Ballplayers Quotes & Sayings

If I was the Jackie Robinson of golf, I sure didn't do a very good job of it. Jackie was followed by hundreds of great black ballplayers who have transformed their sport ... But there are hardly any black kids coming up through the ranks of golf today. — Charlie Sifford

People in real life don't get ballplayers' humor, the way we talk in the clubhouse. — Justin Verlander

If you don't need umpires out there, and you can put robots out there, then why do we need ballplayers? — Doug Harvey

Ballplayers who are first to the dining room are usually last in batting averages. — Jimmy Cannon

I mean, we're talking about chocolate, for chrissake! Chocolate's wonderful! Everyone loves it! Look at me, I'm part German! That makes me a kraut! Do you know what kraut is? It's sauerkraut, men! Which means pickled cabbage! And no one likes that! And I'm okay with it! You can call me Kraut, for all that I care! I don't give a god damn! Do you read me, men? Do you? ~ Roman Meister, manager of the San Carlos Coyotes, to three black ballplayers whom he has, cleverly he thinks, nicknamed "Dark Chocolate," "Milk Chocolate," and "Bitter Chocolate." From The Mighty Roman. — Jon Sindell

Wives of ballplayers, when they teach their children their prayers, should instruct them to say: God bless mommy, God bless daddy, and God bless Babe Ruth! He's upped daddy's paycheck by 15 to 40 percent! — Waite Hoyt

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill. — Babe Ruth

Any ballplayers that played for me on either the Cardinals or the Yankees could come to me if he were in need and I would give him a helping hand. I made only two exceptions, Carl Mays and Joe Bush. If they were in a gutter, I'd kick them. — Miller Huggins

When there were just eight teams in each of the big leagues, I was always told, 'It's hard to come up, but it's just hard to stay in the big leagues.' That's because there's always somebody. The Cardinals had so many minor league clubs and had so many good ballplayers. — Red Schoendienst

I didn't mind working in the clubs, but I resented it being a club where pimps hang out. Because the music that I create is of a higher intellect than that. It not only encompasses pimps, but whores, ballplayers, executives ... everybody. — Barry White

All ballplayers want to wind up their careers with the Cubs, Giants or Yankees. They just can't help it. — Dizzy Dean

Conversation is the blood of baseball. It flows through the game, an invigorating system of anecdotes. Ballplayers are tale tellers who have polished their malarkey and winnowed their wisdom for years. — Thomas Boswell

Ballplayers, like everyone else, like to get told they did something right. — Willie McCovey

I get tired of hearing my ballplayers bellyache all the time. They should sit in the press box sometime and watch themselves play. — Buzzie Bavasi

To Replogle, the players were victims. The owners poured out a stream of pious, pompous verbiage about how pure they were. The gamblers said nothing, kept themselves hidden, protected themselves - and when they said anything, it was strictly for cash, with immunity, no less. But the ballplayers didn't even know enough to call a lawyer. They only knew how to play baseball. — Eliot Asinof

You never had the opportunity to play with some of the great ballplayers, but being that close around them, and being in the same category, was a great feeling, to feel that vibe of all the best players who played the game. — Rickey Henderson

The people who run the game, they are the ones who want to change it and make people believe that it's different somehow. It's not different, the only difference is that some ballplayers today have a chance for a four- or five-year contract and they can make big money. — Tony Oliva

It's the same with the ballplayers. Babe Ruth spent a lot, too and the ballplayers make a lot more money now. — Mickey Gilley

I just loved to play. I liked to study the other ballplayers. I could talk about it for ages, because I played professional ball for 20 years, and I was still learning when I quit. — Lloyd Waner

I remember the Chillicothe ballplayers grappling the Long Island ball players in a sixteen-inning game ended by darkness. And the shoulders of the Chillicothe players were a red smoke against the sundown and the shoulders of the Rock Island players were a yellow smoke against the sundown. And the umpire's voice was hoarse calling balls and strikes and outs and the umpire's throat fought in the dust for a song. — Carl Sandburg

Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you. — Leo Durocher

Bad ballplayers make good managers, not the other way around. All I can do is help them be as good as they are. — Earl Weaver

As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game. — Rex Stout

One percent of ballplayers are leaders of men. The other 99 percent are followers of women. — John McGraw

