Quotes About Baseball

He's not anybody's clone. He's Ken Griffey, Jr. As long as he continues to remind himself of that, he's going to be a very good player.

When I step onto the mound for the first time in a game, I remove my cap and look under the brim to read a message I write to myself with a Sharpie each season. It's a private reminder to stop and reflect on how lucky I am to play professional baseball.

I've won plenty of games by knowing when to take out my pitcher; whom to replace him with; or how to place my infield or outfield to defend properly against the opposing hitter.

I don't want to be Babe Ruth. He was a great ballplayer. I'm not trying to replace him. The record is there and damn right I want to break it, but that isn't replacing Babe Ruth.

There's always, I guess, a philosophy that if you come in, you want to change all the parts, you want to change everything over. I've always tried to preach that consistency and continuity are very, very important. So if I know the baseball people, and I know they're competent and could do the job, I don't see any reason to replace them.

The reason we had an all-black outfield in '51 is Don Mueller got hurt, so Hank Thompson was a legitimate replacement. So what? People talk about, 'You're the first to do this. You're the first to do that.' Don't dwell on race all the time.

I remember when replay first came to TV. I can't remember who it was now, but a manager came out to beef about a call, and I ran him. He said he was going back into the clubhouse and watch replay. I told him, 'Go ahead. I am the replay.'

Baseball, of course, has long been played under the burden of metaphor. More so than basketball or football, it is supposed to represent something larger than itself.

I want to play in the WBC. That was one of my goals to represent my country.

Just about every Latin American country has sent players to the big leagues, from the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica.

Sammy Sosa grew up without a father in the back of a converted public hospital in San Pedro de Macoris, a dusty seaside town in the Dominican Republic. His father, Juan Montero, died when Sosa was 5.

It's baseball. You don't think a general manager can manage? Like it's impossible? The game is too complex? I've never bought into that, 'Baseball's just too complex.' Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic.

I grew up a big baseball fan. I thought I knew a lot about the game, but I didn't realise that all these American Major League Baseball teams have their own private academies in the Dominican Republic to find good players and bring them over to make money for their teams.

Baseball is my first love, and it's what I know, and it's what I'll do until I can't do it anymore, and I'm still hungry to do that.

I hustle, I run down the line, I do whatever I can to win ball games. Those are the only things we can control as baseball players.

Baseball has been very good to me, but baseball has evolved into a hybrid of work and passion.

I played baseball in college but I didn't identify with the jocks, I was in my own little world .

I don't think people realize how much I love basketball. A lot of people think because of this idiotic comment I made that I love baseball and don't like basketball. Baseball came first because if you grew up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, that was the No. 1 thing. But if you have more than one kid, you love them both.

I was a baseball player. I played in high school and a little bit in college. I was a catcher. I don't know if I could have played any other position. As a catcher, you're always on the ball.

If I could go the ballpark and play the game for three hours and then go home? It would be awesome. But that's not the case.

Home-plate collisions are something you cannot ignore.

Being elected to the Hall of Fame is about your career pretty much and your impact on the game.

I care about runs scored and RBIs. Those are the most important things for me.

You just make the right baseball decision. You don't necessarily worry about somebody's feelings or anything like that. You make the right baseball decision for the team first and then for the player's development as importantly.