Quotes & Sayings About Spring Training

He said I couldn't do (off the field) what I did when I was 23 or 24, and I paid attention to him. Damn it, I got a trainer and went to spring training in the best shape of my career and in 1985 had the best season I ever had and we won the World Series. Before that, I didn't know how long I was going to play. That talk with Mr. Fogelman was the most inspiring talk I ever had with anyone. — George Brett

None of the teams that actually probably were offering me a job from the getgo, actually in spring training, are in the playoffs right now. — Pedro Martinez

One time in spring training, we had the hit-and-run on, and Carl Erskine threw me a curve and I struck out into a double play. I came back to the bench and Casey [Stengel] said, 'next time, tra-la-la.' I didn't know what tra-la-la meant, but next time up, I hit a line drive, right into a double play. When I sat down, Casey came over and said, 'Like I told you, tra-la-la.' — Whitey Herzog

In my day, if a guy came to spring training 20 pounds heavier than what he left, he was considered out of shape and was probably in trouble. — Ryne Sandberg

You don't spring into good cooking naked. You have to have some training. You have to learn how to eat. — Julia Child

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

People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball. — Sandy Koufax

The last start of spring training, my (cut fastball) was okay. It just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I tried to work on making it cut more and do more. I think that set (the forearm) off ... trying to make it move a lot, cut a lot. I'm just going to back off and trust it a little bit more and not try and push that. — Roy Halladay

The good thing is we got this over in spring training. We played them three or four times and got all the hugs out of the way. Now it's time to go out there and beat them. — Kevin Millar

I thought about it a lot (losing the 2002 NLCS). It's something you have to go home and wrap it up because if you keep thinking about it, you're going to take that to Spring Training and you're not going to be able to concentrate on your work. — Albert Pujols

A young ballplayer looks on his first spring training trip as a stage struck young woman regards the theater. — Christy Mathewson

when they first met. It was just past the end of the third month of training, the midpoint, before they were interrupted again. Spring should have come, but this far north, and in the Low Lands in particular, the only indication of this was a sprinkle of rain mixing with the snow occasionally. Such a storm was passing through toward the end of the daily training session in the tower when a commotion could be heard in the main room down stairs. The sound alone was enough to put Myn on guard. — Joseph R. Lallo

What you do during the offseason is, first, build a base. That takes about three weeks, and then you try to get as strong as you can before you go to spring training. Once you get there, you taper down and it's just a maintenance program for the next six or seven months. — Josh Beckett

I feel as good now as I have any other spring training, — Roy Halladay

What we're going to do is use spring training as sort of a feeling-out process for Phil and Preston and our other outfielders. It gives us a lot of comfort to know that you've got a pure center fielder like Preston. But he's also so athletic, he can come in and play either corner and we'll feel very comfortable with it. — Tim Purpura

I come to spring training and just try to do my job, try to do the best I can. That's all any player can do. — Danny Bautista

The Florida State League was considered the top A-league back then. You played in the spring training parks of major league teams, traveled throughout some great cities in Florida, and the pay was the best in A-ball. — Jim Evans

As far as sleeping goes, you're up and ready to go at six in the morning. Spring training was always a combination of relaxing and working, and I missed that quite a bit. I missed being around the ball field. A baseball. A bat. The smell of the uniform, you might say. Talking baseball. Seeing opponents as well as the Cubs. — Lou Boudreau

These days baseball is different. You come to spring training, you get your legs ready, you arms loose, your agents ready, your lawyer lined up. — Dave Winfield

America overflows with specious 'victims' demanding redress for spurious grievances. However, one genuinely oppressed minority is getting overdue relief. Beginning with spring training in Arizona and Florida, Major League Baseball, taking pity on traumatized pitchers, is directing umpires to enforce the strike zone as defined in the rulebook. What a concept. — George Will

While she watched them, she reviewed their conversation. "When he said 'Kyr,' did he mean Kyr Zemen, the prime commander of the League?" Maris drained his glass in a way that was more akin to his military training than to the fastidious man she knew him to be. "One and the same. Unfortunately. Bloody damn wanker bastard." The venom behind those words had to spring from a personal grudge between them. She'd never seen so much hatred from Maris before toward anyone. Not even her. "How do you know him?" she asked. "He's my oldest brother." That — Sherrilyn Kenyon