Jim Pagliaroni joined the club tonight and is going to be a welcome addition. He was describing a girl that one of the ballplayers had been out with and said, "It's hard to say exactly what she looked like. She was kind of Joe Torre with tits." This joke can only be explained with a picture of Joe Torre. But I'm not sure any exist. He dissolves camera lenses. — Jim Bouton

Us ballplayers do things backward. First we play, then we retire and go to work. — Charlie Gehringer

The greatest manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. — Reggie Jackson

I'm glad there are organizations like Dale Murphy's I Won't Cheat Foundation. I'm glad there are athletes with standards and morals who kids can look up to and learn from. I'm glad that for every bad example my nephew sees today on ESPN that I can share with him stories about truly heroic ballplayers like Cal Ripken, Jr. or Dale Murphy or Kirby Puckett. — Tucker Elliot

What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke the color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. It was clear that all of the major league owners already knew the talents of the black ballplayers that they had refused to let into their league. — Walter Dean Myers

People will think there are no other great ballplayers. Look at Garnett. Look at Duncan, Shaq, Kobe. Look at the players with Sacramento. The have a really good basketball team. — Oscar Robertson

Hundreds of ballplayers have performed well after Tommy John surgery, in which an elbow ligament is replaced by material from elsewhere on the body. More and more, athletes will perform with a bit of this or a bit of that in a joint or muscle. — George Vecsey

What I say about actors is you always want to find an actor you can play ball with. You throw the ball at them and you want them to throw it back. Your ball playing is a lot better when you play with good ballplayers, like any sport. Every actor I know feels the same way. — Robert Knepper

I have always been a firm believer that the game has never belonged to the owners. It has never belonged to the ballplayers. It belongs to the guy who puts his money up on the window and says, 'How much does it cost to sit in the bleachers?' That is who owns baseball. And it has got to be kept that way. — Johnny Vander Meer

I think that the game is the game. I think that expansion is good for the game because it gives more jobs to the people and more ballplayers can play, but I think the game is still the game. The ballplayers, they come into the game with one thing in mind - it's their job. — Tony Oliva

Ballplayers are a superstitious breed, nobody more than I, and while you are winning you'd murder anybody who tried to change your sweatshirt, let alone your uniform. — Leo Durocher

Someone has likened Christians to ballplayers on a team. Every member of the lineup is expected to take his turn at bat and do his best to get on base. Though some may make their major contribution in some other way such as pitching or fielding, all are expected to try to get a hit. Two or three players may have the ability to hit the long ball, but all members of the team try to single their way on base. On the Christian team, every believer is expected to try to connect in every area of Christian living. True, some believers may have special abilities in certain areas, but this does not excuse every believer from taking his turn at the plate and doing his best. Every believer must witness, show mercy, give, and obey every command, though only some may have Spirit-given endowments for particular Christian services. — Leslie B. Flynn

Two kinds of ballplayers aren't worth a darn: One that never does what he's told, and one who does nothin' except what he's told. — Bum Phillips

Say what you want about Hitler, but he trained killers. You train kids in their early years and you can do anything you want with that child. - Sparky Anderson, manager of the Detroit Tigers, trying to explain why he prefers younger ballplayers — David James Duncan

Lots of ballplayers have their own personal music blasted by the sound systems in modern ball parks. — George Vecsey

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

Sammy Sosa? Everybody knew who Sammy was, paid attention to Sammy. I had already signed in pro ball when he had the great homer year with Mark McGwire in '98. But I followed it, and I was proud of him because he was my countryman. There are a lot of great ballplayers from the Dominican, and he's one of the best. — Alfonso Soriano

I'll tell you what makes a great manager: A great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you. — Reggie Jackson

On the surface, there is something peculiar about turning a portion of one's happiness over to a collection of ballplayers, and perhaps more peculiar still is concerning oneself about ball games played decades before one's birth. — Tom Swift

I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn't trying to prove I'm boss. I know I'm boss. — Al McGuire

As far as actors go, you're not going to find many ballplayers better than me. — D. B. Sweeney

I've seen plenty of ballplayers way better than me, but they didn't have the work ethic. It comes down to how bad you want it. — Marcus Giles