the player, the competitor, but the man? You guys have abused my name. You guys have said so many things, have written so many things.

Pedro Martínez

Your bat is your life. It's your weapon. You don't want to go into battle with anything that feels less than perfect.

If you get fooled by a pitch with less than two strikes, take it.

Nothing makes a pitcher feel more secure than the sight of his teammates circling the bases during a ball game.

As long as media is mass - when the consumer had no choice, when it was networks - you could fuck the consumer all day long with ring around the collar, because she had to get up and turn off the set to avoid it. With cable and interactive sets, with that remote control, you can't do that. It's got to be the polite invitation, instead of the harangue.

I can't speak for any fifteen million people any more than any other person can, but I know that I've got too much invested for my wife and child and myself in the future of this country, and I and other Americans of many races and faiths have too much invested in our country's welfare for any of us to throw it away because of a siren song sung in bass.

Jackie Robinson

I had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company who paid me a lot of money never to be seen using their stuff.

I don't know why people like the home run so much. A home run is over as soon as it starts... wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

George Foster (baseball)

I knew how far a little boy or girl could run with 50 words of reassurance.

Some kids dream of joining the circus, others of becoming a major league baseball player. I have been doubly blessed. As a member of the New York Yankees, I have gotten to do both.

People only rooted for the underdog in movies, not in middle school.

It's a weird scene. You win a few baseball games and all of a sudden you're surrounded by reporters and TV men with cameras asking you about Vietnam and race relations.

I found it hugely insulting that people believed I'd go so far out of my way - living with Playmates, vacationing with actresses, showing up at nightclubs - to act out a lifestyle that would amount to a charade. If I was gay, I'd be gay all the way.