Quotes About Baseball

I would love to say that I have an eighth-inning guy, a seventh-inning guy, a left-handed guy, a long guy.

Wonderboy flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere where it was biggest. A noise like a twenty-one gun salute cracked the sky. There was a straining, ripping sound and a few drops of rain spattered to the ground. The ball screamed toward the pitcher and seemed suddenly to dive down at his feet. He grabbed it to throw to first and realized to his horror that he held only the cover. The rest of it, unraveling cotton thread as it rode, was headed into the outfield.

Wonderboy flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere it was biggest. A noise like a twenty-one gun salute cracked the sky. There was a straining, ripping sound and a few drops of rain spattered to the ground somebody then shouted it was raining cats and dogs. By the time of Roy got in from second he was wading in water ankle deep.

The great thing about baseball is the causality is easy to determine and it always falls on the shoulders of one person. So there is absolute responsibility. That's why baseball is psychologically the cruelest sport and why it really requires psychological resources to play baseball - because you have to learn to live with failure.

The Dodgers told me a big bonus was no good, and they said other players would resent it. Better for me to take a small amount of money and work my way.

I've never been a guy that's consistently hit home runs. It's always seemed to come, like, three or four in a week or two, and then I'll shut it down for a couple of weeks.

To my sick little pal. I will try to knock you another homer, maybe two today.

I used to be a pretty good hit-and-run man when I played in the minors. I handled the bat well and could hit the ball to the right side of the infield. Nevertheless, I know that you often give the opposition an out on the hit-and-run play.

Any ballplayer that don't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist.

In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.

As a kid, I wore the same Oakland A's hat for like six or seven years. It was faded white and green. It was because I loved Barry Zito and he had signed that hat.

I hadn't focused on mechanics since I signed professionally.

When I signed a contract, I was here to play 162 games.

Sammy Sosa? Everybody knew who Sammy was, paid attention to Sammy. I had already signed in pro ball when he had the great homer year with Mark McGwire in '98. But I followed it, and I was proud of him because he was my countryman. There are a lot of great ballplayers from the Dominican, and he's one of the best.

The only reason baseball's numerical touchstones have any significance is that most players - even the game's greats - peter out just barely before they reach them.

You can't say it's good when guys out there are signing minor league deals and they would be big league players on 80 percent of the teams, but why would a team sign a player when you can pay dirt, and they're not going to win anyway?

I've actually enjoyed pitching on the road in the postseason. You go out there, and you're getting booed, and it's fun to try to silence the crowd.

I've been able to do some great things. I've gone to All-Star Games, I've won Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers - I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, really - and I've been fortunate financially.

I think that baseball is still the most entertaining game because it's the simplest to watch.

This game, it seems when you play it the best, is when you're not really thinking a lot and just reacting and keeping it at its simplest point - just see it and hit it.

Baseball is so hard as it is. For me, if you simplify it, it takes a little bit of the weight off, rather than trying to figure out all these other things. It's just peace of mind.

Damn straight I'm lucky, I thought. I'm a Red Sox fan.

It's as if the Sox have walked through the Stadium driving stakes through every single ghost's, vampire's and Yankee fan's rotten, cobwebby heart.

Sometimes, in a tight game with runners on, digging in at short, ready to break with the ball, a peace I'd never felt before would paralyze the diamond. For a moment of eternal stillness I felt as if I were cocked at the very heart of the Midwest.