“Last year when I hurt my shoulder, I couldn't hit high pitches, but they kept throwing me low and away, and I could hit that pitch without much pain. "Look, he gets three hits, but he says he's in pain," they say, but they don't know that I can't go for the high pitch, and I'm not about to tell them!”

— Roberto Clemente

Speaking with the San Juan Star in September 1970, as quoted in Clemente! (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 178
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1970</big>

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Roberto Clemente 170

Puerto Rican baseball player 1934–1972

Related quotes

“I hear people say I swing at bad pitches. What is a bad pitch? If I can hit it, it's not a bad pitch.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "SPORTS BEAT: Bucco Ship Needs Clemente's Big Bat" by Wendell Smith in The New Pittsburgh Courier (April 10, 1965), p. 15
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1965</big>

“I was looking for an inside pitch. I don't know whether it was a fastball or not, but it came in a little inside and I was ready for it. I know it went out of here fast. Last year I hit one harder to the left field bleachers. That was a high fly ball. But this was a line drive. And I liked this hit better because it won the game.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Discussing his game-winning 7/14/61 grand slam, and contrasting it with a prodigious shot hit on 5/6/60 http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Roberto_Clemente%27s_%27Toolbox%27:_The_Club#Clemente.27s_majestic_May_6.2C_1960_blast_into_the_teeth_of_Candlestick.27s_crosswind.2C_described_by_Arnold_Hano, also at Candlestick Park; as quoted in "The Big Grand Slam: Clemente Was All Set" by Phil Berman, in The San Francisco Chronicle (Saturday, July 15, 1961), p. 26
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1961</big>

“Blass, if you pitch me inside, I will hit forty-three home runs a year, thirty-seven of them off you!”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Circa 1970, '71 or '72, responding to the novel approach facetiously suggested by teammate Steve Blass, were he ever to be traded from the Pirates; as quoted in "A Teammate Remembers Roberto Clemente” by Steve Blass, as told to Phil Musick, in Sport (April 1973); reproduced in Clemente! https://books.google.com/books?id=n-4qAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT60 (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 158
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>

“I trained with the lad last season at Southampton for two or three weeks. In all the years I played there was never anything I saw on a training pitch that took my breath away, but he was doing things on the pitch that made me stand up and say 'Wow'. He could go on and make a better player than Wayne Rooney.”

Theo Walcott (1989) English association football player

Matt Le Tissier, former England footballer, 2006 ( Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=400107&in_page_id=1779)
About

“Blass, I 'm going to tell you this. You pitch me inside; I will hit the freaking ball to Harrisburg.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Circa 1970, '71 or '72; as quoted by Blass in A Pirate for Life https://books.google.com/books?id=NfLFdUrYpH8C&pg=PT146&dq=%22I+will+hit+the+freaking+ball+to+Harrisburg%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC8tLNxIrVAhVGWz4KHY_XBWUQ6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20will%20hit%20the%20freaking%20ball%20to%20Harrisburg%22&f=false (2012) by Blass and Erik Sherman
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>
Variant: Blass, I'm going to tell you something: You pitch me inside, I hit the ball to Harrisburg.

“Mays always told me how hard it was to get a hit off me and every time I looked up, he was on second base. Yet, even with Mays, I had an idea what to do. When I pitched to Clemente and Aaron, I had no idea. They seemed to hit everything.”

Sandy Koufax (1935) American baseball player

As quoted in "Koufax Still a Champion" by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (May 8, 1967)

“Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80 percent of being a successful hitter. The other 20 percent is just execution. The mental aspects of hitting were especially important to me. I was strictly a guess hitter, which meant I had to have a thorough knowledge of every pitcher I came up against and develop a strategy for hitting him. My method was to identify the pitches a certain pitcher had and eliminate all but one or two and then wait for them. One advantage I had was quick wrists. Another advantage—and one that all good hitters have—was my eyesight. Sometimes I could read the pitcher's grip on the ball before he ever released it and be able to tell what pitch he was throwing. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.”

Hank Aaron (1934) Retired American baseball player

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

“So we went to see Babe Ruth pitch the last game of the 1933 season. The Senators had already clinched the pennant, the Giants had clinched in the other league, so this was just a nothing game. I thought maybe he’d make an appearance, pitch an inning or two or three – he pitched a complete game. He hadn’t pitched a complete game since 1930, and then he pitched a complete game. And before that he had pitched two four-inning stints for the Yankees, so he pitched four times. So he pitched a complete game, he gave up twelve hits, it was not a great pitching performance, but the Yankees won, 7-5. He didn’t strike out a soul. Years later I saw him on Broadway. I went up to him and said, “Hi, Babe.” He said, “Hi, kid.” That’s the way he treated everybody. I said, “You know, I saw you pitch your last game at the Stadium.” This was maybe eight years later or so. I said, “How come you didn’t strike out anybody?” And he said, “I wanted those other eight guys to earn their money!””

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

And that was Ruth.
As quoted in "Bronx Banter Interview: Arnold Hano, Part I" http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2009/09/25/bronx-banter-interview-arnold-hano/
Sports-related

“My sophomore year, we were in Tallahassee and I ran a reverse very early in the game, and I remember being nailed by Jack Youngblood. I remember watching the ball being pitched to me and thinking, when the ball was about halfway, that it was kind of race to see whether he was going to get to the ball first or me. He was foaming at the mouth. I still have nightmares from the hit he gave me.”

Jack Youngblood (1950) American football player, defensive end, Pro Football Hall of Fame, College Football Hall of Fame

Florida State WR Barry Smith, The Tampa Tribune 2007-11-24

“I hit many what you call the "bad bol" pitches, and get good wood. The bol' travel like bullet. That remind me, I hit 565 foote hum-rum in Chicaga last year; the bol' disappear from centerfield, and Raj Hornsby tell me it longest drive he ever saw hit out of Wrigley Field. The bol' feel good on the bat but I feel bad at heart, when no writer with our team play up the big drive. I feel effort not appreciated.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted by Bill Nunn, Jr. in The New Pittsburgh Courier (June 25, 1960); reproduced in Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero https://books.google.com/books?id=jIhcvFs-k1cC&pg=PA98 (2006) by David Maraniss, p. 98
Comment: Clemente is not entirely correct. At least nationally (via TSN's weekly Pirates report), one veteran Pirates beat writer did do his part to publicize the blast. See Les Biederman (5/27/59 and 6/6/66) in Media, as well as Ernie Banks in Opponents.
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1960</big>

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Roberto Clemente 170

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