Baseball Player Quotes & Sayings

I love being an older comic now. It's like being an old soccer or an old baseball player. You're in the Hall of Fame and it's nice, but you're no longer that person in the limelight on the spot doing that thing. — Eric Idle

Do you know the nicest thing about looking at pictures of a 1950's baseball park? The only people wearing baseball caps are the players. — George Carlin

I can't believe that Babe Ruth was a better player than Willie Mays. (Babe) Ruth is to baseball what Arnold Palmer is to golf. He got the game moving. But I can't believe he could run as well as (Willie) Mays, and I can't believe he was any better an outfielder. — Sandy Koufax

When you've learned to believe in yourself, there's no telling how good a player you can be. That's because you have the mental edge. — Rod Carew

Baseball has traditionally possessed a wonderful lack of seriousness. The game's best player, Babe Ruth, was a Rabelaisian fat man, and its most loved manager, Casey Stengel, spoke gibberish. In this lazy sport, only the pitcher pours sweat. Then he takes three days off. — Thomas Boswell

Then he put that one down behind a framed sepia-tone picture of a baseball player named Cecil Travis and picked up another one and tilted it back to his lips. — Tom Wolfe

I wanted to be a professional baseball player. — Balthazar Getty

I'm merely a baseball player, guys, ... In the great scheme of things, my thoughts, opinions and attitudes are of little importance. — John Rocker

As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due. — Mickey Mantle

I would say I was jock. I went to Sierra College. I was a big baseball player. Getting into the MLB was my dream - to become a left-handed pitcher for the Yankees. That's what I was hoping, but life kind of went the other way. — Ryan Guzman

I used to be a writer with superstitions worthy of a professional baseball player: I needed a certain desk chair and a certain armchair and a certain desk arrangement, and I could only get really useful work done between 8 P.M. and 3 A.M. Then I started to move, and I couldn't bring my chairs with me. — Elizabeth McCracken

That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit. — Willie Mays

Show me a good sportsman and I'll show you a player I'm looking to trade. — Leo Durocher

When I was a kid, I have two dreams. I want to be a baseball player. Hometown, Hiroshima, has a Japanese baseball franchise team called Hiroshima Carps. You know, and then I want to be a sushi chef. I want to make own restaurant - sushi restaurant. — Masaharu Morimoto

I had a lot of fear that would motivate me to try to work hard, because I didn't know what I would do if I wasn't a baseball player. — R.A. Dickey

I'm a championship handball player. I'm a championship softball and baseball player. I used to be an extremely talented center in high school in football. I also dabbled in lacrosse and soccer. I'm really good at billiards, darts, shuffleboard. — Action Bronson

Some coaches believed they could judge a player's performance simply by watching it. In this they were deeply mistaken. The naked eye was an inadequate tool for learning what you needed to know to evaluate baseball players and baseball games. Think about it. One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks. The difference between a good hitter and an average hitter is simply not visible-it is a matter of record — Michael Lewis

He (Buck Showaleter) never even smelled a jock in the big leagues. Mr. Baseball never even got a hit in Triple-A. I was a better player than him, I have more money than him and I'm better looking than him. — Ozzie Guillen

I never expectedto lose in court. In practice, I did lose, of course. Every lawyer loses, just as every baseball player makes an out severy percent of the time he goes to bat. — William Landay

You can learn a lot from a professional baseball player, if you can get one, which obviously you can't. — Dimitra Ekmektsis

I heard Bob Weinstein actually likened actors to baseball players. You work for a while then all of a sudden you go through a dry spell. — Michael Cera

We win if the world is convinced of two things, that you are a fine gentleman, and a great baseball player. — Branch Rickey

The Grand Ole Opry, to a country singer, is what Yankee Stadium is to a baseball player. Broadway to an actor. It's the top of the ladder, the top of the mountain. You don't just play the Opry; you live it. — Bill Anderson

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

I have never discussed a player contract with an agent and I like to think I never will. — Walter O'Malley

