Quotes & Sayings About The Big Leagues

To put it better, we believe the radar gun will get you drafted, but you have to pitch to get to the big leagues. Tools will get you drafted, but you have to be able to play to get to the big leagues. — Roy Clark

I'd always assumed Beth and I would be friends forever. But then in middle of the eighth grade, the Goldbergs went through the World's Nastiest Divorce.
Beth went a little nuts.
I don't blame her. When her dad got involved with this twenty-one year old dental hygienist, Beth got involved with the junk food aisle at the grocery store. She carried processed snack cakes the way toddlers carry teddy bears. She gained, like, twenty pounds, but I didn't think it was a big deal. I figured she'd get back to her usual weight once the shock wore off.
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only person who noticed.
May 14 was 'Fun and Fit Day at Surry Middle School, so the gym was full of booths set up by local health clubs and doctors and dentists and sports leagues, all trying to entice us to not end up as couch potatoes. That part was fine. What wasn't fine was when the whole school sat down to watch the eighth-grade cheerleaders' program on physical fitness. — Katie Alender

I took a huge risk leaving baseball, because I was predicted to play in the big leagues. I'm kind of a prototypical second baseman. — Russell Wilson

I went to college for a reason, and that was to skip the minor leagues. I spent a year in the minors and got my at-bats in, and then I felt like I was ready for the big leagues. — Mark Teixeira

I was watching Ashlee Simpson on Jay's show last night ... She was really singing, and I was saying, 'Bring back the lip synch.' ... And it struck me that Ashlee Simpson is a lot like George Bush-because she wouldn't even really be in the big leagues if it wasn't for family connections, and she's in way over her head. And she doesn't know what to do. And she blamed her band. — Bill Maher

When there were just eight teams in each of the big leagues, I was always told, 'It's hard to come up, but it's just hard to stay in the big leagues.' That's because there's always somebody. The Cardinals had so many minor league clubs and had so many good ballplayers. — Red Schoendienst

If anyone wants to know why three kids in one family made it to the big leagues they just had to know how we helped each other and how much we practiced back then. We did it every minute we could. — Joe DiMaggio

I looked up to my father when I was 7 and 8. I believed it was my calling to be in the big leagues. I'd been raised by a family that always told me I could do anything I wanted. — Barry Zito

He explained that when he had gotten to Toledo, he had a meeting with himself. He said he realized he had become satisfied with being a starting pitcher in the big leagues, and with the money he was making. — H. A. Dorfman

It's a good feeling to see the kids try to make it, try to get to the big leagues. Everyone here has an opportunity to achieve his dream. I was lucky I was able to achieve my dream. — Tony Oliva

I want to stay around longer than the pitchers who were at the top when I came into the big leagues. I don't want to be gone and have all the old guys - Seaver, Carlton, Ryan and Sutton - still pitching. I got rid of Palmer, now I want to outlast the rest of them. — Bert Blyleven

I had the opportunity to play every day in the minors, and everybody knew me in the minors. In the big leagues, it was a little different. It was up and down and up and down, and I didn't get a chance to show people that I can play every day and I can be a superstar. Now, I can show everybody what they are getting from me. — Felix Pie

I'm not in the big leagues just because I'm cute. — Pedro Martinez

In baseball, I don't fraternize with players when it's time to hit. I'm preparing for the game. It's the most important time of the day. And I know if I don't hit, I won't have a job in the big leagues. That's why I tend to get very upset when people try to talk to me. — Albert Belle

Honestly I feel comfortable starting and relieving. I've done both a lot. I really don't have a preference except which one gets me to the big leagues and allows me to excel the most. — Tyler Thornburg

The more that Japanese players go to the big leagues to play and succeed, the more that will serve to inspire young kids in Japan to want to become baseball players when they grow up. — Ichiro Suzuki

I hated baseball. I really didn't like baseball at all until someone decided they were going to pay me ... Every year I played in the big leagues, the day the season ended, I called my buddies in West Virginia and said, 'I'll be home tomorrow.' — John Kruk

