Baseball Quotes

"Baseball was socially relevant, and so was my rebellion against it"

"And I'd be lying if I told you that as a black man in baseball I hadn't gone through worse times than my teammates"

"No matter what I talk about, I always get back to baseball"

"One of the first lessons he or she learns is that in baseball anything, absolutely anything, can happen. Just two days ago as I write this, something happened that had never happened in baseball before"

John Thorn, Historian

"For many in baseball September is a month of stark contrast with April, when everyone had dared to hope. If baseball is a lot like life, as pundits declare, it is because life is more about losing than winning"

John Thorn, Historian

"Baseball presents a living heritage, a game poised between the powerful undertow of seasons past and the hope of next day, next week, next year"

John Thorn, Historian

"There are several insights at the heart of the A's system that I think are wonderful for baseball. One, that it's a team game. That no one player is going to make that much of a difference to your team, so for god's sake don't go blow a quarter of your budget on one guy"

Michael Lewis

"I played baseball, and that's pretty much it. Basketball came late, this was, basketball was the sport that I tried to master, I kind of mastered baseball, so basketball was one of those things where I wanted to master this game, so that's why I probably play it the way I do"

Eric Williams, Historian

"The sentimentality of baseball is very deeply rooted in the American baseball fan. It is the one sport that is transmitted from fathers to sons"

Michael Lewis

"Baseball is this intense subculture that actually doesn't speak very much for the larger culture"

Michael Lewis

"I'm human and I've played my butt off for ten years. I'm not a loafer, I'm not a jerk, I'm a baseball player"

Reggie Jackson, Athlete

"A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument. It is repetition, and more repetition, then a little more after that"

Reggie Jackson, Athlete

"Looking back on those days and little leaguer, the Hall of Fame is not even a blinking star, but through baseball travels and moving up the ladder, that star begins to flicker"

Wade Boggs, Athlete

"In life, so many things are taken for granted, but one thing I can honestly say is that I took every day, enjoyed the game of putting on that uniform and playing the great game of baseball"

Wade Boggs, Athlete

"Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it"

Al Lopez, Coach

"After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that"

Reggie Jackson, Athlete

"I started skating and I kind of liked it because I could run circles around the guys that wouldn't pick me to play baseball"

Scott Hamilton, Athlete

"If you rush in and out of the clubhouse, you rush in and out of baseball"

Pee Wee Reese, Athlete

"The Oakland clubhouse is a wonderful place. A lot of these guys feel like rejects. They were rejects and they feel - they can tell you how baseball screwed up"

Michael Lewis

"I have observed that baseball is not unlike a war, and when you come right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery"

Ty Cobb, Athlete

"It was a terrible day for baseball, it was a worse day for Congress"

Fay Vincent, Lawyer

"Anything that harms the integrity of the game is terrible. We always thought we were immune to drugs in baseball, but we know that's not true anymore"

Harmon Killebrew, Athlete

"The Red Sox are the local scapegoats. It's hard enough to play baseball without being the local scapegoat too"

Michael Lewis

"I was lucky enough to have the talent to play baseball. That's how I treated my career. I didn't think I was anybody special, anybody different"

Carl Yastrzemski, Athlete

"And when I retired, trust me, not only did Nolan Ryan, but the entire Ryan family had withdrawals from baseball. And it was tough"

Nolan Ryan, Athlete

"A cloud hangs over baseball. It's a cloud called drugs and it's permeated our game"

Peter Ueberroth, Businessman

"I wasn't really serious about acting - I was serious about baseball"

Kurt Russell, Actor

"People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball"

Sandy Koufax, Athlete

"I always thought that there was going to be life after baseball, and so I designed that in my life I would have other interests after baseball that I would be able to step into. And I didn't realize the grip that baseball had on me and on my family"

Nolan Ryan, Athlete

"Baseball and malaria keep coming back"

Gene Mauch, Athlete

"We're just being ourselves and having fun playing baseball. The biggest thing is when people look at our team, they can see that we're having a lot of fun"

Johnny Damon, Athlete

"The real beauty of it - key to my life was playing key chords on a banjo. For somebody else it may be a golf club that mom and dad put in their hands or a baseball or ballet lessons. Real gift to give to me and put it in writing"

Vince Gill, Musician

"Words can be like baseball bats when used maliciously"

Sydney Madwed, Businessman

"It's tempting, because as one senator said to me, 'We know if we invite baseball down, we'll draw a crowd'"

Fay Vincent, Lawyer

"And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled"

Parminder Nagra, Actress

"I'll play out the string and leave baseball without a tear. A man can't play games his whole life"

Brooks Robinson, Athlete

"I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day and I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it"

Carl Yastrzemski, Athlete

"If you put a baseball and other toys in front of a baby, he'll pick up a baseball in preference to the others"

Tris Speaker, Athlete

"Whether you want to or not, you do serve as a role model. People will always put more faith in baseball players than anyone else"

Brooks Robinson, Athlete

"If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes"

Mickey Spillane, Author

Page 8 of 9