Quotes about baseball

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

Quotes about baseball

Jerry Spinelli photo
Jay Nordlinger photo
Albert Pujols photo

“I learned to play (baseball) on the streets in the Dominican Republic when I was 8 yrs old.”

Albert Pujols (1980) Dominican-American baseball player

When asked about how he learned to play baseball. http://sports.ign.com/articles/709/709384p1.html

Alex Jones photo
Frank Zappa photo
Willie Mays photo

“Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…
Hank Aaron photo

“It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course.”

Hank Aaron (1934) Retired American baseball player

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

Jim Bouton photo
Jonathan Safran Foer photo
Jim Bouton photo
Tim Burton photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Rick Riordan photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
John Irving photo
Yogi Berra photo
Yann Martel photo
Robert Frost photo
Michael Chabon photo
Willie Mays photo
Babe Ruth photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Robin Williams photo
Branch Rickey photo
Milton Bradley (baseball) photo

“To see his boxscore lines … is to have no idea that the Indians center fielder might very well be the angriest player in baseball.”

Milton Bradley (baseball) (1978) Major League Baseball player

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

Roberto Clemente photo

“I am having a plaque put on the front of my house. It will say, "To God, Mother, Father and Baseball."”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Calvin Coolidge photo
Bill Bryson photo
Bea Arthur photo
Irvine Welsh photo

“Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind.”

Sick Boy, "Blowing It: Deid Dugs" (Chapter 4, Story 3).
Trainspotting (1993)

Roberto Clemente photo

“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.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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.

“Baseball skill relates inversely to age. The older a man gets, the better a ball player he was when young, according to the watery eye of memory.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 10

Babe Ruth photo

“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.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

"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.”

Andrew Zimbalist (1947) American economist

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.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 6

Jerry Springer photo

“It's the wild, wild West of baseball, and it just keeps getting wilder.”

Joe Kehoskie (1973) American baseball agent

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)

Timothy Levitch photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I want to thank my teammates for being a bunch of swell guys. I want to thank Branch Rickey for giving me the opportunity of playing baseball. Most of all I want to thank the people of Pittsburgh whose encouragement helped me win this award. They deserve the best.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Roberto Clemente photo

“Last year I lose almost 20 pounds. When I go home end season I weigh only 163. I worry more 'bout bad back than I worry 'bout baseball. Now I feel goot. Ver goot. I sink I play one fitty games and I hit thee hunnert. I feel I hab goot season. Maybe fiteen home runs, nyenee RBIs, steal maybe dirty bases.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Bud Selig photo
Pete Doherty photo

“There are fewer more distressing sights
than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap
Yeah, we'll die in the class we were born
That's a class of our own, my love”

Pete Doherty (1979) English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist

"Time for Heroes"(with Carl Barat)
Lyrics and poetry

“Well, the New York Times editorial board, that reliable abettor of all the liars, haters, and fantasists, aka Democrats, who detest the American South and lust to rewrite America's history into party-serving fiction, has endorsed dumping Andrew Jackson in favor of rewarding a woman with his place on the twenty dollar bill. So fundamentally important to the nation is this switch that the Board’s reputedly adult members have decided that the only group sober and knowledgeable enough to decide how to destroy another piece of American history and further persecute the South is 'the nation's schoolchildren' who should be made to 'nominate and vote on Jackson’s replacement. Why not give them another reason to learn about women who altered history and make some history themselves by changing American currency?' Why of course, what geniuses! And, then, why not let these kids — who cannot figure out that the brim of baseball cap goes in the front — go on to decide other pressing national issues. Maybe they can replace General Washington on the $1 bill with a Muslim woman and thereby end America's war with Islam. As the saying goes, you could not make this stuff up. Now Andrew Jackson was not the most unblemished of men, but he risked his life repeatedly for his country; killed its enemies; expanded U. S. territory in North America; defeated the British at New Orleans; was twice elected president; and faced down and was prepared to hang the South Carolina nullifiers when he believed they were seeking to undermine and break the Union. Jackson is one of those southern fellows, and so he is now a target for banishment from our currency and eventually our history because he did not treat slaves and Indians as if they were his equals and, indeed, inflicted pain on both. But he also was, along with Thomas Jefferson, another insensitive chap toward blacks and Indians, the longtime icon of the Democratic Party and its great self-praising and fund-raising feast, the annual 'Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner', which was, of course, a fervent tribute to those that General Jackson would have hanged without blinking.”

Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst

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

Angus King photo

“Michael Jordan did not get good at basketball by practicing 42 minutes a week, which is what most kids have in the computer lab. … Whether it's a scalpel, baseball bat or a computer, the skill in the use of a tool rests upon practice and familiarity, and that's what these kids are going to have to an unprecedented extent.”

Angus King (1944) United States Senator from Maine

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)

Andrei Codrescu photo

“I was in the streets marching for civil rights while asshole southern sheriffs were swinging nail studded baseball bats at blacks' heads. Two things you can always count on: I will defend my record on race to no one (sic), under any circumstances and, I will call out any racist, any time without regard to who they are... and that includes our half white, racist President.”

Mark Williams American conservative activist, radio talk show host and author

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

Jay Leno photo
John Sterling photo

“You just can't predict baseball.”

John Sterling (1938) Sports broadcaster

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.