It's the spirit of Dominicans coming out and the pride that we have in our music and our baseball players. Dominicans love two things: politics and baseball. When we're not talking politics, we're talking baseball. — Jose Peralta

(Mantle) was clearly a greater player in his peak years. — Bill James

Joe DiMaggio batted safely in 56 consecutive games in 1941, the same season Ted Williams batted .406 - but did you know that also in 1941, Jeff Heath, an outfielder who spent a decade playing for the Indians, became the first player in AL history to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 home runs in the same season? It's true. — Tucker Elliot

So it's a strife here, in a way, between position - between the CEO and the top salesman; between the principal and the best teacher; between Miller Huggins, the manager, and Babe Ruth, the best baseball player who ever lived; between the person who can really do it, and the person who is in charge. Those are incommensurable excellences, and then and now they often come into conflict. So here - that is the rage within the rage, the conflict within the conflict, that Homer is interested in chronicling. — Timothy B. Shutt

I had a client who was a professional baseball player once, and he would go to clubs and dance for seven, eight, nine hours at a time. He wouldn't drink, he wouldn't take drugs - he just danced because he had so much physical energy; he was this amazing athlete. — Martha Beck

No former player has owned a team in baseball. — Derek Jeter

I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me. — Gerald R. Ford

More than any other games, baseball gives its players space - both physical and emotional - in which to define themselves. — John Eskow

What's this?"
"An apology, of sorts."
I made a moue, but slipped the lid from the top ... and then my breath left me.
Inside the box sat a baseball, its well-worn white leather marked by the signatures of every Cubs player from the team. It was just like the one I'd had - just like the one I'd told him about the night we made love. — Chloe Neill

I'm human and I've played my butt off for ten years. I'm not a loafer, I'm not a jerk, I'm a baseball player. — Reggie Jackson

I think the best all-round baseball player ever was Joe DiMaggio. — Mickey Mantle

Let me get this straight. The owners are about to shut down baseball when it's more prosperous than it's even been, and the players are the ones who have to get their urine tested? — Ron Darling

Rolen's the perfect baseball player. It's his tenacity, his preparation, the way he plays. He tries to do everything fundamentally sound. And he puts the team team first-there's no fanfare with him. — Ned Yost

It was like the baseball gods were showing off just for him, in honor of his first day of big league baseball. And surely the baseball gods were smiling that day, because the next batter was Larry Brown, and he was a scrawny, scrappy 23-year-old kid who'd never hit a big league home run. And yet he stepped to the plate and became just the second player in baseball history to connect and give his team four consecutive home runs. — Tucker Elliot

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

I find that rock climbing is the finest, most healthiest sport in the whole world. It is much healthier than most; look at baseball, where 10 000 sit on their ass to watch a handful of players — John Salathe

I am and will always be just simply a basball [sic] player, my tomb stone will just say. Baseball. — Jose Canseco

No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more, or did it better than Andre Dawson. He's the best I've ever seen. — Ryne Sandberg

Yeah," he says. "We've been friends since kindergarten. Funniest guy I know," Matt says with a chuckle. "He's a great guitar player, too. He's in a band with some guys from Omaha South. He keeps trying to get me to join."
"What do you play?" I ask.
"Baseball," Matt jokes. — Cat Patrick

The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end if a sorry episode. One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement. — A. Bartlett Giamatti

Comebacks Baseball and malaria keep coming back. GENE MAUCH The problem with being Comeback Player of the Year is it means you have to go somewhere before you can come back. BERT BLYLEVEN It was like watching a movie you've seen a hundred times, only they snuck in an alternate ending. BILL SIMMONS, on the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series — Peter Handrinos

Jim Fregosi was not only one of the most respected men in baseball, he was a great man. He was a player's manager. He had that special gift as a manager that made you want to get to the field and play your ass off for him. Jim Fregosi was the reason that 1993 was one of the most exciting years in Philadelphia sports history. — Lenny Dykstra

When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and also join the circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both. — Graig Nettles