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

I just wanted to go play in the big leagues. But possibly playing for the Yankees is very special. — Nick Johnson

You never go into a season thinking you're going to strike out 200 guys or that you would have the most double-digit strikeout games in the big leagues, or anything like that. You just try to win, and the outing becomes what the outing becomes. — R.A. Dickey

In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about (Stan) Musial, (Ted) Williams and (Jackie) Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time. — Hank Aaron

The friction began at this first meeting. O'Neill was not initially impressed with Reagan and said to him, "You've been a governor of a state, but a governor plays in the minor leagues. You're in the big leagues now." (O'Neill had said the same thing to Jimmy Carter four years before.) Reagan replied, "Oh, you know, no problem there." Despite the genial response, O'Neill's comment represented the very kind of Washington haughtiness that set Reagan's teeth on edge. Aides to the president-elect were incensed. — Steven F. Hayward

Some times you lose more than you win. It's about handling losses and trying to turn them into positives. You get out into the big leagues and there's a period of adjustment to be made. You've got to handle it. — Lindsay Davenport

He was pitching to me before I could walk. He gave me wooden bat before my mother let me use scissors. He said I could make the major leagues one day if I had "a plan," and if I "stuck to the plan"
Of course, when you're that young, you nest in your parents' plans, not your own. — Mitch Albom

If you don't set goals, you'll never reach them. Or like they say in golf, if you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time. Take any player in the major leagues: I'd say just about everyone of them had a dream - a goal - to be a big-leaguer when they were kids. It wasn't an easy goal, but it was a reachable one, and that's important. — Yogi Berra

I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that's the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years. — Tommy Lasorda

I didn't know if I could make it to the big leagues without going through Triple-A. — Matt Kemp

In the big leagues everyone has ability. It always comes down to mind games. Who ever is more mentally strong-wins. — Muhammad Ali

You can make it to AAA ball on talent only. It's difficult but it can be done. But to make it to the big leagues, you HAVE to be coachable. You have to stay coachable. — Dale Murphy

You know how you just don't like guys on the other team sometimes? It's funny because growing up I loved Roger (Clemens), loved to watch Roger pitch. Then when I was first in the big leagues and he was for the other team, I hated him. — Andy Pettitte

I'm the best. That's why I'm so relaxed out there. You've got to have some arrogant bones in your body, especially to be a pitcher in the big leagues. — Josh Beckett

For me, there was nothing like my time with the Eagles - ever. We were young, and the world was new to us. It was the happiest time of our lives. They wouldn't let us play in their big leagues, but we had this game of ours ... this marvelous, blessed game ... and we just went out and played it. — Monte Irvin

Marlins Park is what I call my office in Miami, because I work for the Venezuelan Museum of Baseball and Hall of Fame. My job is to go to all the MLB stadiums and to talk to and collect articles from all the Venezuelan players in the big leagues and those Americans that played in Venezuela. — Juan Pablo Galavis

I started to crouch because that way I could guard the plate better, and I always wanted to hit .300 in the big leagues. — Stan Musial

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

The Oakland A's, I loved all my teammates there. I loved all the coaches. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues. And for that, I thank them. I mean it was a dream come true for me. — Tim Hudson

Just as I'm fortunate to pitch in the big leagues, I'm also fortunate for the time I get to spend outdoors. — Jon Lester

I expected to be in the big leagues soon. I didn't know exactly how soon, but I wanted to be here soon, and I wanted to make a difference soon. — Mark Teixeira

Just about every Latin American country has sent players to the big leagues, from the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica. — Cheech Marin

I still don't know how I got to the big leagues because I wasn't that good. — Johnny Oates

You wanna play hardball, sweetheart? Welcome to the big leagues. — K. Bromberg

Hey, I think it's easy for guys to hit .300 and stay in the big leagues. Hit .200 and try to stick around as long as I did; I think it's a much greater accomplishment. That's hard. — Bob Uecker

