Baseball players sometimes say things that are as timeless as the national pastime itself. In this post, I’d like to share 25 of BBRT’s favorite baseball quotes (and a few bonus quotes). Some are profound, some are funny, some provide food for thought – but they all strike a chord with me.
- “There is always some kid (in stands) who might be seeing me for the first or last time. I owe him my best.”
Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio … a touch of class from a classy ballplayer and individual.
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- “I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to pay baseball.”
All-time hits leader Pete Rose … unbridled passion for the game.
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- “I have discovered in twenty years of moving around a ball park, that the knowledge of the game is usually in inverse proportion to the price of the seats. “
Owner/Executive Bill Veeck … real fans are found in the cheap seats, with scorecards in their laps.
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- “The best thing about baseball is you can do something about yesterday tomorrow.”
17-season MLB infielder Manny Trillo … the blessing sof the everyday grind of a “long season.”
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- “You spend your whole life gripping a baseball and, in the end, it turns out it was the other way around all the time.”
Pitcher/Author Jim Bouton … a look into his passion for our pastime.
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- Why do people sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” when they are already there?
17-season MLB reliever Larry Anderson …plenty of time for deep thoughts in the bullpen.
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BONUS QUOTE
“Chicks Dig the Long Ball” … Tom Glavine to Greg Maddux, 1999 Nike Commercial
- “If I had to hit all those singles like Pete (Rose), I’d wear a dress.”
Mickey Mantle, about Pete Rose … Mantle also preferred the long ball.
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- “Cadillacs are down at the end of the bat.”
` Hall of Famer and seven-time NL home run champion Ralph Kiner. (Kiner led the NL in HR in his first seven seasons — and was also credited with noting that “Singles hitters drive Fords, home run hitters drive Cadillacs.)
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- “I don’t want to throw him (Jimmie Foxx) nothin’. Maybe he’ll get tired of waiting and leave.”
Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez telling HOF catcher bill Dickey how he’d like to pitch to HOF slugger Jimmie Foxx.
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- “Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak sunrise past a rooster.”
Attributed in various places to Aaron teammate first baseman Joe Adcock and/or opposing pitcher Curt Simmons … being Milwaukee-born Aaron was one of my childhood heroes.
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- “When I hit the ball especially hard, I could smell the leather start to burn as it struck the wooden bat.”
Hall Famer Ted Williams … Wow! This one kind of blows me away. Apparently his nose was as good as his eyes.
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- You always get a special kick on opening Day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio … how we all feel.
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- Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand.
Hall of Famer Leo Durocher … he understood.
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- I’ve known three or four perfect swings in my time and this lad (Eddie Mathews) has one of them.
Hall of Famer Ty Cobb commenting on Eddie Mathews, early in Mathews’ Hall of Fame Career. (Mathews is my all-time favorite player, so I had to include a Mathews-related quote.)
BONUS QUOTES – RIP HALL OF FAMERS TOM SEAVER AND LOU BROCK
“The good players feel the kind of love for the game that they did when they were Little Leaguers.”
Tom Seaver
“Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.”
Lou Brock
- I could never play in New York. The first time I came into a game there, I got in the bullpen car and they told me to lock the doors.
Orioles’ pitcher Mike Flanagan … one tough town.
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- “Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitch I ever saw. He always pitched when the other team didn’t score any runs.”
Catcher Tim McCarver … he should know.
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BONUS QUOTE
“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there is a man on base.”
Dave Barry, comedian/author
- “There isn’t enough mustard in the world to cover Reggie Jackson.”
16-season MLB pitcher Darold Knowles … a Reggie teammate in the early ’70’s.
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- “It helps if the hitter thinks you’re a little crazy. “
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan … the MLB strikeout king’s outlook on intimidation.
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- “I’m throwing as hard as I ever did, but the ball is just not getting there as fast.”
Lefty Gomez … AARPsters (like me) should relate this one.
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- “Baseball players are smarter than football players. How many times to you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?”
Jim Bouton … thanks, Jim, for putting my football-loving friends in their place.
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- “It actually giggles at you as it goes by.”
19-season MLB outfielder Rick Monday, on Phil Niekro’s knuckleball … great description of the futility of facing a “floater.”
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22. “People ask me what I do when there is no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby …. don’t we all?
BONUS QUOTE
“Baseball fans love numbers. They like to swirl them around in their mouths like Bordeaux wine.”
Author Pat Conroy
- “It’s so crowded nobody goes there anymore.”
Hall of Famer Yogi Berra on Toots Shor’s popular restaurant … Casey Stengel would get it.
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- “He (Sparky Lyle) went from Cy Young to sayonara in a year.”
Yankee Craig Nettles on Hall of Famer Sparky Lyle, who won the Cy Young Award as a Yankee in 1977, was replaced as closer by Goose Gossage in 1978 and was traded to the Rangers before the 1979 season … nice word play.
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25. “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”
Six-season MLB catcher (and later a broadcaster, actor and humorist) Bob Uecker … you could fill a book with his self-deprecating remarks.
BONUS QUOTES
About My Favorite Player of All Time – Eddie Mathews … known for more than one kind of slugging.
“If you ever wanted to pitch inside, you didn’t have to worry about (the batter) making it the mound with Eddie at third.”
Teammate Tony Cloninger
“I didn’t mind starting fight. Mathews was always there to finish them for me.”
Teammate Johnny Logan
“Eddie was a tough competitor and a touch guy. He didn’t back down from anybody.”
Teammate Warren Spahn
Then there is my favorite baseball quote of all … “Pitchers and catchers report.”
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Member: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR); The Baseball Reliquary; The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
