Best Baseball Player Quotes & Sayings

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

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

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

I got cast playing the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. I don't know how to play any sport, including baseball, but I trained really hard. They had these great coaches, and they started saying, "Wow, you have some like really untapped athletic ability." — Geena Davis

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

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

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

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

It needs to be said, over and over again, that Stan the Man was voted by 'The Sporting News' as the best baseball player of the postwar decade, from 1946 through 1955. — George Vecsey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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'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

My name is not 'The Best Player in Baseball.' My name is George Kenneth Griffey, Jr. — Ken Griffey Jr.

When you hear from other players and they're telling you you're the best pitcher in baseball, that makes you feel really good. — Johan Santana

Mike Trout is unbelievable. He's one of the best players in baseball right now, if not the best. — Bryce Harper

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

The most overrated underrated player in baseball. — Lawrence Ritter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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