In spring training I'm in every newspaper (in Korea) every day. In the regular season, they watch it on TV. — Hee-seop Choi

As if reading his mind, Lily huffed. "You're as predictable as the spring rains, son of mine, and as boring as drying paint. Unless there's an emergency, you're home every night by seven, you eat dinner by yourself, go for a run, watch exactly one hour of TV by yourself, and go to bed at ten o'clock. If God ever loses his watch, he only has to look at Lance Beaufort to get back on schedule."
...
"I've been having trouble with my phone," he tried.
Lily took two strides to the desk, leaned over it with both hands braced on the surface, and stared.
"Okay, yes! I have been over there. But it's for work. And ... and it's work related!"
"Oh? Explain that to me, because I thought you were the sheriff, not in training for a role in Lassie. — Eli Easton

Spring training means flowers, people coming outdoors, sunshine, optimism and baseball. Spring training is a time to think about being young again. — Ernie Banks

Eventually my father bought a vacation house for us in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. My dad's friend had died, so my father bought the house from his widow. We would go down there once a year, and my father believed that he had bought a good investment property. Twelve years later he would sell it at a loss. Almost immediately after the sale, Club Med built a resort there near where the New York Mets would set up their spring training camp soon after. I've tracked articles since then about how Port Saint Lucie has had the fastest growing home prices in the country. When I told my friends at Rye Country Day that we had bought a second home in Florida, they were unimpressed because it was not Palm Beach. When I told my friends in Tarrytown that we had bought a house in Florida, they were sad and asked me when my family was moving. Gosh, poor people can be really dumb sometimes. — Greg Fitzsimmons

When I was young, it was fun being in the locker room and shagging balls in the outfield in spring training. But I couldn't keep my attention on the games for more than 30 minutes. I would sit there with my Game Boy the whole game. — Shane Larkin

The sound of the bat is the music of spring training. — William Zinsser

One Kashmiri morning in the early spring of 1915, my grandfather Aadam Aziz hit his nose against a frost-hardened tussock of earth while attempting to pray. Three drops of blood plopped out of his left nostril, hardened instantly in the brittle air and lay before his eyes on the prayer-mat, transformed into rubies. Lurching back until he knelt with his head once more upright, he found that the tears which had sprung to his eyes had solidified, too; and at that moment, as he brushed diamonds contemptuously from his lashes, he resolved never again to kiss earth for any god or man. This decision, however, made a hole in him, a vacancy in a vital inner chamber, leaving him vulnerable to women and history. Unaware of this at first, despite his recently completed medical training, he stood up, rolled the prayer-mat into a thick cheroot, and holding it under his right arm surveyed the valley through clear, diamond-free eyes. — Salman Rushdie

Until spring training in 1946, the only time I pitched was in 1945 in the GI World Series. — Leon Day

I always appreciated the ex-players. Being a Yankee, you get spoiled. Old-Timers Day, all these guys coming back, spring training, being around them, you get a chance to get to know them. So I always think you learn a lot by listening. — Derek Jeter

I hate the cursed Oriole fundamentals ... I've been doing them since 1964. I do them in my sleep. I hate spring training. — Jim Palmer

For some reason in Spring Training, everything just clicked. You don't try to do anything in Spring Training but get ready, but things fell into place. — Bobby Bonilla

Lucien had been prepared to take me against my will.
Fae males were territorial, dominant, arrogant - but the ones in the Spring Court ... something had festered in their training. Because I knew - deep in my bones - that Cassian might push and test my limits, but the moment I said no, he'd back off. And I knew that if ... that if I had been wasting away and Rhys had done nothing to stop it, Cassian or Azriel would have pulled me out. They would have taken me somewhere - wherever I needed to be - and dealt with Rhys later.
But Rhys ... Rhys would never have not seen what was happening to me; would never have been so misguided and arrogant and self-absorbed. He'd known what Ianthe was from the moment he met her. And he'd understood what it was like to be a prisoner, and helpless, and to struggle - every day - with the horrors of both. — Sarah J. Maas

I was good. I was at home with baseball. But I set my routines, and I need them. I can't ... I can't play without them."

He didn't say anything else until we got to home plate and stepped on it at the same time. He put his hands on my face and looked at me directly, as if putting a tunnel of attention between us. His thumbs rested on my cheeks.

