Best Baseball Quotes & Sayings

God knows I gave my best in baseball at all times and no man on earth can truthfully judge me otherwise. — Shoeless Joe Jackson

All I can do is do my best work, try to create the best kind of moment to moment reality that I can do. That's what I do. I'm an actor. And all the rest of it is like baseball. You hit the ball. Sometimes it goes in the hole. Sometimes it goes to the player. — Tobin Bell

Arizona was the best place. I like the competition in baseball, and the football program has been great for the past five years. I think I'll be playing as a freshman in both sports, and I think I can play with them. — Terry Vaughn

My dream was to play football for the Oakland Raiders. But my mother thought I would get hurt playing football, so she chose baseball for me. I guess moms do know best. — Rickey Henderson

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

Until my senior year, baseball and basketball were my best sports; and even when I was a senior, I still wanted to play baseball professionally. But the family wanted me to go to college, and I guess I agreed with them, or else I would have accepted some of the offers I got. — Joe Namath

If you can't enjoy the game unless you are pretty sure your team is going to win, baseball is not the game for you. Remember, the best team in baseball in any year is going to be beaten about 60 times. — Daniel Okrent

I was able to get operated on four days after I was diagnosed. It was just a matter of getting this baseball-sized tumor out of me. I reflect now on how lucky I was to be in the situation where I could get the best possible help and treatment. — Eric Davis

That's the remarkable thing about baseball. The game has a way of having you scratch your head one minute and drive you crazy, and then the next, you're entertained beyond your wildest hopes. That's why it's the best game. — Johnny Bench

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

Whereas Mark Fidrych has awakened the boy lying dormant in every man's breast, Whereas he has reminded us all that, in an age of free agents and no-cut contracts, baseball is still a game, he has proven baseballs, like people, respond best to kind words and constructive criticism and not to saliva and Vaseline, he made Big Bird as popular with fifty-year-olds as with the playpen set" - Governor Michael Dukakis — Doug Wilson

Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA. — Bobby Knight

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

Any man who can look handsome in a dirty baseball suit is an Adonis. There is something about the baggy pants, and the Micawber-shaped collar, and the skull-fitting cap, and the foot or so of tan, or blue, or pink undershirt sleeve sticking out at the arms, that just naturally kills a man's best points. — Edna Ferber

Is it in the best interest of baseball to sell beer in the ninth inning? Probably not. The rule has got to be more clearly defined. And then some process should be set up where the judge is not also the appeals judge. — George Steinbrenner

The fastball is the best pitch in baseball. It's like having five pitches, if you move it around. — Luis Tiant

Cub fans, by consensus, are the best in baseball. Year after year, in good times and (mostly) bad, they turn out in vociferous numbers, sustaining themselves with a heavenly ichor that combines loyalty, criticism, cheerfulness, durability, rage, beer and hope, in exquisite proportions. — Roger Angell

The best word to describe Albert Belle during the mid-1990s is "prolific." The man could flat hit. — Tucker Elliot

We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. Swinging only at balls in his "best" cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his "worst" spot, the low outside corner of the strike zone, would reduce him to .230. In other words, waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors. — Warren Buffett

Baseball is the ideal forum for teachiing the art of failure; the very best fail to get a hit seven out of ten times. — Sam Dunn

Jim Fregosi will be deeply missed in the baseball world. Joni and the rest of the family are in our prayers. Fregos, was the best manager I've ever played for. Our relationship was so special.and he was the one that taught me how to be a leader. Fregos and I could relate to each other whether we were in the clubhouse or on the field. In 1993 The City of Brotherly Love changed the world..Fregos was the driving force!!! — Darren Daulton

For someone whose roots in America were strong but only inches deep, and who had no experience, such as a Catholic child might, of an awesome hierarchy that was real and felt, baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and region of the nation and bound millions upon millions of us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms. Baseball made me understand what patriotism was about, at its best. — Philip Roth

The best show on television is Red Sox baseball. Everything else sucks. — Stephen King

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

I am convinced that being fully committed to the moment, without any worries about the past or projections into the future, is the best attribute a closer can have. You wonder why the shelf life of so many short relievers is, well, so short? Why guys can be unhittable for a year or two and then disappear? It's because it takes a ton of concentration, and self-belief, to stay in the moment in this way and not let the highs and lows mess with your psyche. — Mariano Rivera

