Baseball Quotes
 

I was looking through some photos from my trip to Cooperstown last year and found this of a quote from Casey Stengel. Let's see your favorite baseball quotes.

"It ain't over until it's over" - Yogi

Tommy Lasorda has many many great quotes but my favorite all time was given about Darryl Strawberry after his first season in L.A. He was awful and a huge disappointment to Dodger fans. A reporter asked Tommy something about Darryl dogging it in the outfield...

"He is not a dog; a dog is loyal and runs after balls."

Joshua

My favorite isn't a quote, it's a rant by Cubs manager Lee Elia lashing out at Cuns fans on April 29, 1983. In honor of the 30 year annivesary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0CDtEz_Bo

"Hit 'em where they ain't"

-Wee Willie Keeler

Former Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan on how he faced Mickey Mantle; "With tears in my eyes."

"When I'm hitting, I'd play for nothing. When I'm not, any kind of money I receive
makes me feel as if I'm stealing." Mickey Mantle

Joshua, that Lasorda quote is priceless!

Pete Rose -- I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.

Reggie Jackson on Tom Seaver -- He's so good, blind people come to the park to hear him pitch.

Anonymous batter protesting after striking out looking on three pitches against Walter Johnson -- the third one sounded low.

Writer about Lefty Grove -- he was so fast he could throw a lambchop past a wolf.

Pitcher I don't remember about Hank Aaron -- trying to get a fastball by him is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster.

Babe Ruth on justifying his higher salary than Herbert Hoover -- I had a better year than he did.

Willie Stargell on hitting against Sandy Koufax -- it was like trying to drink coffee with a fork.

Sal Maglie on why he threw two consecutive pitches at a batter's head -- to show him the first one wasn't a mistake.

My favorite is probably John Updike explaining why Ted Williams did not come out of the dugout to acknowledge the cheering after homering after his last pitch -- Gods do not answer letters.

Roger Craig on catcher Choo-Choo Coleman's baseball smarts:

"Choo-Choo would give you the sign and then look down to see what it was."

Bob Gibson to Tim McCarver after McCarver told him after a game that there was a colored guy waiting to see him: What color is he?

Bob Gibson to Tim McCarver upon his approach to the mound to talk to Gibson, "What are you doing out here? The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it!"

Mark Grace story
 

My favorite Mark Grace story:

One day Rick Sutcliffe gave up back-to-back home runs in Cincinnati. And in Cincinnati, they shoot off fireworks after a Red hits a home run. And Sutcliffe was pretty intense on the day he pitched. So Eric Davis takes him deep and Paul O'Neill takes him deep right after that. So Sutcliffe is all pissed off, and Billy Connors comes out to the mound and Sutcliffe yells at him, "I know I gave up f---ing back-to-back home runs and get your f---ing ass back in the dugout and tell Zimmer to f---ing settle down there, too."

Billy looks at him and says, "I know you have everything under control, Rick. I just wanted to give that guy running the fireworks a little time to reload."

Cheers,
Geno

Bob Gibson to a reporter after being asked why, as a BATTING PRACTICE pitcher for the Braves, he had dusted off a batter: He was crowding the plate.

I've never heard that one but it is classic!

Reggie Jackson, explaining the importance of hitting well if you play 1st base, 3rd base, right or left field:
"If you want to stand on the corner, you have to lean on the pole."

Another from Yogi..."Swing at the strikes".:D

More Choo Choo - Ralph Kiner interviewed Choo Choo Coleman in 1962, and asked, “What’s your wife’s name, and what’s she like?” Coleman replied, “Her name is Mrs. Coleman — and she likes me."

Chico Escuela -- Baseball been berry berry good to me.

As related by former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jerry Bell, walking from the mound to the dugout upon being relieved after walking Harmon Killebrew:

Bell: "Ump, that last pitch to Killebrew looked like a strike to me."

Umpire: "Son, Mr. Killebrew will let you know when it's a strike."