You have to hit the fastball to play in the big leagues. — Ted Williams

You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it. — Rafael Palmeiro

I think I can play in the big leagues 10 or 15 years. But more important to me is winning-win, make the playoffs. — Carlos Beltran

Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat. — Bob Uecker

You get to the big leagues, and you think, 'Can I do this stuff?' Then you take the first pitch down the middle for Strike 1, and you think, 'I could have hit that.' — Joe Torre

Everybody in the minor leagues - if you're a player, an announcer, whatever - wants to be in the big leagues. — Ernie Harwell

Since I got to the big leagues, there's been a whole lot of Direct-TV sold in Jamestown. People like to keep up with the local boy. — Darin Erstad

A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues. — Joe DiMaggio

I was branded a Negro in the States and had to act accordingly. They wouldn't even give me a chance in the big leagues because I was a Negro, yet they accepted every other nationality under the sun. — Willie Wells

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

My biggest problem in the big leagues is that I can't figure out how to spend forty-three dollars in meal money. — Andy Van Slyke

When you're a first-round pick and you get to the big leagues at 22, there's almost a sense that you've got to mature. — Evan Longoria

I don't expect any red carpet to the big leagues. If the opportunity comes, then it comes. But I don't think I'm owed anything. — Ryne Sandberg

When I started to play consistently and produce consistently, that's when I knew that I could compete and do well in the big leagues. — Lance Berkman

When I was 16 years old, my brother Frank said, 'You'd better become a catcher, because you're too big and fat to do anything else.' Well, I took his advice. It was a quick way to get to the big leagues, and I've never regretted it. — Joe Torre

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

I wasn't quite sure how a player got to the big leagues. As far as I knew, he was just there one day. — Tommy Lasorda

There's three things that as a professional athlete you want. You want to get to the big leagues, and I accomplished that. Winning a World Series ring, I got that. And then getting to the Hall of Fame. That's everybody's dream. Every athlete, they want to be up there in the Hall of Fame, mentioned with the greatest players to ever play this game. — Albert Pujols

When you get to the big leagues, you need to take potential and turn it into performance. You want to be the guy who got the most out of his ability, not the guy who never fulfilled his potential. — Travis Hafner

I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues. — Tom Seaver

Everybody's dream is to be in the big leagues, but only one in a million gets here. — Jeremy Bonderman

People say I don't have great tools. They say that I can't throw like Ellis Valentine or run like Tim Raines or hit with power like Mike Schmidt. Who can? I make up for it in other ways, by putting out a little bit more. That's my theory, to go through life hustling. In the big leagues, hustle usually means being in the right place at the right time. It means backing up a base. It means backing up your teammate. It means taking that headfirst slide. It means doing everything you can do to win a baseball game. — Pete Rose

If you seriously aspire to be a manager in the big leagues, there is a baseball 'book' that one must learn. Alongside that book, you must practice Spanish. Of 25 players on each roster, sometimes there are between eight and 15 players who speak Spanish. — Tony La Russa

There's a lot more to playing in the big leagues in New York than just the baseball part. — David Wright

Like some cult religion that barely survives, there has always been at least one but rarely more than five or six devotees throwing the knuckleball in the big leagues ... Not only can't pitchers control it, hitters can't hit it, catchers can't catch it, coaches can't coach it and most pitchers can't learn it. The perfect pitch. — Ron Luciano

What happens when we acknowledge the sovereignty and power of God without trusting in His goodness and faithfulness? A pitcher who saw God's power behind his extremely unlikely rise to the big leagues wondered if, at any difficulty he encountered there, God might be taking his ability away. — Michael Lewis

A lot of pitchers today are afraid of the ball. Warren Spahn pinch-hit for me when I was a rookie. He hit a sacrifice fly. I couldn't argue. I was 20 years old and just happy to be in the big leagues. And Spahnnie was a good hitter. — Joe Torre

I feel like a pioneer with the split-fingered fastball. I was the first one to really throw it pretty much 100 percent of the time. It was a pitch that I had to have. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't have been in the big leagues. — Bruce Sutter

