Innings Quotes & Sayings

Whilst ladies persist in maintaining the strictly defensive condition, men must naturally, as it were, take the oppposite line, that of attack; otherwise, if both parties held aloof, there would be no more marriages; and the two hosts would die in their respective inaction, without ever coming to a battle. Thus it is evident that as the ladies will not, the men must take the offensive ... Is it not time that the ladies should take an innings? Let us widowers and bachelors form an association to declare that for the next hundred years we will make love no longer. Let the young women come and make love to us; let them write us verses; let them ask us to dance, get us ices and cups of tea, and help us on with our cloaks at the hall-door; and if they are eligible, we may perhaps be induced to yield and say, 'La, Miss Hopkins - I really never - I am so agitated - Ask papa! — William Makepeace Thackeray

We'll probably only consider a handful of individuals. We'll bring up people who can accumulate either innings or at-bats, so we can hopefully gauge where they stand as a prospective Major Leaguer. — Dan O'Brien

My pitch count as a general rule was 135. And I knew how many pitches I had when I went to the mound for the last three innings. — Tom Seaver

If you are used to going five innings and then go six or seven, you won't have your good stuff. They need to start that from the minor leagues and give pitchers strong arms. — Juan Marichal

Square cuts which ordinarily would have flashed to the boundary earned only two, and I believe that those two innings would have been worth 150 apiece in a county match. — Frank Woolley

The Nationals tried hard to recover the lost ground. The final result, however, was the success of the Forest Citys by a score of 29 to 23 in a nine innings game, twice interrupted by rain. — Henry Chadwick

I don't like pitchers who walk hitters. It puts pressure on your defense. The less walks you have, the better your chances of getting through innings. More walks lead to overworking your bullpen, sometimes just by having to get somebody up, just in case. — Kevin Towers

To participate in a World Cup is a great honour and achievement. I've played in three World Cups. The whole world watches you during a World Cup and expects you to play innings to win games for your country. — Virender Sehwag

After a great blow, or crisis, after the first shock and then after the nerves have stopped screaming and twitching, you settle down to the new condition of things and feel that all possibility of change has been used up. You adjust yourself, and are sure that the new equilibrium is for eternity ... But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn't the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day. — Robert Penn Warren

It's Curt Schilling and his bloody sock staring down the Yankees in the Bronx. It's Derek Lowe taking the mound the very next night to complete the most improbable comeback in baseball history - and then seven days later clinching the World Series. It's Pedro Martinez and his six hitless innings of postseason relief against the Indians. Yes, it is also Cy Young and Roger Clemens, and the 192 wins in a Red Sox uniform that they share - the perfect game for Young, the 20 strikeout games for Clemens - but it is also Bill Dinneen clinching the 1903 World Series with a busted, bloody hand, and Jose Santiago shutting down Minnesota with two games left in the season to keep the 1967 Impossible Dream alive, and Jim Lonborg clinching the Impossible Dream the very next day, and Jim Lonborg again, tossing a one-hitter and a three-hitter in the 1967 World Series, and Luis Tiant in the 1975 postseason, shutting out Oakland and Cincinnati in back-to-back starts. They are all winners. — Tucker Elliot

The normal process of life contains moments as bad as any of those which insane melancholy is filled with, moments in which radical evil gets its innings and takes its solid turn. The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony. If you protest, my friend, wait until you arrive there yourself. (The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902) — Thomas Ligotti

The thing I learned when I was playing was that your best way of winning was to make it difficult for the other team to score in the last three innings. — Tony La Russa

This leads me to suggest an endeavour should be made to make cricket more exciting, and have more thrilling incidents. I believe the best way would be to count two runs for every maiden over bowled during the match. For instance, the MCC side bowl 30 "maidens" getting rid of Notts; they therefore would start their (MCC) innings with 60 runs, and Notts, bowling only 15 "maidens," would have 30 runs added to their score. — Fred Spofforth

I kept believing that, if I got my innings in, it would come. I just kept believing. — Cole Hamels

Ten years from now I think people are going to look back and say Willis Reed pulled a Curt Schilling ... Willis Reed scored four points. Curt Schilling went seven innings against one of the best offenses of recent memory. No offense to Willis Reed. — Theo Epstein

An innings of neurotic violence, of eccentric watchfulness, of brainless impetuosity and incontinent savagery - it was an extraordinary innings, a masterpiece and it secured the Ashes for England [on Pietersen's Ashes winning innings, 2005 — Simon Barnes

Sports teaches you there is always a second innings in life. If you fail today, there's a second innings maybe two days later. Maybe there's another opportunity coming up three or six months later. If you look at mistake as learnings and commit never to make a same mistake again, then you actually get better with every mistake that you make. — Harsha Bhogle

Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things. — Danny Murtaugh

At the end of six innings of play, it's Montreal 5, Expos 3. — Jerry Coleman

If you throw 200 innings or more, you have to be in shape. If you work on your diet and strength, it will help you be in perfect shape for the playoffs. — Carlos Zambrano

