RT Staff Note: This past weekend was the first "official" day of practice for NCAA D-I colleges. In addition, high schools in warm weather states have already been having their unofficial outdoor practices for a few weeks, but officially started over the weekend. On February 17th, those that can't wait for pro baseball to start should take note that pitchers and catchers report to spring training as well.
So, that caused us to get a bit nostalgic and psych us up for another season by printing some of baseballs greatest quotes over the years. Yes, this is a long post, but worth it. If you have any more that we haven't printed, reply below in the comments section. Enjoy!
"Baseball is 50% from the neck up"- Ted Williams
"When they knock you down, you not only have to get up, but you have to make it clear that you won't be knocked down a second time." -Carl Yastrzemski
“Nobody ever said, "Work ball!" They say, "Play ball!" To me, that means having fun.”–Willie Stargell
“Well, there are three things that the average man thinks he can do better than anybody else. Build a fire, run a hotel and manage a baseball team.”-Rocky Bridges
"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing. I told him I wanted to be a real Major League baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the USA
"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."-Rogers Hornsby
“If you're not having fun in baseball, you miss the point of everything.”-Chris Chambliss
"Baseball is, I think, the greatest game in the world."-Babe Ruth
"Love the game of baseball and baseball will love you."-Babe Ruth
"Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball."-Mickey Mantle
"When we lost I couldn't sleep at night. When we win I can't sleep at night. But when you win, you wake up feeling better"-Joe Torre
"Give me five players like Robinson and a pitcher and I'll beat any nine-man team in baseball."-Manager Charlie Dressen on Jackie Robinson
"I am not concerned with being liked or disliked. I am concerned with being respected -Jackie Robinson
"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing: Nobody wants to quit when you're ahead."-Jackie Robinson
"The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round."-Gaylord Perry
"As long as I've got one chance to beat you I'm going to take it."-Leo Durocher
"Fans don't boo nobodies.”-Reggie Jackson
"I would be lost without baseball. I don't think I could stand being away from it as long as I was alive."-Roberto Clemente
"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball."-Rogers Hornsby
"You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you.”-Roy Campanella(Dodgers catcher 1948-1957)
"Awards mean a lot, but they don't say it all. The people in baseball mean more to me than statistics."-Ernie Banks
"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."-Ted Williams
"I'm just a ballplayer with one ambition, and that is to give all I've got to help my ball club win. I've never played any other way."-Joe DiMaggio
"That space between the white lines, that's my office. That's where I conduct my business." -Early Wynn
"If my uniform doesn't get dirty, I haven't done anything in the baseball game."-Ricky Henderson
"The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all."-Lou Gehrig
"A boy cannot begin playing ball too early. I might almost say that while he is still creeping on all fours he should have a bouncing rubber ball."-Christy Mathewson
"I don't make speeches. I just let my bat speak for me in the summertime."-Honus Wagner
"Whether you want to or not, you do serve as a role model. People will always put more faith in baseball players than anyone else."-Brooks Robinson
"One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to reach down and prove something."-Nolan Ryan
"I ain't ever had a job. I just always played baseball."-Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige
"The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air."-Al Rosen(Indians 3rd baseman 1947 - 1956)
Quotes on Hitting
"Think. Don't just swing. Think about the pitcher, what he threw you last time up, his best pitch, who's up next. Think."-Ted Williams
“If you get fooled by a pitch with less than two strikes, take it.”–Ted Williams
"Good hitters don't just go up and swing. They always have a plan. Call it an educated deduction. You visualize. You're like a good negotiator. You know what you have, you know what he has, then you try to work it out."–Dave Winfield
"To tell the truth, I never think about a homer. I'm just thinking of the situation and what I've got to do when I go to the plate."-Sammy Sosa
"Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution."-Hank Aaron
"I get a kick out of watching a team defense me. A player moves two steps in one direction and I hit it two steps the other way. It goes right by his glove and I laugh."–Rod Carew
"The key to hitting for high average is to relax, concentrate, and don't hit the fly ball to center field."-Stan Musial
"I'm seeing the ball well. I'm not trying for home runs. I'm trying to hit to right field more. When I do that, the home run comes."-Sammy Sosa
"Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher."–Ty Cobb
Quotes on Success in Baseball
“You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possible be – in baseball and in life.”–Pete Rose
“Fundamentals are the most valuable tools a player can possess. Bunt the ball into the ground. Hit the cutoff man. Take the extra base. Learn the fundamentals.”-Dick Williams
