Quotes About Baseball

I've been engulfed in sports since I was a 2-year-old; I picked up any kind of ball - a basketball, baseball, football - I just loved to play something. I loved the energy of being in arenas and watching the game on TV.

The money that these baseball players are getting, I'm like, 'Man I picked the wrong sport.' But I'm having a great career. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Football was really my least favorite sport and the last sport that I ended up picking up as a kid. My dad started me off with baseball, which most kids did at that time. I really enjoyed basketball. That was my favorite sport.

There are more second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and so on in the big leagues than first-round picks.

The most validating thing was when my picture was on my first bubble gum card. That was in '68 for me. I was finally on the Topps card.

He really loved baseball and loved being on the field. But Mantle was lonely in a lot of ways. He had many great friends, and by all accounts was a good, generous and loyal friend. But there were a lot of people who wanted only a piece of him.

There's not a pill or an injection that's going to give me, going to give any player the hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball.

If newspapers were a baseball team, they would be the Mets - without the hope for those folks at the very pinnacle of the financial food chain - who average nearly $24 million a year in income - 'next year.'

The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.

Pitch me outside, I will hit .400. Pitch me inside, and you will not find the ball.

Baseball, in my opinion, would be a lot better if you could just make the same salary as everybody else in the world, and you don't deal with any of the other stuff. But that's not how it is. The main thing is I want to pitch against the best players in the world, and you can't do that playing in a pickup baseball league in your town.

I use fast curves, pitched overhand and sidearm, fastballs, high and inside, and an underhand fade away pitch with the hand almost down to the level of the knees.

If there was any magic formula, it was getting to pitch every fourth day.

My only day off is the day I pitch.

I don't really think about the runs too much. I mean, if we get, like, a five-run lead, then I'll start to pitch according to that.

In the glory days of Orioles, when I was a newbie baseball writer for the Post, the roster of talkers was as good as the everyday lineup. Singy - Ken Singleton - Flanny, and Cakes - the underwear spokesman Jim Palmer - were my go-to guys, occupying stalls along one wall of the shabby chic clubhouse.

The black press, some liberal sportswriters, and even a few politicians were banging away at those Jim Crow barriers in baseball. I never expected the walls to come tumbling down in my lifetime.

I always loved the signs on the outfield walls, and I'll never forget the one in Philadelphia. It said, 'The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap,' and underneath was scrawled, 'And they still stink.'

One of the walls of my bedroom was a collage of about 15 years of baseball photos. I would cut out the baseball pictures from every issue and I had this huge montage of thousands of pictures.

Hey, it's been a great ride for me, a great life. Everything I have I owe to baseball. Baseball owes me nothin'. Ain't nobody has to give me nothin'. I would be embarrassed if I had a day somewhere. I don't want no day. I want friends, to live my life the way I wanna live it.

Maybe in another life, I wanna be Aaron Judge.

We were driving by the local athletic association in Orange Park, Florida, and there was this sign for T-ball signups. I was maybe 6 or 7, and my dad looked at me and said, 'Hey, do you wanna give this a try?'

If people don't want to come to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?

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.