Quotes about baseball
A collection of quotes on the topic of baseball, game, gaming, play.
Quotes about baseball

“I learned to play (baseball) on the streets in the Dominican Republic when I was 8 yrs old.”
When asked about how he learned to play baseball. http://sports.ign.com/articles/709/709384p1.html

"Antigun Activist David Hogg Attacks Infowars For Gay Frogs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN4pTxI12Hc&feature=youtu.be&t=19m59s, The Alex Jones Show, March 2018.

Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), p. 144.
“Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip”

Source: In response to Jack Nicklaus' query, "What kind of golfer are you?"; as quoted in "Aaron Has Career in Day" by the Associated Press, in The Atlanta Constitution (February 23, 1971)
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Hank Aaron / Quotes
Source: Hidden Talents

“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
Source: Burn for Me
From "Roberto Clemente: Arriba!" in Baseball Stars of 1962 (March 1962), edited by Ray Robinson, p. 115
Sports-related

Responding to NL pitchers' stated intention—as relayed by Rice—to "bear down on" Ruth in 1935; as quoted in "'Never Happier in My Life' Ruth Tells Grantland Rice..."

"No, baby, I'm up now! Ha ha ha!"
A Night at the Met (1986)

In 1954.
Source: http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45283&start=25&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

ESPN, Bradley knows only one way — the hard way, Alan Schwarz, July 10, 2003, 2009-01-04 http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1574709&type=story,
About

As quoted in "Clemente's Smiling All the Way to the Bank" http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/61275081/ by Milton Richman (UPI), in The San Bernardino County Sun (Tuesday, December 6, 1966), p. 27
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1966</big>

1920s, The Democracy of Sports (1924)

As quoted and paraphrased in "Aching Back Puts Clemente On Bench Again" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nUEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BU4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7330%2C2562781 by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Friday, July 26, 1957), p. 20
Baseball-related, <big><big>1950s</big></big>, <big>1957</big>
Context: "I want play but back hurt. If I no can play good, I no help team. So I wait until pain goes away. I no swing bat good, no run good, no catch ball like old times. I try but pain, she too much. Some days, no pain. Other days, pain all time. Some days pain so much I theenk maybe I quit baseball. But I need money so I play baseball." Clemente doesn't even want to think of an operation on his back. He says he had two brothers and a sister who died following surgery and his family opposes operations.
Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 10

"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
“Baseball performance is an outcome of opposing forces.”
Source: Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992), Chapter 6, The Metropoli, p. 142
“One can travel for weeks with baseball men and see no books at all.”
Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 6

Democratic Veteran http://www.usndemvet.com/blog/archives/000592.html, interview with Jo Fish 06/23/03
“It's the wild, wild West of baseball, and it just keeps getting wilder.”
Discussing the business of Cuban baseball defectors, from the Boston Globe article "Hardball" http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2000/writing/all.investigative.third1.html by Steve Fainaru and Shira Springer (28 May 2000)
Source: Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992), Chapter 2, Baseballs Barons, p. 30.

From the Dapper Dan Award acceptance speech given on February 4, 1962, as quoted in "CHANGE OF PACE: Clemente Holds His Own as a Speaker'" by Bill Nunn, Jr., in The New Pittsburgh Courier (February 17, 1962)
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1962</big>

As quoted in "The Great Outdoors: Drafted for $4,000, Clemente Becomes Bucs' Top Bargain; Now That His Back Ailment Is Cured, Outfielder Hopes He'll Hit .300 Again" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xUEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Dk4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7140%2C2566447 by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Thursday, April 10, 1958), p. 28
Baseball-related, <big><big>1950s</big></big>, <big>1958</big>
Discussing amateur baseball in the Dominican Republic, from the PBS documentary Stealing Home http://www.pbs.org/stealinghome/transcript.html (18 June 2001)

"Time for Heroes"(with Carl Barat)
Lyrics and poetry
As quoted in Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention http://non-intervention.com/1689/democrats-scourge-the-south-after-the-battle-flag-it%e2%80%99s-on-to-old-hickory/ (9 July 2015), by M. Scheuer.
2010s

On his program to purchase iBook computers for Maine public schools, as quoted in "Maine Students Hit the iBooks" by Katie Dean in WIRED (9 January 2002)
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/05/21/2010-05-21_nothing_is_out_of_bounds_for_national_tea_party_express_foulmouthed_leader_mark_.html#ixzz0oxS7r1Rj

more applause
Monologue, 6 October, 2008
The Tonight Show

“You just can't predict baseball.”
Pennington, Bill. (October 1, 2011). Voice of Yankees Draws High Ratings and Many Critics. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/sports/baseball/voice-of-yankees-draws-high-ratings-and-several-critics.html The New York Times.

As quoted and paraphrased in "Not to Quit, Clemente Says" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=48ZRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2GsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4385%2C3795732 by the Associated Press, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Friday, July 26, 1957), p. 14
Baseball-related, <big><big>1950s</big></big>, <big>1957</big>
Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 9
On Mel Ott, from "Nice Guy," in Greatest Giants of Them All (1967), p. 232; reprinted in Mel Ott: The Little Giant of Baseball https://books.google.com/books?id=5JlCbMNiWr0C&pg=PA192&dq=%22Arnold+Hano+wrote+feelingly%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAGoVChMI4Yfx7arUxwIViHA-Ch3J4wOi#v=onepage&q=%22Arnold%20Hano%20wrote%20feelingly%22&f=false (1999) by Fred Stein, p. 192
Sports-related
On Cuban baseball defectors, from the PBS documentary Stealing Home http://www.pbs.org/stealinghome/transcript.html (18 June 2001)
Part I, Chapter 5, Mechanistic Modelling, p. 108
The Death of Economics (1994)
Source: Nothing Is Sacred (2002), p. 65

