American Baseball Player Quotes

Jackie Robinson

Babe Ruth

Joe DiMaggio

Omar Bradley

Mickey Mantle

Ty Cobb

Lou Gehrig

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?

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

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.

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

Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.

Christy Mathewson

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

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

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

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 never found a place where I wanted to live more than Alvin (Texas).

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

Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game.

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.

Once the record was mine, I had to use it like a Louisville Slugger. I believed, and still do, that there was a reason why I was chosen to break the record. I feel it's my task to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off, and I only know of one way to go about it. It's the only way I've ever had of dealing with things like fastballs and bigotry -- keep swinging at them.

To get a better piece of chicken, you'd have to be a rooster.

If you ask what's been my secret of success, most might say it's my God-given athletic ability to throw a football. While talent is important, it's not necessarily the most important thing. Thousands of talented people fail every day. My strength has been my will to win-that competitive fire inside.

Whatever I contributed to the unique morale of the Cardinals was part of this growth, and so, of course, was my decision to have it out in public with the owners of organized baseball.

It's done a lot of players a lot of good. And obviously, this drug is a drug where it's dose-related. Anything in overdose will destroy your liver. I mean, look at cigarettes and look at liquor. Cigarettes says on the packet, this will kill you; it will cause cancer; and you're still smoking it.

Churches don't need new members half so much as they need the old bunch made over.

I no longer worry about being a brilliant conversationalist. I simply try to be a good listener. I notice that people who do that are usually welcome wherever they go

I think the key to that particular play was the throw. I knew I had the ball all the time. In my mind, because I was so cocky at that particular time when I was young, whatever went in the air I felt that I could catch. That's how sure I would be about myself. When the ball went up I had no idea that I wasn't going to catch the ball. As I'm running — I'm running backwards and I'm saying to myself, "How am I going to get this ball back into the infield?"

A goal is created three times. First as a mental picture. Second, when written down to add clarity and dimension. And third, when you take action towards its achievement.

Do you think it's easy to just walk up to Joe DiMaggio and start up a
conversation? I've been around him at old-timers' games, and believe me, he's
someone special. It's not easy to walk over and say, 'How ya doin', Joe, whaddya
say?' You really feel as though this is the one old-timer you have to call
Mister.

I was always matching wits with authority. Pondering over my past and present hassles, I began to wonder why my life had taken the direction it had. What cosmic forces had led me to this precise moment that saw me, once again, dancing on the rim of the volcano? The answers started to come to me as my life flashed before my eyes. I think it all started when I was arrested as a pyromaniac.

Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher)