As quote in "Quote... : Father knows best; Soviet hindsight; Life in the NBA: Koufax strategy," The Christian Science Monitor (June 24, 1976), p. 11
“Pitchers—real pitchers— know that their job isn't so much to keep opposing batsmen from hitting as it is to make them hit it at someone. The trouble with most kid pitchers is that they forget there are eight other men on the team to help them. They just blunder ahead, putting everything they have on every pitch and trying to carry the weight of the whole game on their shoulders. The result is that they tire out and go bad along in the middle of the game, and then the wise old heads have to hurry out and rescue them. I've seen a lot of young fellows come up, and they all had the same trouble. Take Lefty Grove over at Philadelphia, for instance. There isn't a pitcher in the league who has more speed or stuff than Lefty. He can do things with a baseball that make you dizzy. But when he first came into the league he seemed to think that he had to strike out every batter as he came up. The result was he'd go along great for five or six innings, and them blow. And he's just now learning to conserve his strength. In other words, he's learning that a little exercise of the noodle will save a lot of wear and tear on his arm.”
"Chapter III," Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball (1928), pp. 32-33; reprinted as "Babe Ruth's Own Story — Chapter III: Pitching the Keynote of Defense; The Pitcher's Job; Why Young Hurlers Fail," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r0sbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6011%2C3899916 in The Pittsburgh Press (December 23, 1928), p. 52
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Babe Ruth 70
American baseball player 1895–1948Related quotes
As quoted by Les Biederman—who, not coincidentally, notes both Clemente's successful suppression of "the home run urge" and his ability to "hit for distance with the best" (the former earning the "unqualified praise of George Sisler")—in The Sporting News (June 1, 1960), p. 7
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1960</big>
From I Had a Hammer (1990) by Aaron, with Lonnie Wheeler; as reproduced in Hank Aaron https://books.google.com/books?id=tcPC-qgM8McC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=%22Guessing+what+the+pitcher+is+going+to+throw+is+80+percent+of+being+a+successful+hitter.+The+other+20+percent+is+just+execution.%22&source=bl&ots=QZ81enT7WV&sig=NL9G0fGgcTJGfc6oVOYvuzBV2sI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQu9DFxcjVAhUEwYMKHdamDmsQ6AEIOzAE#v=onepage&q=%22Guessing%20what%20the%20pitcher%20is%20going%20to%20throw%20is%2080%20percent%20of%20being%20a%20successful%20hitter.%20The%20other%2020%20percent%20is%20just%20execution.%22&f=false (2007) by Jamie Poolos, p. 48
When asked about the importance of preparation. http://sports.ign.com/articles/709/709384p1.html
As quoted in "Ruth Has One Great Fear: May Drive Ball Back At Pitcher Some Day and Injure Him," in The Lousiville Courier-Journal (July 18, 1920), p. C3
As quoted in "Ruth Has One Great Fear: May Drive Ball Back At Pitcher Some Day and Injure Him"
As quoted in "Babe Ruth, Idle First time In 23 Years, Blames His Legs"
“There wasn't any pitcher I felt I couldn't get a hit off.”
As quoted in The Greatest Team of All Time: As Selected by Baseball's Immortals, from Ty Cobb to Willie Mays (1994), compiled by Nicholas Acoccella and Donald Dewey, p. 3
As paraphrased and quoted in "The Scoreboard: Clemente's Only Regret? One Pennant" by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Sunday, March 31, 1968), Sec. 4, Pg. 3
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1968</big>
Context: The best advice and most help he ever received came from Buster Clarkson, an American player, when he was in Puerto Rico."I played for his team and I was just a kid," Clemente recalled. "He insisted the other players allow me to take batting practice and he helped me. He put a bat behind my foot and made sure I didn't drag my foot. Willie Mays also helped me. He told me not to allow the pitchers to show me up. He suggested I get mean and if the pitchers knocked me down, get up and hit the ball. Show them."