Ballplayer Quotes & Sayings

I can't stand a ballplayer who plays in fear. — Red Auerbach

If a ballplayer is satisfied, he's going to slip. You have to keep fighting to improve. — Nellie Fox

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

I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can't be measured. You can't measure a ballplayer's heart. — Red Auerbach

Carl Furillo was pure ballplayer. In his prime he stood six feet tall and weighed 190 pounds and there was a fluidity to his frame you seldom see, among such sinews. His black hair was thick, and tightly curled. His face was strong and smooth. He had the look of a young indomitable centurion ... I cannot imagine Carl Furillo in his prime as anything other than a ballplayer. Right field in Brooklyn was his destiny. — Roger Kahn

I don't want to be Babe Ruth. He was a great ballplayer. I'm not trying to replace him. The record is there and damn right I want to break it, but that isn't replacing Babe Ruth. — Roger Maris

As a ballplayer, I would be delighted to do it again. As an individual, I doubt if I could possibly go through it again. — Roger Maris

But I want you to know that what I'm doing here I'm doing as a ballplayer, a major league ballplayer. — Curt Flood

A young ballplayer looks on his first spring training trip as a stage struck young woman regards the theater. — Christy Mathewson

You can look at everything from pre-Heisman to post-Heisman, and I think that's why it ranks up at the top, because before then, I didn't even think I was good enough to be a professional ballplayer. — Barry Sanders

The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but Cobb would drive you crazy. — Tris Speaker

I tried marriage. I'm 0 for 3 with the marriage thing. So, being a ballplayer - I believe in numbers. I'm not going 0 for 4. I'm not wearing a golden sombrero. — Charlie Sheen

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud. — Bob Uecker

Roberto Clemente played the game of baseball with great passion. That passion could only be matched by his unrelenting commitment to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate and those in need. People saw Roberto as a great ballplayer and humanitarian. He was also a great father, husband, teammate and friend. — Manny Sanguillen

Im not an Athlete, Im a ballplayer — John Kruk

How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer. — Branch Rickey

Reading isn't good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading. — Babe Ruth

A pitcher is not a ballplayer. — Christy Mathewson

A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance. — Branch Rickey

Why would anyone want to fight Henry?" Loondorf looked hurt.
"Because he's a ballplayer."
"So?"
"So he's a baller. He's got cash, chains, crisp clothes. He's got a hat that says Yankees and it's the real deal, yo. He didn't buy it at no yard sale. He walks into a bar and girls are like damn. Dudes get jealous. They want to get in his face, prove they're somebody."
"They want to take down the man," Steve said helpfully. — Chad Harbach

I am just a ballplayer on vacation. Why are these things happening to me ? — Hal Graff

Any ballplayer that don't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist. — Rogers Hornsby

I'm proud of everything that I've accomplished since I was a little boy. That was my dream - to be a ballplayer. I didn't dream to win so many Gold Gloves, or Silver Bats or play in All-Star Games or World Series. I was just dreaming to play the game. — Roberto Alomar

I haven't seen a player in this game, as long as I've been in it, that can't be pitched to ... Barry is an outstanding ballplayer. I respect him an awful lot. I also have confidence in my pitchers that they can pitch to Barry Bonds and get him out. — Frank Robinson

Gehrig had one advantage over me. He was a better ballplayer. — Gil Hodges

On two legs, Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ballplayer who ever lived. — Nellie Fox

The only real happiness a ballplayer has is when he is playing a ball game and accomplishes something he didn't think he could do. — Ring Lardner

In that case Mr. Barrow, Mr. Gehrig is a very underpaid ballplayer. — Joe DiMaggio

I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all I had to give. — Roberto Clemente

Ty Cobb was still fighting the Civil War, and as far as he was concerned, we were all damn Yankees. But who knows, if he hadn't had that terrible persecution complex, he never would have been about the best ballplayer who ever lived. — Sam Crawford

Baseball is not life. It is a fiction, a metaphor. And a ballplayer is a man who agrees to uphold that metaphor as though lives were at stake. — David James Duncan

Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers - .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation. And those are the two things that keep a ballplayer in business. — Warren Spahn

I refuse to be molded into some stereotypical ballplayer that has no interests, really, no life, no depth, no intelligence. — Barry Zito

I want everybody to feel he has a chance to get into a game when he comes to the ballpark. I play guys when I want to so they'll be ready when I have to. I don't consider myself a motivator of players. I think it's an insult to a ballplayer to have to be motivated. — Gene Mauch

(Bill) Terry, you can ask for more money in the winter and do less in the summer than any ballplayer I know. — John McGraw

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer. — Mickey Mantle

The San Francisco police force was deeply implicated in the murders of Moscone and Milk. Dan White was not carrying out SFPD orders that morning in city hall, but he was carrying out the department's will. He was no longer on the force, but he was one of them: their star ballplayer, their political representative, their brother. He knew all about the cops' murderous feelings toward the city's liberal leadership. He felt the same way. They had the will, he had the willpower. — David Talbot

When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, I believed - completely, wholeheartedly, without reservation or pause - that the Cleveland Indians were named to honor a Native American ballplayer named Louis Sockalexis, who played for Cleveland in the late 19th Century. — Joe Posnanski

