Skip to main content

Motivation Quote by Jim Frey

"George Brett could get good wood on an aspirin"

About this Quote

It lands like a locker-room haiku: crude, vivid, and immediately legible to anyone who’s ever watched a hitter square up a pitch. “Good wood” is baseball’s old euphemism for pure contact, and the aspirin is the perfect prop - tiny, mundane, practically un-hittable. Jim Frey isn’t just praising George Brett’s bat speed; he’s mythmaking in the most coachly way possible, turning a skill into an impossible stunt. The exaggeration isn’t a flaw, it’s the point: hyperbole is how sports cultures translate technique into legend.

The intent is motivational and classificatory. Coaches traffic in quick metaphors that sort athletes into categories - guys who “have it” and guys who don’t. By choosing an aspirin instead of, say, a golf ball, Frey raises the bar to the absurd, implying Brett’s coordination borders on supernatural. It’s a compliment that doubles as intimidation: pitchers, you’re not dealing with a normal hitter.

The subtext is also about control. Great hitters aren’t merely strong; they can direct force precisely, meeting the ball on the barrel, again and again, under pressure. Frey’s line compresses that whole truth into one image you can’t unsee.

Contextually, it fits an era when baseball talk prized folk poetry over biomechanics. Before launch-angle discourse and bat-tracking data, reputations were carried by sayings like this - scouting reports as one-liners, masculinity and awe wrapped into a joke you repeat because it feels true.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Frey, Jim. (2026, January 16). George Brett could get good wood on an aspirin. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/george-brett-could-get-good-wood-on-an-aspirin-118978/

Chicago Style
Frey, Jim. "George Brett could get good wood on an aspirin." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/george-brett-could-get-good-wood-on-an-aspirin-118978/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"George Brett could get good wood on an aspirin." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/george-brett-could-get-good-wood-on-an-aspirin-118978/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Jim Add to List
Jim Frey on George Brett and the aspirin line
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Jim Frey (born May 26, 1931) is a Coach from USA.

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Persis Khambatta, Actress
Persis Khambatta