This guy from L.A. sits down next to me, and he says "you like baseball?" I said, "Oh, man, I love baseball." So he goes "Did you know that if Jesus had played ball, he'd have been the greatest ball player ever?" Like I'm gonna argue with that logic. So I sat there for a second, and then I said "did you know that if Babe Ruth had been the Messiah, the Catholics would have beer and hot dogs at Communion?" He left. — Bill Engvall

When I was a kid I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls, but I couldn't play ball. I couldn't dance. Luckily, the girls didn't want me. Not much I could do about that. So I started to draw and to write By the time I got to where I was attracting girls, I was already into work, and it was more important to me. Not that I wouldn't rather make love, but the work has become a habit. — Shel Silverstein

My goal on Earth is not to win a World Series or be the best baseball player who ever lived. That simply is not up to me because I have to wait and see if it is part of the Lord's plan. My goal is to follow the Lord and what he wants me to do so that someday I may enter His kingdom and receive everlasting life. — David Murphy

I am convinced that God wanted me to be a baseball player. — Roberto Clemente

Baseball is not a conventional industry. It belongs neither to the players nor management, but to all of us. It is our national pastime, our national symbol, and our national treasure. — John Thorn

Baseball player. Yeah, that was my dream before acting, or alongside acting. — Shemar Moore

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw. — Willie Mays

Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions. — Sherman Alexie

If you gave me a choice between being married and being a baseball player, that's a no-brainer. I would be married any day. I just love it. — Lance Berkman

I'm a baseball player. I'm also a guy who mows his lawn and plays with his dog. — Scott Rolen

Baseball outfits went through their gaudy period during the disco '70's, when the White Sox looked like softball players and the Athletics looked like 'Saturday Night Fever' personified. — George Vecsey

I love to play baseball. I'm a baseball player. I've always been a baseball player. I'm still a baseball player. That's who I am. — Ryne Sandberg

The most overrated underrated player in baseball. — Lawrence Ritter

I don't care what you do - baseball or politics - George W. Bush is always going to be compared to his father. I just want it to be an easy answer in 50 years - Who was the better player, me, or my kids? I want it to be my kids. — Andy Van Slyke

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

I was planning to be a baseball player until I ran into something called a curveball. And that set me back. — Ben Chandler

For the middle majority of us all, knowledge of Negroes firsthand is probably limited - limited to the colored cleaning woman, who comes twice a week, limited to the colored baseball player who saves or loses a home game, limited to the garage mechanic, or dime-store clerk, or blues singer seen and heard on a Saturday night. To this white majority, the black man is as unknown as once was the heart of the Dark Continent of Africa. — Irving Wallace

If I had to pick the greatest team player in baseball today-and I have some of the greats on my own club-I would have to pick Pie Traynor. — John McGraw

A coach's main job is to reawaken a spirit in which the players can blend together effortlessly. — Phil Jackson

The Gospel of Mark revealed a Jesus who was anti-thetical to the "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild" sung about in Wesley's famous hymn. The portrait of Mark agrees more easily with that of former-major-league-baseball-player-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday who said, 'Jesus was the greatest scrapper who ever lived. — Mark Driscoll

Every time a baseball player grabs his crotch, it makes him spit. That's why you should never date a baseball player. — Marsha Warfield

After a play in the field Casey would turn (to the players on the bench) and say 'What did he do wrong?' or 'You're better than that guy.' Either way, he'd keep them from getting stale. — Mickey Mantle

I was a very good baseball player and football player as a kid. — John Malkovich

Seven is more than a lucky number or a famous baseball player's uniform. It's the brain's natural shepherd, herding vast amounts of information into manageable chunks. — Jacqueline Leo

Things could be worse. Suppose your errors were counted and published everyday, like those of a baseball player. — William Alexander