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson

Baseball Quotes
 

Tom Hanks: There's no crying in baseball.

Mike Flanagan - "I never could play in New York. The first time I ever came into a game there, I got into the bullpen car and they told me to lock the doors."
"You know you're having a bad game when the ground crew goes out and drags the warning track."

Claude Osteen - "I'm not sure which is more insulting, being offered in a trade or having it turned down."

Hank Aaron - "It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon at the golf course."

Richie Ashburn (on playing the '62 Mets) "I don't know what's going on, but I know I've never seen it before."

Early Wynn - "The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is breathe on a mirror and hope it fogs."

Mickey Lolich - "All the fat guys watch me and say to their wives, 'See? There's a fat guy doing okay. Bring me another beer'."

Johnny Pesky - "When you win, you eat better, sleep better, and your beer tastes better. And your wife looks like Gina Lollabrigida."

Stan Hack (his home town) - "It's so small, we don't even have a town drunk, everybody has to take a turn."

One more:

Dick Allen being interviewed about how he hits a knukleball pitcher: "I take three swings and go sit on the bench"

Upon being told the amount of his fine for spitting at an umpire:

"It was a little more than I expectorated" ---- Frenchy Bordagaray




George Stallings supposed last words (falling to an unknown illness):

"Bases on balls, you idiot, bases on balls is the cause of all of this ....."





OT: on the morbid last words thought: Stanley Ketchell's supposed last words after being shot in the back by a jealous man:

"I'm so tired, just take me home to Mother"

omg thats great, never heard that one. im a huge et fan as well as love Darryl but he never did like busting it to catch a ball.


Here is a funny one all mets fans will remember - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz15iZfnTtI

Bob Uecker:

"I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for three-thousand dollars. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn't have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up."

Satchell Paige is known for saying quite a number of "Paige-isms. Here is one of his well known quotes......

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."



http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/t...to49bpaige.jpghttp://i603.photobucket.com/albums/t...tchelpaige.jpg



TED Z

In a rather confusing play Babe Herman hit a ball off the wall with the bases loaded and the Dodgers wound up with three men on 3rd base. Dazzy Vance who had somehow failed to score from 2nd was diving back into third with Chick Fewster standing on the bag already and Herman sliding in thinking he was getting a triple. While the umpires were trying to figure it out, Vance made a speech, "Mr. Umpire, fellow teammates, and members of the opposition. If you carefully peruse the rules of our national pastime you will find that there is one and only one protagonist in rightful occupation of this hassock - namely yours truly, Arthur C. Vance". And he was right. The other two were out.

"you're gonna get the mcgwire...".

Goose Goslin - "I truly loved those fastballs. Zip they'd come in, and whack .. right back out."

Al Bridwell on getting the hit that set off the whole "Merkle Boner" incident: " I wish I had never gotten that hit. I wish I'd struck out instead. If I had done that it would have spared Fred a lot of unfair humiliation. Yes, I wish I'd struck out. It would have been better all around."

For some reason a reporter asked the opposing pitcher before a World Series game how he would pitch to Gus Niarhos who was hardly a threat at the plate: "We'll probably throw him fastballs and bunch him towards the mound."

Any Yogi Berra quote works for me! ;)

On why he no longer went to Ruggeri's, a St. Louis restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"Guys, there's clap in the Valley."

-- Brewers minor-league director Bruce Manno, spring training 1985, Phoenix

Dick Allen about artificial turf:
"If a horse won't eat it, I don't want to play on it."

Bob Uecker:
"The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then to pick it up."

And then there's Yogi:
"So I'm ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face."

/

Some memorable Ty Cobb quotes...

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch."

"When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch."

"The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first.
I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault."


http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/30789215.jpg

Ty Cobb, asked in the 1950s what he would hit if he played today: about .275. When the interviewer expressed shock, Cobb added, I am almost 70 years old.