There's been times where I've come out of the bullpen thinking I was going to throw a no hitter, and I've lasted two or three innings. So I try not to use my pre-game warm ups as a barometer of how I'm going to pitch. — Tim Wakefield

In East Bangor, Pennsylvania (population 800), there's a little diner named for the trolley that used to take people to the once-bustling steel town of Bethlehem. The proprietors have adorned the walls with photographs of other local things that are no more. There's one of the East Bangor band, a group of about twenty men and boys, in uniform, in front of a bandstand draped with bunting. There's also one of the Kaysers, a local baseball club, on the day of an exhibition ballgame against the Philadelphia Athletics. These were Connie Mack's A's, which team in those early 1930s featured Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, and Lefty Grove. How did a village of under a thousand people manage to have its own band? How did a cluster of slate-belt villages field a regular baseball club, apparently good enough to stay on the same field for nine innings with the Philadelphia Athletics? What — Anthony M. Esolen

To be able to play baseball for those nine innings in front of a major league crowd is a special privilege. — Mark Teixeira

Pitchers are going to break. You can limit their pitches and limit their innings, and they're still going to blow out. Pitching is hard on the arm. — Bruce Sutter

This is a game to be savored, not gulped. There's time to discuss everything between pitches or between innings. — Bill Veeck

In August 1945, a former Army pilot with an artificial leg pitched five and a third innings for Washington against Boston. This would turn out to be Bert Shepard's only major league game, and it remains one of the heartwarming moments in baseball history. — George Vecsey

Every cricketer knows that in the early stages of a batsman's innings i.e. before he gets his eye in - luck plays an important part. — W. G. Grace

I almost feel guilty. The physical toll is tremendous. Im exhausted and I only played nine innings. — Lance Berkman

Skip Caray was my favorite announcer as I grew up listening to the Braves on TBS and on the radio. One night, listening to a game that was headed into extra-innings, the broadcast was just breaking away to commercial when Skip said, 'Free baseball in Atlanta!' One of the best lines I've ever heard. — Tucker Elliot

I've pitched too many innings and pitched too many years - one game doesn't make or break my career. — Jamie Moyer

Baseball is a movable conversation across nine innings. It is eye contact with the person seated next to you in a park where the pitcher is separated from the batter by 60 feet, six inches or in a family room where a 60-inch TV screen hangs on the wall. — Mike Barnicle

I'm proud of the fact that I pitched almost 3,300 innings. — Dennis Eckersley

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. — Earl Wilson

Most of us would give anything for the chance to play just one day of MLB baseball - especially for our favorite team. Well, there once was a pitcher named Bock Baker who actually got two opportunities to pitch in the big leagues. He took the mound for Cleveland against the Chicago White Sox in his big league debut. How did he fare? Well, he pitched a complete game. Pretty spectacular, right? Well, sure - but it depends on your perspective. He gave up 23 hits and 13 runs. Baker never pitched for Cleveland again, but the Philadelphia Athletics gave him a second big league start that same year (1901). He lasted juts six innings, and lost again after giving up 11 runs - and then his career was over. — Tucker Elliot

We are a much improved ball club: now we lose in extra innings! — Casey Stengel

I'm not trying to be cocky, but I set such a high standard for myself. I'm not happy when I pitch seven innings and give up two runs and get a win. — Barry Zito

Tiant, noted for odd pitching mannerisms, is also a famous mound dawdler. Stands on hill like sunstruck archeologist at Knossos. Regards ruins. Studies sun. Studies landscape. Looks at artifact in hand. Wonders: Keep this potsherd or throw it away? Does Smithsonian want it? Hmm. Prepares to throw it away. Pauses. Sudd. discovers writing on object. Hmm. Possible Linear B inscript.? Sighs. Decides. Throws. Wipes face. Repeats whole thing. Innings & hours creep by. Spectators clap, yawn, droop, expire. — Roger Angell

Our team goal is pretty simple ... basically prepare ourselves to play for nine innings every day, every series, and against every opponent. For me individually, it's more of just trying to play my role the best I can every day. — Curtis Granderson

I had good innings, as the British say. I wrote for 38 years at the top of my form, and I wanted to quit on a high note. — Annie Dillard

For any budding cricketers listening, do you have any superstitious routines before an innings, like putting one pad on first and then the other one? — Tony Lewis

As in diamonds so in batting, perfection requires flawlessness and nowhere is a batting imperfection more quickly recognised than in the dropped catch. For this reason any innings worthy of consideration deserves to have all its flaws studied to establish whether or not it is the genuine gem or just masquerading as one under the glitter of big hitting or weight of runs. — Patrick Ferriday

One colossal advantage of being in extra innings is that you can tell it like it is, say what you think, and largely eschew political caution. — Bob Lutz

September 11, 1974 - Mets and Cardinals play 25 innings in the longest night game in history — Josh Leventhal

I just hope, in all honesty, that Steve will walk if he hits it, you know what I mean? I would hate to be bringing up my bent finger as a controversial decision. I hope he'll go nice and easy - caught in the covers or bowled middle stump. I just hope he doesn't get his pads in the way or his bat's wide enough to get a thin edge [on Steve Waugh's last innings] — Billy Bowden