As quoted in "Top Salary Vision of Clemente Dims; Subpar Season Hurts" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3q4nAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Y2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4117,4986463 by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Friday, September 27, 1968), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1968</big>

“It's time for Dodger baseball!”
His iconic https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/448965492045148160 opening quote
Preface to The Updated Edition, p. xiii-xiv
Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992)

As quoted in "Babe Ruth, Idle First time In 23 Years, Blames His Legs"

On Babe Ruth, in Ch. 16 : The Babe and I, p. 222
My Life In Baseball : The True Record (1961)

Responding to Chicago sportscaster Hal Totten in the spring of 1933, as to whether Ruth had actually 'called' his 5th-inning home run in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, as quoted in "Oct. 1, 1932 The Yankees' Babe Ruth Gestures Toward Wrigley Field's Bleachers Then Homers Off The Cubs' Charlie Root, Apparently Calling His Shot In Game 3 Of The World Series" http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-11-01/sports/8703230677_1_babe-ruth-cub-bench-world-series-history/3 by Jerome Holtzman, in The Chicago Tribune (1987)

[Dell, Floyd, Feminism for Men, The Masses, New York, 1914]
From his Foreword https://books.google.com/books?id=jF7v30gqs_0C&pg=PA8&dq=%22Nor+was+my+attendance%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAGoVChMIr7rJg_3UxwIVRDc-Ch0APQ6M#v=onepage&q=%22Nor%20was%20my%20attendance%22&f=false to The Early Polo Grounds
Sports-related

[describing his sentiments after the launch of the rocket Ariane] pp. 163-164.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009)

Willem de Kooning (1969) by Thomas B. Hess, Content Is A Glimpse, excerpts from an interview with David Sylvester, (BBC), Location, vol.1 no.1 Spring 1963.
1960's
Source: The Physics Of Baseball (Second Edition - Revised), Chapter 1, Models And Their Limitations, p. 1
From "Nolan Ryan: The Untouchable," in Baseball Stars of 1973 (March 1973), edited by Ray Robinson, p. 92
Sports-related

Responding to the impending integration of the Dallas Rangers, as quoted in "Between the Lines" http://www.mediafire.com/view/e8dga7hnpbb7tzk/BETWEEN_THE_LINES_THE_GREAT_T(2).jpg by Dean Gordon Hancock (ANP), in The Atlanta Daily World (February 10, 1952); reproduced in "The Knife in Ty Cobb’s Back" http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-knife-in-ty-cobbs-back-65618032/ (30 August 2011), Smithsonian, by Gilbert King.

Aaron Judge's Twitter Page https://twitter.com/thejudge44?lang=en

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNEo_mOi29U

As quoted in "'Give Us Strollers, Not Swingers,' Shouts Shepard" by Charley Feeney, in The Sporting News (July 12, 1969), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1969</big>

As quoted in "L. M. Boyd" http://www.mediafire.com/view/ulp201hdoc2hs32/Screen%20Shot%202017-12-10%20at%203.10.58%20PM.png by Boyd, in The Sioux City Journal (April 20, 1981), p. A17

“Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible a plea as baseball in Italian.”
Clinical Notes, George Jean, Nathan, January 1926, American Mercury magazine https://books.google.com/books?id=k330MmVjym8C&q="Opera+in+English+is+in+the+main+just+about+as+sensible+a+plea+as+baseball+in+Italian"&pg=PA107#v=onepage,
Source: Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992), Chapter 3, Franchise Finances, p. 47.

“In baseball, the true class enemy is not the boss, but the fan.”
Hano. Greatest Giants of Them All. p. 250.
Sports-related
Source: Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992), Chapter 7, The Media, p. 149.

On the relocation of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles; quoted in Bob McGee, <i>The Greatest Ballpark Ever: Ebbets Field and the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers</i> (Rutgers University Press, 2005, ISBN 0813536006), p. 294 http://books.google.ca/books?id=BOZyd7v1cDAC&pg=PA294&dq=%22public+without+the+quasi

From "Babe Speaks His Mind Anent the Deliberate Pass," http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1920/08/14/page/7/ by Ruth (as told to Pegler), in The Chicago Tribune (August 14, 1920), p. 7; reprinted as "The Intentional Pass," https://books.google.com/books?id=SAAlxi-0EZYC&pg=PA32 in Playing the Game: My Early Years in Baseball, p. 32

As quoted in "Change of Pace"
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1963</big>
Source: The Physics Of Baseball (Second Edition - Revised), Chapter 2, The Flight Of The baseball, p. 22

Calling Sandberg's second game-tying home run against Sutter in the 10th inning. The Cubs went on to win 12-11 in the 11th inning. June 23, 1984.

Addressing reporters at post-game press conference on Roberto Clemente Day, as quoted in "Roberto Clemente's a Man of 2 Lives ... and 2 Loves" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zbYcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NWYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2327%2C2876682 by the Associated Press, in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (July 26, 1970)
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1970</big>
“Baseball fans are pedants, there is no other kind.”
"Why Can't the Movies Play Ball?," The New York Times (1989-05-14)
On Casey Stengel, as quoted in "Loquacious Sportswriter: Arnold Hano Calls 'em as He Sees 'em in World of Sports" by Earl Gustkey, in The Los Angeles Times (April 23, 1970), p. D1
Sports-related

Immigrant Violence in America, A Big Problem http://vashiva.com/immigrant-violence-in-america-big-problem/ (July 6, 2016)

How to Seem (and Be) Deep http://lesswrong.com/lw/k8/how_to_seem_and_be_deep/ (October 2007)