Dodger pitcher Jerry Reuss was in a tight ball game. Tommy Lasorda went out to the mound with the intent to pull Reuss. Of course, Reuss wanted to continue to pitch. As Lasorda and Reuss were going back and forth about his staying or going, Yeager made it to the mound. Lasorda told Reuss that he would put it to a vote and be Democratic about it. Lasorda voted to pull Reuss, Reuss naturally said he wanted to pitch. With Yeager by his side, Reuss figured he had this in the bag. Lasorda asked Yeager what he thought, and Yeager said " Shoot, I would have pulled him two innings ago ".

Crash Davis: Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once - the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains.

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.

Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

Man that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think?

Sparky Anderson in his HOF induction speach: "Baseball is a great game and if you don't like it GET OUT."

"You can't hit what you can't see." – Walter Johnson

Quotes
 

Manager concerned over Hack Wilson's heavy drinking.

"When I put a worm in a glass of water nothing happens to it. But when I put it in a glass of whiskey it dies. What does that tell you?"

Hack's response: "That I'll never get worms from drinking whiskey."

"In our sun-down perambulations, of late, through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing 'base', a certain game of ball...Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms...the game of ball is glorious."

Walt Whitman 1846

+1. Love it! The beginning to Ken Burns Baseball - First Inning. Whenever I've had a stressful day at work, I throw that DVD in and it always relaxes me!!

"Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter." Satchel Paige

A young woman commented to Yogi Berra on a sweltering day "Yogi, you look pretty cool out there", to which he responded "Thanks, you don't look so hot yourself".

mine is in my sig.

Johnny Keane, asked why he stayed with Bob Gibson in Game 7 of the World Series when he was getting shelled and on the verge of blowing a big lead: I had a commitment to his heart.

Yogi on playing left field in Yankee Stadium: It gets late early out there.

Yogi summing up his life: I never said half the things I said.

Mickey Mantle, asked by a Senate committee on his views of baseball's antirust exemption after Casey Stengel had made a typical meandering, long speech: My views are pretty much the same as Casey's.

Yogi, after Sandy Koufax, who had gone 25-5 during the season, blew away the Yankees in game 1 of the 1963 World Series: How did he lose 5?

Pete Rose, asked why on earth he was back out taking batting practice at night after going 6 for 8 in a doubleheader: They got me out twice.

Warren Spahn, interviewed after he gave up a titanic homerun to Willie Mays early in Willie's career: Gentlemen, for the first 60 feet it was a hell of a pitch.

Several years ago, after a golf tournament, Tommy Lasorda was the guest speaker at our club. He started by saying.. "Well I guess you read lately about Steve Yeager crying his eyes out to the sportswriters that Mike Scioscia gets to play ahead of him because he's(Scioscia) Italian. I want you all to know that is not true. I play Scioscia ahead of Yeager because I'M ITALIAN!!"

Richie Ashburn hit .350 in 1958 to win the batting title over Willie Mays. The Phillies sent him a contract with a $2,500 cut in salary for 1959.The Philies GM John Quinn hemmed and hawed and finally came up with an absurd reason: Ashburn didn't hit the ball 'far enough'.

"Well, if I hit them any farther they'd be outs."
-Richie Ashburn

And Bob Ueker on the "Tonight Show":

Carson asked what it was like when Niekro was pitching.

"I always thought it was a 'Catch-22'."
"How's that?" asked Johnny
"It's what I would do to every 100 pitches."

Yogi Berra "Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical."

Ernie Banks "Let's play two".

I agree, anything Bob Uecker says makes me fall on the floor.

Nobody brought up the Krukker? "I'm not an athlete, Ma'am, I'm a baseball player."

Ken

John Kruk on how to improve baseball:

"No Mascots on the field. Shoot anything that looked like it escaped from Sesame Street."

John Kruk on whether he was in shape after being on the DL:

"To run a marathon? Hell,no. To play baseball? F**k yeah."