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

For most baseball fans, maybe oldest is always best. We love baseball because it seizes and retains the past, like the snowy village inside a glass paperweight. — Donald Hall

[On softball:] Diamonds are a dyke's best friend. — Yvonne Zipter

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

I'm trying to be the best baseball player I can, to learn from what I see and get better every day. — Giancarlo Stanton

How can you not be romantic about baseball? — Billy Beane

I knew I was the second-best tennis player in the state of Florida and No. 8 in the United States of America when I was 12 years old and I couldn't tell you what I was in baseball, but I liked my chances in tennis of getting a scholarship to college. — Jim Courier

Now, I have to tell you, this reminds me of a story. Actually, it's an old baseball story. You see, one day, old Lucifer down there from his headquarters called St. Peter in Heaven, said they wanted to challenge him to a baseball game. And St. Peter said, "Sure, let's play. But to be fair, I have to tell you all the great ones are up here. We've got Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige, Roberto Clemente. We've got all the best players, and our manager is the legendary Connie Mack. You won't have a chance." Well, old Lucifer says, "That doesn't matter, we'll win anyway." And St. Peter says, "How do you expect to do that?" "Well," he says, "simple, we've got all the umpires." Luncheon for Representative Connie Mack Miami, Florida June 29, 1988 — Malcolm Kushner

It's widely noted that among players currently eligible for the Hall of Fame, Maris and Murphy are the only two-time MVP recipients not enshrined at Cooperstown. In a previous book I argued Maris should be in the Hall of Fame - here I'd simply point out that during his prime, Murphy was the best player in the game. You can argue that his prime didn't last long enough or that his career numbers aren't strong enough, but then he didn't cheat either. — Tucker Elliot

Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off. — Bill Veeck

I've always wanted to be the best in the world as a baseball player, so when I started to think about opening a business, it was with that mindset. — Curt Schilling

It is a mass language only in the same sense that its baseball slang is born of baseball players. That is, it is a language which is being molded by writers to do delicate things and yet be within the grasp of superficially educated people. It is not a natural growth, much as its proletarian writers would like to think so. But compared with it at its best, English has reached the Alexandrian stage of formalism and decay. — Raymond Chandler

The best possible thing in baseball is winning The World Series. The second best thing is losing The World Series. — Tommy Lasorda

I like football. I like baseball. When the pitcher and the batter start fighting, that's the best. — Pablo Francisco

In baseball, even the best hitters fail seven of ten times, and of those seven failures there are different reasons why. Some are personal failures, others are losses to the pitcher. You just get beat. In those personal failures, I felt I could have done better. — Ichiro Suzuki

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life. — Pete Rose

I had to come out on stage with my little staff and robe and I had this sun on top of my head that my mom made - that was the first time I was ever on stage singing in front of anybody. I realized that I was one of the best acts of the night but I didn't give singing much thought after that. I was really into playing baseball. — Gonjasufi

At my best I was as good as anyone. — Mickey Mantle

BLOCK: When you're cruising around on the Internet, there's something you do all the time and maybe never really think about. Let's say I wanted to get tickets to a baseball tonight. So, I'm at the Web site for the Washington Nationals. I'm asking for two tickets, the best available seats. And here's what I have to — Anonymous

The best place to catch a baseball hit by (Mark) McGwire is definitely not within the confines of the playing field, or sometimes even the ballpark. Other players dial '1' for long distance. McGwire has to ask for an international operator. — Thomas Boswell

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

It is the best of all games for me. It frequently escapes from the pattern of sport and assumes the form of a virile ballet. It is purer than any dance because the actions of the players are not governed by music or crowded into a formula by a director. The movement is natural and unrehearsed and controlled only by the unexpected flight of the ball. — Jimmy Cannon

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

That's the best thing about being an actor. If you're in a baseball movie, you walk away knowing way more about baseball, or if you're in a sci-fi film, you learn way more about Comic-Con, and so I loved all that. — Topher Grace

