Baseball Quotes: Wisdom and Wit from the World of Baseball (Page 2)

"I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw"

"Defense to me is the key to playing baseball"

"The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have"

Willie Mays, Athlete

"I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did"

Willie Mays, Athlete

"Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps"

Willie Mays, Athlete

"And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5' 11". So I just picked baseball"

Willie Mays, Athlete

"For the parents of a Little Leaguer, a baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown into innings"

Earl Wilson, Athlete

"Never bet on baseball"

Pete Rose, Athlete

"Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you've got both, you can play baseball"

Pete Rose, Athlete

"Baseball gets better for whatever reason"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion"

Ernie Harwell, Celebrity

"Also I'm a part of the people that I've worked with in baseball that have been so great to me, Mr. Earl Mann of Atlanta, who gave me my first baseball broadcasting job"

Ernie Harwell, Celebrity

"I love baseball, and the door remains open"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"I don't know anything about baseball"

Sean Connery, Actor

"I wish that they had the freedoms like the Japanese and the Koreans and the Mexicans and everybody else that has that freedom to come over here and play the game, because I know Cuba has a very strong baseball history"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"If I walked back into the booth in the year 2025, I don't think it would have changed much. I think baseball would be played and managed pretty much the same as it is today. It's a great survivor"

Ernie Harwell, Celebrity

"A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball"

Ernie Harwell, Celebrity

"Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life"

Ernie Harwell, Celebrity

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead"

Jackie Robinson, Athlete

"What I miss when I'm away is the pride in baseball. Especially the pride of being on a team that wins"

Billy Martin, Athlete

"Kids don't learn the fundamentals of baseball at the games anymore"

Bill Lee, Athlete

"I really love the togetherness in baseball. That's a real true love"

Billy Martin, Athlete

"I always get very calm with baseball"

Paul Simon, Musician

"Baseball people, and that includes myself, are slow to change and accept new ideas. I remember that it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms"

Branch Rickey, Athlete

"That was real baseball. We weren't playing for money. They gave us Mickey Mouse watches that ran backwards"

Bill Lee, Athlete

"Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game"

Branch Rickey, Athlete

"Baseball is a game of inches"

Branch Rickey, Athlete

"Now that women are jockeys, baseball umpires, atomic scientists, and business executives, maybe someday they can master parallel parking"

Bill Vaughan, Journalist

"I would change policy, bring back natural grass and nickel beer. Baseball is the belly-button of our society. Straighten out baseball, and you straighten out the rest of the world"

Bill Lee, Athlete

"The only change is that baseball has turned Paige from a second class citizen to a second class immortal"

Satchel Paige, Athlete

"I ain't ever had a job, I just always played baseball"

Satchel Paige, Athlete

"Right now I like baseball, hockey and tennis players. And horseback riders"

Martina Hingis, Athlete

"The vast majority of people who watch baseball can properly call 95% of all plays that happen on the field. My job is to teach you how to call the other 5%"

Jim Evans, Athlete

"To the people out there, baseball is a simple sport. But it is complex. It is never easy"

Dave Winfield, Athlete

"Baseball is more than a game to me, it's a religion"

Bill Klem, Athlete

"I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing"

Muddy Waters, Musician

"Anyone interested in becoming a professional umpire and becoming eligible to work in the minor leagues must attend one of the two umpire schools sanctioned by Major League Baseball"

Jim Evans, Athlete

"As a youngster, I played in Little League, Pony League, and all sorts of amateur baseball programs growing up"

Jim Evans, Athlete

"You have to go understand that life and baseball is littered with all kinds of obstacles and problems along the way. You have to learn how to overcome them to be successful in life"

Dave Winfield, Athlete

"There are a lot of people who influenced me, nurtured me, helped me along the way. But I can just recall looking back, the first time I got my baseball glove. Put it on the wrong hand, all those kind of things"

Dave Winfield, Athlete

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