"What a player does best, he should practice least. Practice is for problems."-Duke Snider
"If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.”-Willie Mays
"If your not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he'll be ready to take your job."-Brooks Robinson
“I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give.”-Roberto Clemente
"If you don't think baseball is a big deal, don't do it. But if you do, do it right."-Tom Seaver
“It takes pitching, hitting and defense. Any two can win. All three make you unbeatable.”–Joe Garagiola
“Don't be afraid to take advice. There's always something new to learn.”–Babe Ruth
“I'm not only a player of the game. I'm a student of the game. I watch and learn.”-Roberto Alomar
“Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat."–Lou Brock
"I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week."- Hank Aaron, on Jackie Robinson
"The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back."-Steve Garvey
"I worked real hard to learn to play first. In the beginning, I used to make one terrible play a game. Then, I got so I'd make one a week, and finally, I'd pull a real bad one maybe once a month. At the end, I was trying to keep it down to one a season."-Lou Gehrig
"I don't know how anyone can put on a uniform and not care about winning."-Dave LaPoint
"If you could equate the amount of time and effort put in mentally and physically into succeeding on the baseball field and measured it by the dirt on your uniform, mine would have been black."-Mike Schmidt
"In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end."-Tom Seaver
"Different people, different backgrounds, different ideals... We walk in different doors at the beginning of the day, and we walk out of different doors at the end of the day. But when it is time to go out on that field, we all go through the same door."-Scott Rolen
"Anything less would not have been worthy of me. Anything more would not have been possible."-Boston's Carl Yastrzemski
"A good base stealer should make the whole infield jumpy. Whether you steal or not, you're changing the rhythm of the game. If the pitcher is concerned about you, he isn't concentrating enough on the batter."-Joe Morgan
"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is."-Bob Feller
"There are only two places in this league, First Place and No Place."-Tom Seaver
"If you've ever been around a group of actors, you've noticed, no doubt, that they can talk of nothing else under the sun but acting...It's exactly the same way with baseball players. Your heart must be in your work."-Christy Mathewson
Quotes on Pitching
“The pitcher has to throw a strike sooner or later, so why not hit the pitch you want to hit and not the one he wants you to hit?”–Johnny Mize
“Nobody likes the ball low and away, but that's where you're going to get it from me. I been pitching it there 50 years, away from them. That way they can't hurt you. You keep the ball in the park.”-Satchel Paige
“It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy.”-Nolan Ryan
"I'm working on a new pitch. It's called a strike."-Jim Kern
“Pitching is the art of instilling fear.”-Sandy Koufax
“Believe me, I would much rather get three outs on three pitches than three outs on nine pitches, because that's going to make me that much stronger at the end of the game. My pitching philosophy is simple. I believe in getting the ball over the plate and not walking a lot of men.”-Bob Gibson
"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
“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move.”- Satchel Paige
"Put the right pitching mechanics together with good health, and there's nothing surprising about lasting a long time."-Nolan Ryan
“Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.”-Warren Spahn
“My job isn't to strike guys out; it's to get them out, sometimes by striking them out.”-Tom Seaver
"A pitcher's got to be good and he's got to be lucky to get a no hit game."-Cy Young
"A pitcher will never be a big winner until he hates hitters."-Early Wynn
"One rule I had was make your best pitch and back up third base. That relay might get away and you've got another shot at him."-Lefty Gomez
"It's no fun throwing fastballs to guys who can't hit them. The real challenge is getting them out on the stuff they can hit."-Sam McDowell(Indians Pitcher 1961 - 1971)
"The only time I really try for a strikeout is when I'm in a jam. If the bases are loaded with none out, for example, then I'll go for a strikeout. But most of the time I try to throw to spots. I try to get them to pop up or ground out. On a strikeout I might have to throw five or six pitches, sometimes more if there are foul-offs. That tires me. So I just try to get outs. That's what counts - outs. You win with outs, not strikeouts."-Sandy Koufax
"The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball."-Tom Seaver
"The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen." -Bob Lemon(Royals, White Sox, Yankees Manager 1970-72,1977-79,1981-82)
Quotes on Fielding
"The phrase 'off with the crack of the bat', while romantic, is really meaningless, since the outfielder should be in motion long before he hears the sound of the ball meeting the bat."-Joe DiMaggio
"I'm a Major League 3rd Baseman. If I have to play in a parking lot, I'm suppose to stop the ball."-Brooks Robinson, when asked before the first game of the 1970 World Series if he thought he'd have a problem playing on astroturf for the first time.
"The test of an outfielder's skill comes when he has to go against the fence to make a catch."-Joe DiMaggio