Josh wanted to be the one to break the color barrier. When the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson he knew it was over for him. He wasn't going to make the big leagues, and he also knew that because of his health and his bad knees his career with the Grays was about over. He didn't know what to do with himself. They say a man can't die of a broken heart, and I guess that's true. But I'll tell you this, all of this sure lessened Josh's will to keep going, to keep fighting to stay alive. — Ted Page

Every kid in America dreams of playing in the big leagues and they don't, just because. It's not because they blew out their knee. It's just because they didn't make it. — Marc Blucas

The minor leagues were great. When you first sign, that is your big leagues. — Brian Roberts

Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship - and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that. — Bob Uecker

Johnny Bench
befriended me my first year in the big leagues. He took me under his wing during my first All-Star Game and we've been friends ever since. He's one guy I've tried to emulate and I'll always compare myself to Johnny (Bench). — Gary Carter

I always wanted to be a player, but I never had the talent to make the big leagues. So I did the next best thing: I bought a team. — Charlie Finley

I was such a screwup when I got to the big leagues. I was a total idiot. — Curt Schilling

One of my chores was to milk the cows, which meant getting up before dawn and going out to that cold dark barn. I didn't expect to make it all the way to the big leagues; I just had to get way from them damn cows. — Edd Roush

We (Derek Jeter and I) want to kill each other. I think we both drive each other and motivate each other. But, when we're off the field, we're like family. I think the nice thing about it is we became good friends before we even mad it to the big leagues. That makes it more of a healthy relationship. — Alex Rodriguez

The work that launched Snohetta into the architectural big leagues was their Oslo Opera House, which will certainly rank among the firm's highlights whatever else they may do. Although this is by any measure a triumph of city planning, the building itself is not quite a masterpiece, though very fine indeed. — Martin Filler

I only wish I could have played in the big leagues when I was young enough to show what I could do. When an offer was given to me to join up, I was too old, and I knew it. — Buck Leonard

After I got that hit off Satchel (Paige), I knew I was ready for the big leagues. — Joe DiMaggio

If I could do it over, I'd want to come up to the big leagues like Mike Trout. He's exciting and I like watching him. — Matt Kemp

I've put in 63 years now in the big leagues as a player, coach, manager. And now just being around these young guys, it keeps you going pretty good. — Red Schoendienst

How do you want to live your life? How do you want to play the game? Do you want to play in the big leagues or in the little leagues, in the majors or the minors? Are you going to play big or play small? It's your choice. — T. Harv Eker

As I look out there and see the culture of baseball, a lot of blacks and Latins, it's given me a lot of joy to know that Jackie started that. If Jackie hadn't come in '47, me and Ron Santo wouldn't have played in Double-A and all those years in the big leagues. — Billy Williams

I told myself that if I ever make it to the big leagues that I would be the one to appreciate the fans. Take a little time out to sign autographs and shake their hands and say hello to them. — Rickey Henderson

I grew up in a small town where you know everyone, .. I've been told all my life that I come from too small a town to compete with some of the guys that competed in a higher level growing up. And that kind of drove me through college and drove me in the minor leagues, because I got to face all those big 5- A [school district] guys in the minors. — Roy Oswalt

There are parents out there screaming as if their kid is going to be in the big leagues someday. C'mon. I chew them out if I see that. Maybe they've got their own idea how to do things, but it's wrong. Just be with the kids. Let 'em make errors. Give them all a chance. It's not about winning. It's spirit, togetherness. — Tommy Lasorda

Most political journalists come to Washington because they're snappy writers, big thinkers, or news breakers. Me? My ticket to the big leagues had little to do with talent. It was mostly about the governor I was covering, Bill Clinton. — Ron Fournier

I would love to get back to the big leagues as a coach, possibly a manager. I would love that opportunity. — Gary Carter

Sooner or later you learn that you belong in the big leagues, and that makes you calm down. — Dennis Eckersley

I really have never been nervous in the big leagues. — Cliff Lee