My first year in the big leagues, I made $17,000. It was easy to go out and get another $17,000 relief pitcher. I never worried about innings or pitches. I just pitched. — Bruce Sutter

In my opinion, the best setup guys now have a tougher job than the closers. They pitch more innings, inherit more runners. — Goose Gossage

I imagine myself as the broadcaster for a Cubs-White Sox World Series, a Series that would last seven games, with the final game going extra innings before being suspended because of darkness at Wrigley Field. — Jack Brickhouse

I want to be the guy that can go out there and go at least seven, eight innings every time out. — Stephen Strasburg

Every time I fail to smoke a cigarette between innings, the opposition will score. — Earl Weaver

Mark Waugh, the most fluent and aesthetically pleasing batsman of his generation but also one of the most frustrating to watch. Often, when he appeared to be a class above the rest and to have the bowling at his mercy, he would play a lazy shot to what appeared, more often than not, an innocuous delivery. And just like that his innings would be over. To make matters worse, he didn't seem to care; he would nonchalantly wander off the field. No shaking of the head or staring back at the pitch to apportion blame. His fans had to learn to accept 30s and 40s instead of centuries and 150s. His concentration, some would say his interest, never seemed to be there in the Test arena. Despite playing some match-winning Test innings, Waugh was never quite able to shake the 'lackadaisical' tag. — Sean Ehlers

Maybe it all went back to the days when games were decided, not by the best score in nine innings, but by the first team to score twenty-one runs — Robert Coover

I think I rushed and I needed more time with my comeback. I needed more time to get my legs stronger to be able to handle the workload. You can only train for that by pitching innings. You can't simulate pitching off a mound in a game inside a weight room. — David Cone

In my long innings, I have seen many sunrises and many sunsets; many good and bad times. — Sharad Pawar

Bunts lead to more big innings than anything else. — Mitch Williams

I wouldn't throw all spitballs. I'd go maybe two or three innings without throwing a spitter, but I always had them looking for it. — Stan Coveleski

We have to judge politicians by their cumulative score. In one innings they make a great catch, in another they drop the ball. In one they score a home run, in another they strike out. But it is their cumulative batting average that we are interested in. — Jesse Jackson

Yes, in baseball when the team stinks, you fire the manager. But you don't fire him because it rains. And you don't let the opposing team choose a new manager for you. And you don't fire him between innings. And replace him with a Viennese weightlifter. — Bill Maher

He has played some outstanding innings in the past, and I've got no [sic] confidence whatsoever that he'll come back and play very well in the near future. — Andrew Strauss

Yeah, he's in pain except between the first and ninth innings — Dave Bristol

My father - until the day that my dad died - didn't know how many points you scored in a touchdown. He could say there were nine innings in baseball, but no intricacies of the sport. — Damon Lindelof

You three don't like any of the men I introduce you to. You didn't even like the Hot OB."
"The HOT OB was a douche," Charlie said.
"This mystery man better not be another douche, Brooke," Ford warned. "I can't spend six innings trapped in a skybox with a douche. — Julie James

In sport, there is always room for improvement. Whenever I see my innings against the West Indies or Australia, I think, 'Maybe, I could have done this better or should have changed that.' See, cricket is a skill game, and one can always improve upon the impact one has on an innings. — Yuvraj Singh

I've seen how Rahul goes about his innings & that's something I want to get myself involved with. — Kevin Pietersen

You can win it in the late innings if you never quit. — Robert Forster

Whether he gets hit early or in the middle or late, he gets in his seven innings it seems like every time. There are also great defensive plays made behind him and it's not a coincidence. Guys are in the game. He works quick. — Paul Konerko

When they come here, what we are looking for them to do is step up to the plate, take responsibility and get the big innings, the centuries - or take a lead with the ball. — Andy Pick

Like an author, a cricketer signs his name on every innings he bats or bowls in; indeed for every cricket ball that challenges him on the field. — Harsha Bhogle

Cricketers are made to feel that they are very special. That is okay as long as cricketers realise they are only as good as their last innings. — Harsha Bhogle

Forest is the backbone of the O-fers. He pitches, bats cleanup, collects the fees, makes all the pre game reminder calls, fills out the lineup card, and is the undisputed (though unspoken) team captain. Few things inspire like watching Forest round third in the late innings with a head full of steam and two bad knees, his spare tire heaving violently beneath his snug jersey, just as the second basemen is fielding the relay. "Run, Forest, run!" We yell, from the dugout. It never gets old. — Jonathan Evison

I don't try for strikeouts, but batters just swing and miss. I'd exchange strikeouts for more innings. As a starter, my job is to go deep into the game. When you get strikeouts, you throw a lot of pitches and sometimes you come out early. — Johan Santana

In the years 1910 and 1911 I had 51 innings with 10 not outs and an average of 19. This I consider a creditable record for a poet. — Siegfried Sassoon

Of course I like to watch myself bat. After every innings, match, series, I do watch my own videos whenever I get the time. — Rohit Sharma