And don't forget Rickey:

“If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.” - Ricky Henderson

"During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball." Mickey Mantle, 1970

I like the Hornsby quote after being asked what he does in the winter.

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

Now a quote about Hornsby:

"He was frank to the point of being cruel and as subtle as a belch."
- Sportswriter Lee Allen

I wonder if that was the unsigned contract that was up for auction in Hunt's last month? There was a signed note with it from Ashburn.

"I'm your new catcher and you just got lesson number one: don't think, it can only hurt the ballclub." Crash Davis

How about- "Lou Brock was a symbol of great base stealing, but today, I am the greatest of all time.. thank you"

.. and with the ever classy Lou Brock in attendence. Rickey was one of a kind!

Ricky Henderson, while playing for the Yankees and living in an upscale condo bragged about the great view he had of the city, saying he could see “The Entire State Building.”

Oil Can Boyd after a game had been called because of fog in Cleveland. "Well, what do you expect when you build the stadium right on the ocean?"

Ball Four
 

I just finished reading Ball Four again...love that book. My favorite quote is from Sibby Sisti after the kids beat the dads in a Father-Son game, 40-0, on an off day. "Forty runs, for crissakes, and nobody gets knocked down."

Geno

One of my favorite baseball moments was Rickey passing Brock (and acting like a jerk) in an afternoon game, then being upstaged that night by Nolan Ryan's 7th no-hitter. Every sports report that I saw led with Ryan and made Rickey a footnote.

Baseball Quotes
 

Tom Seaver on winning: "There are two places in baseball...first place and no place"!

In partial defense of Rickey (though the Brock moment is indefensible), most of what he ever did or said was harmless, and I've heard a lot of great stories about him. One that came out recently was set in the Mets clubhouse while players discussed who would and wouldn't playoff shares. Rickey demanded full shares for everyone, yelling "F--- that, you can change someone's life".

It is a bummer that the classic Olurud moment supposedly never really happened though.

BTW- he and the A's got no hit by Ryan the year prior.. AND Rickey was Ryan's 5000th K.

I'm really sorry to hear that the Olerud incident in Seattle never happened. It's one of my favorite baseball stories. :(

Qoutes by Celebs
 

"There have only been two authentic geniuses in the world, Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare "...Tallulah Bankhead

"That ball got out of here in a hurry. Anything going that fast better have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think "...Kevin Costner, Bull Durham

"If the Cincinnati Reds were really the first major league baseball team, who did they play ?"...George Carlin

"Freddy Patek was so small that when he was born his father passed out cigar butts"...Joey Adams

"My last miracle was the 69 Mets"...George Burns, Oh God

" The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is part of our past. It reminds us of all that was once good, and what could be again"...James Earl Jones, Field Of Dreams

"A hot dog at the ballpark is better than a steak at The Ritz"...Humphrey Bogart

"A few years ago they told me I was to young to be President and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them, and we are still fooling them"...John Kennedy to Stan Musial at the 1962 All Star Game

"Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on America than any other institution"...Herbert Hoover

"I'd watch a lot of baseball on the radio"...Gerald Ford

"I don't know a lot about politics, but I know a lot about baseball'...Richard Nixon

"He was built along the lines of a beer keg, and not unfamiliar with it's contents"...Shirley Povich regarding Hack Wilson

"Ninety feet between the bases is perhaps as close as man has ever gotten to perfection" Red Smith

"It's designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything begins again, and blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops, and leaves you to face fall alone"...Bart Giamatti

some more....
 

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 are men on base. ~Dave Barry


What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw


I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it. ~Rogers Hornsby


It's hard to win a pennant, but it's harder losing one. ~Chuck Tanner



You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all. ~Earl Weaver

... and just a few others....
 

