Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Campaign boot camp started as an opportunity to work in a grassroots way with people who were running for Congress. Colleagues on the Democratic National Committee were batting around different possibilities. I said, 'We should have boot camps.'
It is important that whenever you do get opportunities to practice, just get in some batting and be in a place where you feel if you get a chance to play, you can do well. It's important to be in that zone and be as practically ready as possible.
Grownups, as a rule, should always be ready to pay for their own meals - or else ready to graciously accept their date's insistence on paying. The point is, one doesn't sit there batting one's eyelashes, fully expecting someone else to claim the bill.
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.
I have worked really hard on my game, but I think my mother has been a real pillar of strength. She has prayed a lot, sacrificed a lot for me. You know, she hasn't seen me bat so far. When I am batting, she is praying... mothers are like that, aren't they?
In the middle order the game is a little more laid out for you, whether you are batting first or chasing down a score, so you are a bit more reactive to the situation in front of you. Opening up, it is pretty much a blank canvas and dependent on how you play.
Obviously, when I go in at No. 11 it stands to reason that we will have a better chance of scoring runs or batting out time if the batsman at the other end takes most of the strike. That's because, as my place in the order suggests, he is a better batsman than me.
I'm expecting big things from our bowlers, from Peter Siddle, who plays the enforcer role, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee when he gets fit again. In batting, there's Phil Hughes, whose already done well for Australia and scored hundreds for Middlesex.
I was not picked immediately at any level, be it Under-14, Under-16 or Under-19. So apart from my batting, I bowled legspin. In one of the selection tournaments for Mumbai Under-19, I happened to pick 34 wickets. So I was finally picked, but as a bowling allrounder.
I was constantly searching for something and you kid yourself that someone out there has got that secret to batting that they can give you one piece of advice that will enable you to go and score a hundred every time. It is silly. By trying to learn I confused myself.
The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don't miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game.
A Home Run Derby is fun. It's just like taking batting practice, and you just want to go deep. Guys do it every day. Yes, there's a little more pressure when they pull that cage back, but if you practice properly, it shouldn't affect the second half of your season at all.
Music, for me, is vital. Punjabi, Bollywood, Sufi, RnB... I listen to it all. When I'm not listening to music, you will find me chatting with friends. Off the field, I just let my instincts take over. I certainly don't think about batting, or which bowlers I'm going to face.
Imagine if you had baseball cards that showed all the performance stats for your people: batting averages, home runs, errors, ERAs, win/loss records. You could see what they did well and poorly and call on the right people to play the right positions in a very transparent way.
No one is perfect. Your ERA is not zero. You're not going to have 30 wins. And your batting average isn't going to be 1.000. So you don't have the right to verbally talk out about somebody. Look at yourself. Did you do everything you could do? Did you start your day off right? Are you perfect?
One of the things that I miss the most about cricket and batting in particular is that meditation of cricket, that involvement of myself - mind, body and spirit - to delivering that one specific process, which is to execute a cricket shot. It is a beautiful feeling; it is very hard to replicate.
I don't want to overplay the diary's significance, but it's a really helpful batting aid. It's not an obsession because I don't spend more than 10 or 20 minutes writing a day - and not necessarily every day. I might write in it three days in a row and then not the next four. It depends on the situation.
In the spring of 1957, Mickey Mantle was the king of New York. He had the Triple Crown to prove it, having become only the 12th player in history to earn baseball's gaudiest jewel. In 1956, he had finally fulfilled the promise of his promise, batting .353, with 52 homers and 130 RBIs. Everybody loved Mickey.
What batsmen like me do for fitness is often a bit different to what bowlers like Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad do but everyone in the squad has a big focus on core strength. It is really important for batting, bowling and fielding. You need a strong core and spine so your movement isn't restricted out there.
When I first started swinging a bat, I swung righty. So one time, my dad came home, and he wanted to see my batting stance. So I showed him. He says, 'You don't hit right-handed. You hit left-handed.' At that age I didn't even really think about it. Just like 'all right,' and I switched hands. He said I'd thank him later.
The offseason after the 2014 season, I worked with hitting coach Damon Mashore. I always had power in batting practice but couldn't take it into a game consistently. We made a little adjustment with my hands, lowered them a bit to get a consistent path to the ball, a natural uppercut to elevate the ball and backspin some balls.
Ideas are the easy part. I spend a lot of time batting them away, trying to keep them from distracting me from what I actually have to focus on and finish. A lot of times, they are a siren temptress beckoning me with the promise of a much shorter, simpler, more slender novel over the horizon, but of course that's very dangerous.
During the time I didn't play for England, they were losing Test matches, and the Yorkshire committee were telling me that I should be batting for my country. Then, when I decided to make myself available to play for England again in 1977, and Yorkshire lost a couple of matches in my absence, they criticised me for not being there.
Growing up, in my under-15 days I used to be a wicketkeeper, and that carried on till I was 17. Then I started focusing on my batting and moved on. I got into the Ranji team quite early, and generally, as a youngster, the first place you are put in is at bat-pad and short leg, so you had to work on your close-in fielding straightaway.
In my early work, my time in the batting cage, that's serious, and that's when I feel like I'm really working. That's where I have to lock in on my approach, make sure my mechanics are right, and make sure my mindset is right for the upcoming game. But then, when the game comes up, it's a game! You're supposed to have fun when you play games.
Our family business was operating batting cages. The pitching machine spit out the balls at lightning speed. Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax. Whitey Ford. 50 cents for 12 pitches. Of course, my mother ran the place, and I was her slave: selling candy, hosing down the street, and the most dreaded of all jobs, feeding the pitching machine with balls.