Why hadn't I seen it the night before? Or an hour ago? Why didn't I put it all together from the exhibition games and the spring training video? He was coming apart at the seams.

"You," he said. "You threw it all in the fire. Things started collapsing right before you, and when you came, everything went to hell. It's you. I denied it, because if I let you in, I had to start over. I tried to bend it around to not want you. But I can't deny it anymore. There's no center without you. — C.D. Reiss

I've always approached spring training as I have something to prove. — Jamie Moyer

Spring Training is a fun time for me. — Joe Torre

I tried to use batting gloves at the beginning of every spring training up until 1999. It just didn't feel good. — Vladimir Guerrero

It's the fans that need spring training. You gotta get 'em interested. Wake 'em up and let 'em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll. — Harry Caray

I got that nickname my first spring training camp with the Expos in 1974. Tim Foli, Ken Singleton and Mike Jorgensen started calling me 'Kid' because I was trying to win every sprint. I was trying to hit every pitch out of the park. — Gary Carter

Watching a spring training game is as exciting as watching a tree form its annual ring. — Jerry Izenberg

Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking. 'Childlikeness' has to be restored with long years of training in the art of selfforgetfulness. When this is attained, man thinks yet he does not think. He thinks like showers coming down from the sky; he thinks like the waves rolling on the ocean; he thinks like the stars illuminating the nightly heavens; he thinks like the green foliage shooting forth in the relaxing spring breeze. Indeed, he is the showers, the ocean, the stars, the foliage. — Alan W. Watts

I've kind of looked at my whole career as a spring training invite. — Jamie Moyer

Has he (Rickey Henderson) ever been here (Spring Training) the first day? You have to say Rickey's consistent. That's what you want in a ballplayer - consistency. — Don Mattingly

I love playing this game and every spring training feels like the first. — Rickey Henderson

I love baseball. I'll probably end up one of those old farts who go to spring training in Florida every year and drive from game to game all day. — Steve Earle

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

You mean guys don't get injured in spring training? Guys get hurt walking down the street. — Bud Selig

The last two times I went to spring training, I had to win a job, and if I didn't get off to a blazing start, I'm on the bench. Now, I've proven myself, so it's not essential that I get off to a real good start. — Eric Davis

Spring training is for getting to know your teammates and forming a chemistry. I dont like it. — Torii Hunter

This is my best time of the year (spring training). Heck, once the season starts, I go to work. — Brooks Robinson

I think Barry Bonds was in a unique situation given his injuries from a year ago, the fact that he played in just 14 games. Even though I spoke to Barry in December and he was enthusiastic and excited about the possibility, I think the closer he got to the reality of spring training, and as he got himself in shape for the regular season and the San Francisco Giants, he felt like it may be too much of a challenge to try to push his body at this point in his career. — Buck Martinez

If I don't make the team out of spring training, I'll keep a good attitude. I'll just go polish up the parts of my game that made me not stay in the big leagues. — Cory Lidle

In the process of terrorizing an article on spring training, Butch glanced over at Marissa again, and V
knew the two were going to take off soon - but not because they were finished with their coffee.
Funny, he knew what was going to happen from extrapolation, not second sight or because he could read their minds: Butch was letting off the bonding scent, and Marissa loved being with her male — J.R. Ward

Mickey Mantle was a very good golfer, but we weren't allowed to play golf during the season; only at spring training. — Yogi Berra

Before I pitch any game, from spring training to Game 7 of the World Series, I'm scared to death. — Curt Schilling

It's not a fun process. There is no need for the team and a player to be on opposing sides a week or two before spring training. It's good to be on the same page. — Mark Teixeira

It all comes down to when spring training comes. Do you want to go or don't you? If you want to go, you go. — Chili Davis

I'm clean, I've always been clean. But it never ends. It seems like every reporter from last season to this season has reported and opened up a new can of (expletive). And I haven't even been to spring training. At least let me get to spring training and (expletive) up before you crucify me. — Barry Bonds

I had only played five games in my senior year in high school. I was not large enough. Hell, when I graduated, I was about five foot four and weighed 120 pounds. I didn't go with the Dodgers until spring training of 1940 and I weighed all of 155 pounds soaking wet. — Pee Wee Reese