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. ~Bill Veeck

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it. ~Sandy Koufax


What we have are good gray ballplayers, playing a good gray game and reading the good gray Wall Street Journal. They have been brainwashed, dry-cleaned and dehydrated!... Wake up the echoes at the Hall of Fame and you will find that baseball's immortals were a rowdy and raucous group of men who would climb down off their plaques and go rampaging through Cooperstown, taking spoils.... Deplore it if you will, but Grover Cleveland Alexander drunk was a better pitcher than Grover Cleveland Alexander sober. ~Bill Veeck, The Hustler's Handbook


It actually giggles at you as it goes by. ~Rick Monday, on Phil Niekro's knuckleball, quoted in Sports Illustrated, 1 August 1983

What are we at the park for except to win? I'd trip my mother. I'd help her up, brusher her off, tell her I'm sorry. But mother don't make it to third. ~Leo Durocher

Why does everybody stand up and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" when they're already there? ~Larry Anderson

"Baseball hasn't forgotten me. I go to a lot of Old-Timers games and I haven't lost a thing. I sit in the bullpen and let people throw things at me. Just like old times." - Bob Uecker

Woody Allen (Leonard Zelig): I love baseball. You know, it doesn't have to mean anything. It's just very beautiful to watch.



Angel Mangual's interview after hitting winning RBI in game 4 of 1972 WS (with Bert Campaneris help in translation):

Interviewer (in English): Angel, how many balls did you foul off before you hit the game winner?

Campaneris: * Spanish translation *

Mangual (in English): Oh, about 3 or 4

Campaneris (in English): He said 'about 3 or 4'

But there are tips that you pick up when the Braves were going to release me. It is a tough time for a manager, for your family, for the player to be told that you're never going to play the game again. And I can remember walking in the clubhouse that day, and Luman Harris, who was the Braves' manager, came up to me and said there were no visitors allowed. So again, I knew I might be moving on.-Bob Uecker

More of a story than a quote, but Mike Shannon told this about Uecker yesterday. He said Uecker would sit at the back of the team bus and make everyone laugh so hard that their ribs hurt and they wanted the trip to end. One day Bob was impersonating and mocking the Cardinal GM who was in the front of the bus and could hear every word. Apparently he didn't appreciate it. Not long after the Cards and the Phillies agreed to a blockbuster trade. Dick Groat and Bill White for Dick Allen, Art Mahaffey, and Pat Corrales. All was agreed to and the Cardinal GM said, "I'll throw in Uecker for nothing".
Phils GM, "We don't want Uecker".
Cards GM, "You'll take him or the deals off!"

Mike Shannon during a cardinals game in the eighties at Pittsburgh "folks there is a beautiful full moon in Pittsburgh tonight I wish all you folks back in Saint Louis could see it"

Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand. -- Leo Durocher

A rookie Oakland A's player in spring training boarded the bus to go to the split-squad game and sat down in the second row. After the bus loaded the manager climbed on, saw the rookie sitting there, and said, "Only players with tenure are allowed to sit in the front."

Ricky Henderson yelled from the back, "H___, I got fifteenure, and I'm still sitting back here!"
-------------

Yogi- "You guys better get here quick. There's a fire."

Fire Dept- "How do we get there?"

Yogi- "Don't you guys still have those big red trucks?"

Once Jack Buck and Mike Shannon had a guest in the booth. She was representing some organization and had the official title of "Miss Cheesecake". After giving her spiel she left Jack and Mike a delicious looking cheesecake.
Buck says to Shannon "Well, Mike what do think of Miss Cheesecake?" Only trouble was Shannon heard "THIS Cheesecake".

Mike Shannon,: "Man, I'd like to have a piece of THAT!"

One of my favorites and I even have this up at my desk at work.

"Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things."

Danny Murtaugh

During a Game of the Week, after noticing a couple smooching in the bleachers, Ol' Diz says, "Pee Wee, I've finally figured out what's going on out there. He's kissing her on the strikes and she's kissing him on the ..."

"It's a great day for a ball game; let's play two!" Ernie Banks