Baseball's Greatest Quotes & Sayings

That's what's great about baseball: some people are exceptional at the game, but still, even people that aren't very athletic, like me - I played Little League! It's one of those games in sports where even if you're not the greatest, you can still play. — Tom Guiry

Now tell me this. What would you consider the greatest spectator sport in the country today? Would you say it was baseball, basketball, football? ... It's politics. That's right, politics. Millions and millions of people following it every day in the newspapers, over the TV and the radio. Now mind you, they wouldn't get mixed up in this themselves for all the tea in China, but they know the names and numbers of all the players. And what they can't tell the coaches about strategy. Oh, you should see some of the letters I get. — Frank Nugent

Chicago is the greatest of all baseball cities. I make no exception, although I have been treated well wherever I have been. It is the greatest city because the fans will stick to a loser season after season. I have had my share of defeats, so I should know. — Charles Comiskey

Being offended has replaced baseball as our greatest national pastime. — Kim Hunt Harris

The Baseball Hall of Fame is something every player dreams about, but being a member of God's Hall of Fame is the greatest achievement of all. God offers each of us the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. When we accept God's gift of salvation, our name is written in the Book of Life, guaranteeing us a place in heaven forever. I made that decision during spring training in 1973, asking Jesus to come into my heart as Lord and Savior. — Gary Carter

The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have. — Willie Mays

What is the top requirement for a second baseman? A fine shortstop. I am fortunate in having the greatest shortstop in baseball, Luis Aparicio. — Nellie Fox

Baseball is the greatest sport in the world. It is the cleanest, besides affording more people the right kind of amusement than any other. I do not say that because I have made my living at it. I say it from the heart. — Charles Comiskey

Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is! — Ted Williams

Baseball is the greatest of all team sports. — Herbert Hoover

Baseball is the greatest of American games. Some say football, but it is my firm belief, and it shall always be, that baseball has no superior. — Thomas A. Edison

Not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

You think the greatest thing in the whole world would be to become a baseball player - if best things already happened, what's next? — John McGraw

Of course, I believe that Mike Piazza is probably the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, only got over 50%. Johnny Bench is the best catcher in the history of baseball, but Piazza has all the record for catchers as far as offensively. — Pete Rose

The beauty of baseball is multidimensional, appealing to the eye and the mind. There is beauty, for instance, in its geometry, the space between the bases and the fielders; beauty in the arc of the season, which brings us out of doors to gather, until fall calls us back in; and beauty in its democracy, that each player hits in turn. But one of its greatest beauties is that, more than any other sport, it emboldens an expertise from those who watch it. Everybody can manage. That does not happen as easily in other sports. In — Tom Verducci

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 damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all. — Earl Weaver

I owe baseball all that I have and much of what I hope to have. Baseball made my entrance to the film industry immeasurably easier than I could have made it alone. To the greatest game in the world I shall be eternally in debt. — Chuck Connors

The greatest thing I ever saw was Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's record. — Mickey Mantle

A no-hitter is a freaky thing,' Tweet said. 'Most of the greatest pitchers never pitched one. It's a combination of a lot of little accidents. — Duane Decker

A brick is a biographical film in which a young orphan brick from the wrong side of the track grows up to be one of the most important bricks in all brick kind, as it is now quite literally the cornerstone of one of America's greatest ballparks.(Fenway) — Nicole McKay

Today I am the greatest of all time. — Rickey Henderson

The greatest thing you can do in life is to tell a young boy or girl that they're 'the very best' at something - baseball, reading, art. That gives them the wonderful feeling that they can do anything, which they can! — Charles Kuralt

Baseball has been the greatest things in my life, but the cameras and the media surrounding baseball have not been fun. It's unnecessary. How many times do they see me stretch? How many times do they see me walk? It is a big concern. If it affected the team in a negative way, I don't know what I would do. — Ichiro Suzuki

It's always exciting that you can rub elbows with some of the greatest players who have ever played the game, and just being around the "family" again from baseball. — Rickey Henderson

Let someone else be the world's greatest actress. I'll be the world's greatest baseball fan. — Laraine Day

Chipper Jones will be in the Hall of Fame. The #1 overall pick in the 1990 draft, Chipper will be remembered as the greatest switch-hitting third baseman in baseball history. — Tucker Elliot

I cannot but feel that the one man, above all others, who deserves the eternal thanks of his own race, and all thinking people, for bringing about baseball's greatest reform, is Jackie Robinson himself ... Certainly baseball people should be eternally grateful for the contribution he made to his own people, and to the game. — Ford Frick

To me, baseball is as honorable as any other business. It is the most honest pastime in the world. It has to be, or it could not last a season out. Crookedness and baseball do not mix. It has become immeasurably more popular as the years have gone by. It will be greater yet. This year, 1919, is the greatest season of them all. — Charles Comiskey

It was the single greatest feat I ever saw. — Mickey Mantle

A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived. — Ted Willams

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

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

Many of the greatest black athletes of all time played baseball for no money and no recognition. I'm just sorry many major league fans never got to see them play, because many of them were awesome. — Monte Irvin

The public wouldn't like the perfect umpire in every game. It would kill off baseball's greatest alibi - 'We was robbed.' — Billy Evans

Vic Wertz once hit a ball rather famously that was later described as such: 'It would have been a home run in any other park - including Yellowstone.' Instead, he's remembered as the guy who got robbed by Willie Mays' spectacular catch during the 1954 World Series between the Indians and the Giants, a play that remains one of the game's all-time greatest defensive efforts. What people often forget about Wertz is that his greatest battle wasn't that one at bat, and that one out never defined his career. He was stricken with polio in 1955, and after 74 games his season was over and his career was hanging in the balance. 'The Catch' by Willie Mays couldn't keep him down, and neither could polio - he came back in 1956, and despite playing in only 136 games he belted 32 home runs with 106 RBIs. — Tucker Elliot

If all of us who love baseball and are doing our jobs, then those who get the game from us will be as proud to be a part of it as we were. And we are. This game is a gift, and I am humbled, very humbled, to accept its greatest honor. — Joe Torre

Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging ... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm? — David Brin

Say this for big league baseball - it is beyond any question the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America. — Bruce Catton

I never got to see the '27 Yankees. Everyone says that was the greatest team ever. But I think it would've been a great series if we'd have had the chance to play them. — Mickey Mantle

Baseball is the greatest thing in the world. — James Gray

That's one of the great gifts of this, the greatest of all games, baseball: it allows you, still, to lose yourself in a dream, to feel and remember a season of life when summer never seemed to die and the assault of cynicism hadn't begun to batter optimism. — Mike Barnicle

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

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

By any reasonable standard (i.e. he didn't cheat), Aaron is one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history - and there shouldn't even be a debate about who is baseball's true all-time home run champion (again, no cheating). — Tucker Elliot

Baseball doesn't seem very important on a day like this ... When you live in the United States and you think it's the greatest country in the world, you feel somewhat protected and immune. You read about [terrorism] happening in other parts of the world. A day like this makes you rethink. A lot of us really have a false sense of what the world is really like. — Gerry Hunsicker

Before I was ever in my teens, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. My goal was to be the greatest athlete that ever lived. — Babe Didrikson Zaharias

In baseball, you can't kill the clock. You've got to give the other man his chance. That's why this is the greatest game. — Earl Weaver

I love the game, it's the greatest game on earth, that's why I can't understand all of this talk about trying to make the game better. People talk about the high strike zone and changing this and that. Why? To speed up the game? That's the beauty of baseball. There is no time element. — Eric Davis

The greatest feeling in the world is to win a major league game. The second-greatest feeling is to lose a major league game. — Chuck Tanner