Bud Selig photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I love the game too much to quit. But right now I can't run or swing a bat too well. I had my tonsils out two weeks ago in Pittsburgh and that helped, but I still have the pain. I am studying to be a civil engineer in Puerto Rico, so that's what I'll do if I have to give up baseball.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Mickey Spillane photo

“No game is as verbal as baseball; baseball spreads twenty minutes of action across three hours of a day.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 9

“When he died, he held fourteen baseball records, a little man with a bashful smile, a silken swing, baseball's legendary nice guy. His death was the worst that could have happened to baseball, but his playing career had been the best.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

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

“Fidel Castro essentially forced these guys to leave Cuba. It wasn't really even a choice. It was either stay at home, be handed a broom and told 'have a nice life' or they could leave Cuba and continue playing baseball.”

Joe Kehoskie (1973) American baseball agent

On Cuban baseball defectors, from the PBS documentary Stealing Home http://www.pbs.org/stealinghome/transcript.html (18 June 2001)

Roberto Clemente photo

“I was so anxious for this season to start when I was at home last winter. I was thinking in terms of a big year for myself—moneywise. I had batted.357 last year and I thought that if I had another big year I might get paid more money than anybody ever did in baseball. Then I fell and then I wonder if I will be able to play at all.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Vin Scully photo

“It's time for Dodger baseball!”

Vin Scully (1927) American sports broadcaster

His iconic https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/448965492045148160 opening quote

Babe Ruth photo
Ty Cobb photo
Babe Ruth photo

“Hell no, it isn't a fact. Only a damned fool would do a thing like that. You know there was a lot of pretty rough ribbing going on on both benches during that Series. When I swung and missed that first one, those Cubs really gave me a blast. So I grinned at 'em and held out one finger and told 'em it'd only take one to hit it. Then there was that second strike and they let me have it again. So I held up that finger again and I said I still had that one left. Naw, keed, you know damned well I wasn't pointin' anywhere. If I'd have done that, Root would have stuck the ball right in my ear. And besides that, I never knew anybody who could tell you ahead of time where he was going to hit a baseball. When I get to be that kind of fool, they`ll put me in the booby hatch.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

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)

Floyd Dell photo
Alain de Botton photo
Willem de Kooning photo

“I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something - a member of a team writing American history..”

Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) Dutch painter

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

Ty Cobb photo

“Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man, in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life.”

Ty Cobb (1886–1961) American baseball player

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 photo

“Christian. Faith, Family, then Baseball. If what you did yesterday still seems big today, then you haven't done anything today!”

Aaron Judge (1992) American baseball player

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

Moe Berg photo
Branch Rickey photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I can't think of average. I have to go for the long ball. We have only Stargell to hit homers. You need more than one man. We have the best leadoff man in baseball in Matty Alou. He will get on base. We have to get the long hits.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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>

Casey Stengel photo

“Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.”

Casey Stengel (1890–1975) American baseball player and coach

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

George Jean Nathan photo

“Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible a plea as baseball in Italian.”

George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American drama critic and magazine editor

Clinical Notes, George Jean, Nathan, January 1926, American Mercury magazine https://books.google.com/books?id=k330MmVjym8C&q=&quot;Opera+in+English+is+in+the+main+just+about+as+sensible+a+plea+as+baseball+in+Italian&quot;&pg=PA107#v=onepage,

Bud Selig photo
Murray Kempton photo

“The first baseball game ever televised was a battle for fourth place in the Ivy League between Columbia and Princeton on May 17, 1939.”

Andrew Zimbalist (1947) American economist

Source: Baseball And Billions - Updated edition - (1992), Chapter 7, The Media, p. 149.

Bud Selig photo
Branch Rickey photo
Babe Ruth photo

“There's one thing in baseball that always gets my goat and that's the intentional pass. It isn't fair to the batter. It isn't fair to his club. It's a raw deal for the fans and it isn't baseball. By "baseball," I mean good square American sportsmanship because baseball represents America in sport. If we get down to unfair advantages in our national game we are putting out a mighty bad advertisement.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

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

Roberto Clemente photo

“I think the fans in Pittsburgh are the best in baseball. They've always been on my side, even when I'm going bad. I've made plenty of friends and I would not trade these people for anybody, anywhere.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Change of Pace"
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1963</big>

Bob Costas photo

“Our game today was produced by Ken Edmunson, directed by Bucky Guntz; Mike Weisman is the executive producer of NBC Sports, coordinating producer of baseball, Harry Coyle. The 1-1 pitch…He hits it to deep left field, LOOK OUT! DO YOU BELIEVE IT! IT'S GONE!!”

Bob Costas (1952) American sportscaster

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.

Roberto Clemente photo

“I have had two lives: when I was born in Puerto Rico in 1935 [sic] and when I came to play baseball in Pittsburgh in 1955. I have two loves: my family – my mother, my father and my wife and three sons – and my fans.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

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.”

Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist

"Why Can't the Movies Play Ball?," The New York Times (1989-05-14)

“He's not really a difficult interview. You just have to catch the essence and rhythm of what he's saying. I'd ask him how baseball has changed over the past 25 years and he'd start telling me about his life as a dental student in Kansas City.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

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

Shiva Ayyadurai photo
Eliezer Yudkowsky photo

“If people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979) American blogger, writer, and artificial intelligence researcher

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