I spent the nights before the Jets' two biggest games last year-for the AFL championship and the Super Bowl-with girls. But I don't consider that bad or foolish of me ... The night before a game, I prepare myself both mentally and physically for the next day. I think a ballplayer has to be relaxed to play well; and if that involves being with a girl that night, he should do it. — Joe Namath

I was a ballplayer, but only for a limited time. I grew up playing in Wisconsin. It's a very sports-centric part of the country that I grew up in and I played a lot of sports, but baseball first and foremost. I played through high school. I was a middle-infielder. — Chad Harbach

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

He was the strangest of all our national sports idols. But not even his disagreeable character could destroy the image of his greatness as a ballplayer. Ty Cobb was the best. That seemed to be all he wanted. — Jimmy Cannon

I think what separates a superstar from the average ballplayer is that he concentrates just a little bit longer. — Hank Aaron

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

I've learned a lot playing college ball," Mark says."What you do in high school doesn't mean shit. You can be the best ballplayer in your high school. The best in the country or state, but when you get to college, you're going to meet fifty other guys who can brag the same thing. You'll meet guys better than you, stronger than you, faster than you, and then you're up against better teams. The world changes when you leave Groveton. — Katie McGarry

I think the first photograph I did was a ballplayer. It was a way of showing action or something. — Andy Warhol

As a ballplayer, you just want to feel respected. I like the way Washington presented the team to me and I feel good about what was being said. — Vladimir Guerrero

I'm just the same as anybody else now. To get TB again, I'd have to go out and catch a whole new case of it. Let's forget about it. I'm a ballplayer. — Red Schoendienst

I always could hit, but fielding I had to work at. I took as much pride in fielding as hitting. I became a complete ballplayer. I knew when to take the extra base. I knew about the outfielder hitting the cutoff man. I knew when and how to bunt. I knew when to hit-and-run. — George Kell

Has he (Rickey Henderson) ever been here (Spring Training) the first day? You have to say Rickey's consistent. That's what you want in a ballplayer - consistency. — Don Mattingly

Yeah. No matter what Coach does or doesn't do. Because ... I'm going on my terms. Even if by some miracle he recommends me for the scholarship, I'm not taking it."
That surprises her. "I don't get it."
"That's why I had no choice but to let that pitch go by. I had to prove to myself that I could live without baseball. I can't go to college on their terms. I can't be the ballplayer first and the student second, and if they're giving me an athletic scholarship, believe me - that's what it would be. Athlete-scholar, not the other way around. No one can convince me otherwise.
"So, yeah. I'll have to take out student loans. I'll have to work my ass off. But that's OK. — Barry Lyga

The best ballplayer's the one who doesn't think he made good. He keeps trying to convince you. — Casey Stengel

I'm not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station. — Al McGuire

The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he's going to be. — Bill Lee

No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer. Stan Musial, however, is the closest to being perfect in the game today. — Ty Cobb

I never saw anyone like Ty Cobb. No one even close to him as the greatest all-time ballplayer. That guy was superhuman, amazing. — Casey Stengel

My father never saw me play ball, and I was an outstanding ballplayer. I missed all that adoration. — Danny Aiello

Man, I've got a Rolls-Royce. Big house. Limo. All those things. This is why every kid's dream is to be a major-league ballplayer. — Lou Whitaker

I'm a ballplayer, not an actor. — Joe DiMaggio

I hate the ballplayer who says, 'I did everything I could have possibly done.' Because if you didn't win it all, you obviously didn't do everything you could have done. — Todd Helton

Baseball shaded my entire outlook on life, because that's how I first saw the world. I looked at everything, even today, through what I learned about the game. Like pacing yourself, focusing yourself, preparing yourself for what you want to do, keeping yourself healthy for the game. I do all that through the eyes of a ballplayer. — Kurt Russell

As a ballplayer, (Dizzy) Dean was a natural phenomenon, like the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef. Nobody ever taught him baseball and he never had to learn. He was just doing what came naturally when a scout named Don Curtis discovered him on a Texas sandlot and gave him his first contract. — Red Smith

I'm a ballplayer. I know how hard the game is ... and anybody that makes it in the Hall of Fame, I support. They become a member of our special fraternity. — George Brett

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 don't know what Joe (DiMaggio)
wanted (in regards to being called 'the greatest living ballplayer'), but I don't have a problem, if he wanted to do that. He was my hero. Joe
was the best all-around player. Joe
was the best. I only played against him once, in the '51 Series. — Willie Mays

My father helped me become a ballplayer and take the good with the bad. — Dwight Gooden

A coach can't be concerned with the poor ballplayer. If the player can't make it, he's got to be out right away. It's a very tough aspect of coaching, and in this aspect I was weak. Also, some guys get fat on coaching, they get healthy and strong, but other guys get ulcers. — John McNally

There ain't much to being a ballplayer, if you're a ballplayer. — Honus Wagner

A ballplayer has two reputations, one with the other players and one with the fans. The first is based on ability. The second the newspapers give him. — Johnny Evers

Besides, he was also a hell of a ballplayer. THE END — Joseph Bottum

The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all. — Lou Gehrig

Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was. — Mickey Mantle

Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that. — Nomar Garciaparra

A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. — Jim Bouton

A ballplayer doesn't make excuses. — Roberto Alomar

I thought I raised a ballplayer. You're nothing but a coward and a quitter. — Mickey Mantle

I haven't put on a baseball uniform since about age 12. It's like I'm wearing a Halloween costume. I'm pretending to be a ballplayer. — Ken Fox