"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"
About this Quote
The intent is partly performance. Hornsby, a famously intense hitter in an era when baseball was closer to a traveling religion than a content stream, is selling the purity of devotion. It flatters fans, too: if he can’t live without baseball, then their obsession isn’t frivolous; it’s shared, almost noble. But the line’s power comes from its bleakness. “Stare out the window” is what you do when you’re grounded, retired, or grieving. By borrowing that language, Hornsby gives baseball the emotional stakes of a lost love, then lands the punch with “wait for spring,” a seasonal reset that reads like salvation.
Context matters: early-to-mid 20th-century baseball asked players to be mythic laborers, not lifestyle brands. Hornsby’s winter isn’t curated. It’s empty. That starkness is exactly why the quote endures: it captures the addictive rhythm of sports fandom and athletic life, the way meaning can become calendar-bound, and how hope can be reduced to one simple promise: the season will come back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hornsby, Rogers. (2026, January 15). 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. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-ask-me-what-i-do-in-winter-when-theres-no-128977/
Chicago Style
Hornsby, Rogers. "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." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-ask-me-what-i-do-in-winter-when-theres-no-128977/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"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." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-ask-me-what-i-do-in-winter-when-theres-no-128977/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.