For Schwartz this formed the paradox at the heart of baseball, or football, or any other sport. You loved it because you considered it an art: an apparently pointless affair, undertaken by people with special aptitude, which sidestepped attempts to paraphrase its value yet somehow seemed to communicate something true or even crucial about The Human Condition. The Human Condition being, basically, that we're alive and have access to beauty, can even erratically create it, but will someday be dead and will not.
Baseball was an art, but to excel at it you had to become a machine. It didn't matter how beautifully you performed SOMETIMES, what you did on your best day, how many spectacular plays you made. You weren't a painter or a writer
you didn't work in private and discard your mistakes, and it wasn't just your masterpieces that counted. — Chad Harbach

How can you not have fun going around the country playing baseball for a living? Being a baseball player is the next best thing to being a rock star. — Jason Giambi

I remember when I got a call and was told I was traded [to the Yankees in 1974], I actually cried because I liked Kansas City. But coming to the Yankees was the best thing that ever happened to me in my baseball career. — Lou Piniella

Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it. — Al Lopez

There ought to be some other means of reckoning quality in this the best and loveliest of games; the scoreboard is an ass. — Neville Cardus

Models are like baseball players. We make a lot of money quickly, but all of a sudden we're 30 years old, we don't have a college education, we're qualified for nothing, and we're used to a very nice lifestyle. The best thing is to marry a movie star. — Cindy Crawford

And in that moment he felt- for the first time that optimistic and cheerful boy allowed himself to feel- how badly made life was, how flawed. No matter how richly furnished you made it, with all the noise and variet of Something, Nothing always found a way in, seeped through the cracks and patches. Mr. Feld was right; life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game in which even champions lost almost as often as they won and even the best hitters were put out 70 percent of the time — Michael Chabon

I know it's tough. Everybody in baseball knows its tough. I'm just going to give it my best shot. — Mark McGwire

When you're mad at someone, it's probably best not to break his arm with a baseball bat. — Evel Knievel

Childhood is a time for pretending and trying on maturity to see if it fits or hangs baggy, tastes good or bitter, smells nice or fills your lungs with smoke that makes you cough. It's sharing licks on the same sucker with your best friend before you discover germs. It's not knowing how much a house cost, and caring less. It's going to bed in the summer with dirty feet on clean sheets. It's thinking anyone over fifteen is 'ancient'. It's absorbing ideas, knowledge, and people like a giant sponge. Childhood is where 'competition' is a baseball game and 'responsibility' is a paper route. — Erma Bombeck

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

I think it's really important for this great state of baseball to reach out to people of all walks of life to make sure that the sport is inclusive. The best way to do it is to convince little kids how to
the beauty of playing baseball. — George W. Bush

I guess show business is a lot like baseball: "Wait until next year!" You just never know. Some of the shittiest shows I've ever seen run forever, and some of the best things never get a chance. — Kurt Fuller

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

Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard. — Tris Speaker

Baseball was an art, but to excel at it you had to become a machine. It didn't matter how beautifully you performed _sometimes_, what you did on your best day, how many spectacular plays you made. You weren't a painter or a writer
you didn't work in private and discard your mistakes, and it wasn't just your masterpieces that counted. What mattered, as for any machine, was repeatability. Moments of inspiration were nothing compared to elimination of error. The scouts cared little for Henry's superhuman grace; insofar as they cared they were suckered-in aesthetes and shitty scouts. Can you perform on demand, like a car, a furnace, a gun? Can you make that throw one hundred times out of a hundred? If it can't be a hundred, it had better be ninety-nine. — Chad Harbach

I love baseball. I love watching baseball. As a broadcaster, I get to watch the best 700 players put on the uniform year after year. That, to me, is exciting. — Bert Blyleven

The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball. — Tom Seaver

I chose baseball because to me baseball is the best game of all. — Dave Winfield

There are many ways to measure a manager's success and contributions to a franchise ... but in this case the two numbers that illustrate it best are eight and four: Bobby Cox's #6 jersey was just the eighth number retired in franchise history, and of the remaining seven, four of them played for Bobby. — Tucker Elliot

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

Give him a crowd, a gallery worthy of his best effort, and the old warrior will put on his show ... He isn't what he use to be. But pack the stands, turn up the lights, and who is it brings down the house with his act? The Babe! — John J. Kiernan

