Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Motivation is something nobody else can give you. Others can help motivate you, but basically it must come from you and it must be a constant desire to do your very best at all times and under any circumstances.
For me, seeing the progression of video games and consoles - whether it be PlayStation, Xbox, or whatever - I think just seeing how good they've gotten from the days when I first started playing is just amazing.
Ive gotten a chance to look at their organization and at the same time talk to Chuck and Vince about how they perceive things. Ive come away satisfied that this organization wants to win and get things on track.
Baseball people think they can find athletes with good bodies and teach them to play baseball. What's wrong with giving someone who already knows how to play baseball a chance? I think I fall into that category.
Obviously I wasn't playing well at the time. But as a player, you lie to yourself. You say, "There's nothing wrong. I'm just not on time [at the plate]." You make something else up because pain is not an option.
They said you'd really have to be something to be like Babe Ruth. But Babe Ruth was an American player. What we needed was a Puerto Rican player they could say that about, someone to look up to and try to equal.
I guess we all have that 'Dig Me' space, where we have some of our things displayed. Mine's a little bit more off the beaten path. You're not going to see it as soon as you walk into my house, but it does exist.
I don't like the pitch count! How are you gonna develop your arm? If you're a track man you say, "Hey, you can't run too much." Or if you're a boxer you say, "Hey, you can only box three rounds." It's not right!
Sometimes you've just got to let an umpire know that you're not satisfied with his decision. That they've missed the play in your opinion. Not that it's going to do you any good, but you've got to let them know.
As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.
So many good things have happened to me in the game of baseball. When I do allow myself a chance to think about it, it's almost like a storybook career. You feel so blessed to have been able to compete this long.
People always ask me how I can hit the ball so far, and I say, 'I just swing.' It's the coaches who first told me I had good bat speed. I was just swinging, and I guess it was fast. I'm pretty fast at everything.
I thought my chances to make the Braves were better and that they were being fairer to me, paying me more money to play in a lower classification ... Besides, the Giants spelled my name "Arron" on their telegram.
There's a bigger difference now than when I first got into professional baseball because that was before guaranteed contracts, before there was a lot of money, so it was mostly survival. You had more competition.
I might have a great game hitting, but if I'm not having a great game fielding, if I feel like I let a guy get an extra base that I could have stopped, that's something I've got to do better, got to get better at.
The thing I like most about dogs is their absolute belief in their own innocence, even when they've been caught redhanded. No matter what they've been doing, every bad dog bears the same look when scolded: "What?"
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.
It would be a lot different for me because there is a lot of information that you need to know about as a player. How pitchers are pitching you, how defenses are playing, certain situations about certain pitchers.
I remember when I was a kid being called names, including the 'n' word. The first time that happened, it really bothered me. But most of the people I dealt with were all white. Most of my close friends were white.
A slumpbuster is when you have to take one for the team. It's finding the biggest, nastiest, fattest broad, and you put the wood to her to come out of your slump. Also known as 'jumping on a grenade for the team'.
Every day I went to the ballpark in Yankee Stadium as well as on the road people were on my back. The last six years in the American League were mental hell for me. I was drained of all my desire to play baseball.
A lot of teams aren't going to let me beat them. I just try to do something each game to help us win. If you do something like that, whether it's a walk or a hit, your numbers will be there by the end of the year.
Once a year, I take my whole wine team down to see the Giants, and we meet the players. Ive never seen anyone pitch like Lincecum that can throw the ball and get through the front leg. He has that stiff front leg.
I'm a teammate guy, so whatever I can do to help my team to win like I have the past two years, that's what I want to do. If it takes for me to play first base, third base, right field, I just want to win the game.
It doesn't matter if I hit a home run. It doesn't matter if we win a game. It doesn't matter if I go four for four. Whatever happens at the end of the day, as long as I glorify His name, that's what it's all about.
If you've ever been around a group of actors, you've noticed, no doubt, that the can talk of nothing else under the sun but acting...It's exactly the same way with baseball players. Your heart must be in your work.
If you've ever been around a group of actors, you've noticed, no doubt, that they can talk of nothing else under the sun but acting. It's exactly the same way with baseball players. Your heart must be in your work.
I know about having days off. They can be helpful sometimes, especially late in the year. It's just key to go out there and establish early, especially in this park where they can put up some crooked numbers early.
I was fortunate to play for Pete Rose and have teammates like Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Perez and Dave Concepcion. I grew up in the game with a mature attitude. I've always known it was better to be seen and not heard.
I'd never heard of colon cancer. Baseball wasn't even important to me. I have a wife and two girls. That's what was important. The doctors told me and all I could say was, 'When are we going to get this thing out?'
Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthlessness that many big businesses would never think of displaying.
I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.
I don't want this to be a distraction. This has been distracting enough. I'm not going to rehash this going forward. I'm sure other people are going to have questions about it, but we've got a big season coming up.
Not playing every day, I kind of healed up a little bit from the little injuries that I had the year before. Then, when I got home this winter and my body wasn't beat up, I said, 'Wait a minute, this may work out.'
I never want the ball above my shoulders until I'm really firing. I feel like I can generate more velocity with my arm path. The way my arm works, there's so many benefits to it - from a health standpoint, as well.
I understand why there is a push for an automated strike zone. However, I do think there would be some unintended consequences of having it that I think need to be addressed first before we would go down that road.
In 1961 somebody could've hit a home run to win the game and the next day the headline was about the M&M boys not hitting a home run. But everyone was real good about it. Instead of getting mad they joked about it.
I'm playing baseball because I love it, not because I need the money or attention. That is why I've been so dedicated. I've accomplished a lot of things no one ever thought I could, and I've done it from hard work.
I've got a 15-year old son and a 10-year old daughter, and if they were going to do one of the following things: be an alcoholic; be a drug offender; beat their wife or husband; or gamble. I hope they would gamble.
Somehow, I've been blessed to be able to have the young spirit inside - not feel like every year I get a year older. I feel like every year I get a year younger. I don't wake up in the morning with aches and pains.
There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.
Once a year, I take my whole wine team down to see the Giants, and we meet the players. I've never seen anyone pitch like Lincecum that can throw the ball and get through the front leg. He has that stiff front leg.
A lot of people have been telling me that I was going to be in the Hall of Fame and those are nice words and I try not to think about it, but when the call came, it made it real. It was a pretty darned good feeling.
I'm a New Yorker now, and believe me, there's no comparison between the Big Apple and Kalamazoo, no similarity at all. New York City's hectic, always in fast-forward, and Kalamazoo's more laid-back, smaller, slower.
I always tried to watch the pitcher and his complete windup from the moment he had the ball in his glove all the way through his motion, and tried to follow it all the way out of his hand, all the way to home plate.
On this Twitter thing, at least five people a day say 'bring back the mullet.' My wife told me I'm not allowed. Troy Tulowitzki wants me to grow a rat-tail for his charity. I was like, 'What the heck is a rat-tail?'
I've been very fortunate to play for four great organizations, but New York really takes the cake. Wearing the pinstripes is something that's very special to me, and it's the greatest organization in sports history.
People think I hate Billy Martin. I don't. I hate some of the things he did. And I will say I don't understand him. Billy Martin is not an intellectual, but there is a cunningness to him that is something to behold.
Do you have any idea what Ali meant to black people? He was the leader of a nation, the leader of Black America. As a young black, at times I was ashamed of my color; I was ashamed of my hair. And Ali made me proud.
Robinson was important to all blacks. To make it into the majors and to take all the name calling, he had to be something special. He had to take all this for years, not just for Jackie Robinson, but for the nation.