Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I wish I was just a left-handed hitter. It's really tough having to keep both sides sharp, and that's one reason why you don't see switch-hitters hit for that high of an average. You're always fighting one side or the other.
I'm human -- all I do is try to do my job. When I don't do it, the way it happened today, it's out of my control. He put the ball in play and it happened to find a hole. I wish I could take it back, but I can't. You move on.
I don't know what else I can say. I have never taken steroids. For people who think I took steroids intentionally, I'm never going to convince them. But I hope the voters judge my career fairly and don't look at one mistake.
I have always been determined to never compromise my faith or my principles. I always relied on my God-given talent when I took the field. So the idea of using PED's to enhance my performance was a line I chose not to cross.
Only three or four outs directly affect the outcome of any given game...One of the greatest challenges of pitching is to recognize these critical situations and rise to the occasion with consistency and a competitive spirit.
In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing
I'm in the gym three to four days a week, depending on how I'm feeling. With chest, legs and back being the most important parts of any athlete's body, I try to train these on separate days with at least a day off in between.
The dreams are that you're gonna have a great series and win. The nightmares are that you're gonna let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs. Those things happen, you know. I think a lot of it is just fate.
I just think that your private life is private. What I do is obviously public, I get that. I get the fact that people are interested. I'm interested in a lot of people as well. I've just chosen to stay as private as possible.
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.
I understand what sabermetrics get across, and what they're getting across is to keep it simple. Especially for me, as a pitcher, that's something that helps me - finding ways to keep it simple. Numbers can only tell so much.
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.
I like Barack Obama as a person. He's articulate, he knows sports, his brother-in-law's a coach. He always has the athletes to the White House. But I don't know about some of his policies and some of these people in Congress.
You set your goals to a point where they're attainable, but far enough away that you have to really go get them. And every year I push my goals a little bit farther away, and every year I work a little bit harder to get them.
In a hockey fight, barring the occasional brawl, theres actually some etiquette that goes into it. Honor, too, absolutely. Most of those guys that do it, thats their job, and they follow a certain code of conduct in doing it.
I do not care whether you're a Democrat or you're a Republican or an independent. We must pull for the people who are wearing the uniform of the armed forces. These people weren't drafted. They enlisted, because they believe.
I was so naive in radio technique that I knew nothing about timing. I would write pages on Honus Wagner and then get only half through by the time the show ended. I eventually learned, but there was nobody there to school me.
In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.
I don't know why we play better on the road. I really don't. Chalk it up to coincidence, I guess. I don't think we care where we play, which is a good thing. But you'd like to see our home record be a little better than it is.
There is a feeling when you are in Yankee Stadium that it is a very sacred ground you are walking on and you know you had the same feelings that other great players have had in other eras that played right there on that field.
I suppose the real problem is if science becomes proprietary. If we start designing our children to have the edge, you will start seeing a certain kind of overclass developing, which obviously has terrible social implications.
Willie Wells, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Buck Leonard, Quincy Troupe, Satchel Paige - earlier than when he was called up - Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson. You see what kind of talent we had, and guys in the majors knew it too.
I always felt that I had a mission in life. I thought I was born to play sports. Even now, I still feel that must have been my mission because I came through so many close calls where my life could very easily have been ended.
I don't like to be compared to Joe Jackson. because Joe Jackson, I think, took money to throw World Series games. Well, I know I bet on my own team to win. There's pretty much a big difference there, but both of us were wrong.
A friend of mine asked me a question at the end of 2015. We were going over my finances and setting things up for the future when she said, "What do you want to do when you retire?" I said, "I always wanted to do a food show."
Him [my dad] bringing me to the clubhouse when I was young helped me out because I see what they do in baseball and what it's about. He pretty much told me all this stuff when I was younger. Now it's just a matter of doing it.
Tiger Woods, Larry Bird, Wayne Gretzky, a pitcher just before a game, I would imagine they all have nervous energy. But as you perform, the nervous energy dissipates and you start to relax and you start to do what you do best.
In the past I've tended to overreact. I was sure I'd be a superstar by the time I was twenty-one. Baseball messed up my plan of life. When I fail I get upset. Sometimes I get upset too quickly, without thinking of consequences.
Moral values have been thrown out the window. Christianity is out the window. And that's wrong. Parents should be at home, teaching kids right from wrong, making sure they get a great education so they can be a success in life.
It makes everything worth it; every weight that you lifted in the offseason, every swing that you took in the cage. When you feel like you came through for your team, and you see the joy on their faces, there's nothing like it.
When the ball was hit, my first reaction as a shortstop was always go in the direction of the ball. You can't do that at first base. You go too far in that direction, and it's hard to scurry back and be ready to pick the throw.
Smoking's a way to let you down slowly from a ballgame. It also makes you use less of the resources around. It makes people better in the way they act towards society. Everybody's nicer. It's hard to be mean when you're stoned.
D.C. fans, I think, are so good. They just come up to me, and they're so nice and so polite and just, 'Hey, I hope you have a great career,' and 'How are you doing, everything's good?' That's pretty much where they leave it at.
When you win the Cy Young, it's like, well, you're a baseball player, that's what you're supposed to do. When you win the Clemente Award, you don't do it to get recognized for your work, but it means so much more than baseball.
Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.
I hope that more [African-Americans] decide to play after seeing the things that I was able to accomplish; not only myself, but other African-American players. Hopefully, they pick up a bat and a ball and go out there and play.
Every time I sit with our general manager at a baseball game, and there's number-cruncher and statistician guy - I'm sitting around - they start talking about stuff, and I say, 'What's that? I've never heard of that one before.
I want to be that good. I want to be Barry Bonds. I want when I pitch to be 'Win Day.' I want my teammates to relax on the days I pitch because they know they only have to get us a couple of runs. I'm totally prepared for that.
I guess you could say I'm the redemption of the fat man. A guy will be watching me on TV and see that I don't look in any better shape than he is. 'Hey, Maude,' he'll holler. 'Get a load of this guy. And he's a 20-game winner.'
I don't get upset over things I can control, because if I can control them there's no sense in getting upset. And I don't get upset over things I can't control, because if I can't control them there's no sense in getting upset.
I'll tell you what makes a great manager: A great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you.
There are at least three kinds of advantages that the pitcher and batter contest. There's the physical advantage, the strategic advantage, and also the psychological advantage. I didn't want two out of three. I wanted them all.
Sometimes, you're going to have to work hard, sometimes extra hard, and sometimes you still won't get that recognition. That's life. That's the way it is. But if you keep working, eventually you'll get the prize you're seeking.
But wherever I was I played baseball. That's all I lived for. When I sat up on the front seat of that covered wagon next to my father, I was wearing a baseball glove. That showed anybody who was interested where I wanted to go.
In a hockey fight, barring the occasional brawl, there's actually some etiquette that goes into it. Honor, too, absolutely. Most of those guys that do it, that's their job, and they follow a certain code of conduct in doing it.
What we should have done is kept the same team that played in the '95 World Series. Those trades (Eddie Murray & Carlos Baerga) caused a lot of chaos in the organization. I didn't feel like we were moving in the right direction.
No player should have to go through what I have been dealing with, and I am exhausting all options to ensure not only that I get justice, but that players' contracts and rights are protected through the next round of bargaining.
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.
Our country's political discourse and debate are enriched by discussions of the political implications of our faith traditions, whether they are taking place in our communities, at our dinner tables, or in our places of worship.
Don't try to be something you're not. If you're goofy, be goofy if you're serious be serious. And no matter what, give everything you have and enjoy it while you can because it can all be taken away from you at any given moment.