I always wanted to be a major-league baseball player. — Bryce Harper

I always prayed the same way at night: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Please bless my mother, father, sister, everyone in the word, and me. And please make my father quit drinking."
As a child growing up in a family battling alcoholism, this is what I know: Something bad is coming; it always does. I can't ask for help; I'm too ashamed. I can't talk about our secrets; no one understands. I can't trust anyone; they always leave.
Questions bounced off my self-constructed wall of values
a barricade I'd made from the fears I'd pushed into my darkness.
How could Ryan, a professional baseball player, really resist all those women? How could I really trust Jerry, my childhood friend? I'd barely awakened to sex and already boys were the seventh wonder of the world. Did anyone really trust another person? I needed proof. That proof hadn't revealed itself ... yet. — Pamela Taeuffer

Willie Mays was the best baseball player I ever saw. He could do anything. — Doug Harvey

I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point. — Jose Canseco

We're baseball players. We don't need guys telling us, 'Hey, you need to hurry. Hey, you need to do this. Hey, you need to step up.' We are professionals, we can do that without anybody telling us. I'm OK with it, but we need to do it on our own. — Bengie Molina

Richard Schiff is a really good baseball player. It's surprising because he looks exhausted. — Bradley Whitford

I've played a baseball player a few times, but in my career I've been blessed to have played a wide range of characters. — Daniel Sunjata

All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In spring training prior to his 1995 rookie season, Chipper was already so confident in who he was as a player that he famously deadpanned to veteran slugger Fred McGriff, after the Crime Dog grounded into an inning-ending double play, these two words: "Rally killer." His confidence carried over to the field, just as it had since he began playing as a kid - he batted .265, and he led all rookies with 23 home runs, 87 runs, and 86 RBIs. Hideo Nomo was Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers, but Chipper and the Braves were World Champions. — Tucker Elliot

I love sports. If I could be a baseball player I would. I just am not good at it at all. — Eric Hutchinson

I have to give Mays one edge, durability. Mickey isn't sound and Willie is. Otherwise, if I had a chance to trade for either player, I'd pick Mantle. — Gabe Paul

[In hockey] I was a goon, just protecting the better players. I've always been a better baseball player. — Eric Gagne

Italian-Americans in New York had not been in much of a flag-waving mood prior to DiMaggio's arrival. By the All-Star break, the rookie had established himself as a wonderful player (.358, 10HR, 60 RBIs), fully justifying the acclaim. But Gehrig was even better (.399, 20 HR, 61 RBIs). He was leading the league in nearly every category, including invisibility. — Jonathan Eig

Greaseball, greaseball, greaseball, that's all I throw him (Rod Carew), and he still hits them. He's the only player in baseball who consistently hits my grease. He sees the ball so well, I guess he can pick out the dry side. — Gaylord Perry

I'm a baseball player, I'm not a political activist. — Carlos Delgado

At Texas, I was a football player playing baseball. And the way I play I think I still am. — Adam Dunn

Baseball players tend to have something like 20 good years in them and then around their mid-thirties they aren't in the same shape as the young guys in the league and kind of aren't worth as much. Then they retire before 40. And they are left floating adrift in the middle of the ocean. — Michael Cera

Up until the time I was 14 years old, I was sure that I was going to be a big-league baseball player. But that dream came to a rude awakening when I got cut from my high school baseball team. — Phil Knight

I was a baseball player and a football player at Stanford, so I didn't play a lot of golf in college. I really started playing a lot after I turned pro and I had some time in the off-season. — John Elway

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player. — Ichiro Suzuki

It is nice to have the fans recognize you, not because it makes you feel like a big-time player, but because they enjoy watching baseball and they like watching us play. It's going to get even better being here. Pretty soon, the city could be one of the best places to play. — Ryan Zimmerman

Because the players knew that if Billy asked them to jump off a roof, he'd jump off with them. — Mickey Mantle

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a baseball player. — Takeru Kobayashi

Tom Cruise only makes one or two film appearances a year. A baseball player can be the hero or the goat one-hundred and sixty-two times a year. — Dave Winfield

It will revolutionize baseball. It will open a new area of alibis for the players. — Gabe Paul

Part of my identity for as long as I can remember is being a baseball player. If I'm not that anymore, then who am I?"
"Who do you want to be?"
"Harry Potter — J. Sterling

If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel? — Jack Welch