You can have the best team in baseball, and if nobody goes through the turnstiles, you've got to shut the doors down. — Tommy Lasorda

If you keep wiggling, things might get uncomfortable," he said into my ear, his voice like a caress. "I'm doing my best, but thinking about baseball only takes you so far." I froze. — Ilona Andrews

I remember you explaining the bases to me in this dugout. The best baseball conversation we ever had."
I lean forward and claps my hands together. "Maybe you missed part of the conversation, because I wasn't explaining baseball."
... "I know, but I still enjoyed the demonstration. — Katie McGarry

Ralph (Houk) brought out the best in everybody, and that included me. I consider myself lucky to have played for him. — Mickey Mantle

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

You know what I love best about baseball? The pine tar, the resin, the grass, the dirt - and that's just in the hot-dogs. — David Letterman

Everyone says the best fans in baseball are here [in Boston] and I can't wait to be a part of that. — Jason Bay

Baseball isn't just a game. It's life being played out on a field - a field of dreams - on diamonds of green, where players pursuing their dreams try to be the best they can be on the grandest stage of all - where men become boys and boys become men, all speaking one universal language without uttering a single word. — Tom Tatum

What I like best about baseball is the continuity. Generation after generation can follow the game and get the same satisfactions year after year and bring to it the same interest and spirit. I want to take that with me into the next century. — Dan Shaughnessy

Baseball's best teams lose about sixty-five times a season. It is not a game you can play with your teeth clenched. — George Will

The best thing about being a Yankee is getting to watch Reggie Jackson play every day. The worst thing about being a Yankee? Getting to watch Reggie Jackson play every day — Graig Nettles

Whether your name is (Lou) Gehrig or (Cal) Ripken, (Joe) DiMaggio or (Jackie) Robinson, or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That's all I've ever tried to do. — Cal Ripken Jr.

It's still the best game in town because you don't have to be big to play, and everybody plays. Even your grandmother probably played baseball. — Tommy Lasorda

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

I always said that the only team that I would coach would be a team of orphans, and now here we are. The reason for me saying this is that I have found the biggest problem with youth sports has been the parents. I think that it is best to nip this in the bud right off the bat. I think the concept that I am asking all of you to grab is that this experience is ALL about the boys. If there is anything about it that includes you, we need to make a change of plans. My main goals are as follows: (1) to teach these young men how to play the game of baseball the right way, (2) to be a positive impact on them as young men, and (3) do all of this with class. — Rob Rains

Baseball is probably the world's best documented sport. — Ford Frick

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

There is no chance of night baseball ever being popular in the bigger cities. People there are educated to see the best there is and will stand for only the best. High-class baseball cannot be played at night under artificial light. — Clark Griffith

The best thing about baseball is there's no homework. — Dan Quisenberry

One of the supreme paradoxes of baseball, and all sports, is that the harder you try to throw a pitch or hit a ball or accomplish something, the smaller your chances are for success. You get the best results not when you apply superhuman effort but when you let the game flow organically and allow yourself to be fully present. You'll often hear scouts say of a great prospect, "The game comes slow to him." It mean the prospect is skilled and poised enough to let the game unfold in its own time, paying no attention to the angst or urgency or doubt, funnelling all awareness to the athletic task at hand. — R.A. Dickey

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world. — Babe Ruth

The best example of how impossible it will be for Major League Baseball to crack down on steroids is the fact that baseball and the media are still talking about the problem as 'steroids.' — Malcolm Gladwell

Life is like the baseball season, where even the best team loses at least a third of its games, and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. The goal is not to win every game but to win more than you lose, and if you do that often enough, in the end you may find you have won it all. — Harold S. Kushner

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

Baseball was my refuge. When I came on the field, I did my job, and did the best I could and focused on that. Then I went home and I was miserable. That was pretty much my routine every day.? — Joey Votto

The truth is that I've never cared anything about sports. In PE, I do my best to get hit with the dodgeball on the first throw so I can sit out and read instead of play. I'd rather eat a hot dog at a baseball game than play baseball. I'd rather paint a soccer ball than kick one. I don't mind running, but only if I'm running towards something wonderful. i don't see the point in running away from anything, ever. -Felicity Pickle — Natalie Lloyd

We're the best team in baseball, but not by much. — Sparky Anderson