Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Your first responsibility is to the organization, to teach and prepare players to get to the big leagues and have them ready when they get there, but everyone in the minors wants to be in the majors.
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.
I'm really thankful for the opportunity the Marlins gave me. They drafted me in 2010 and gave me a chance to play in the big leagues. I made lifelong friends there, and I've got a lot of great memories.
My message to a lot of guys is, if you like school and you like education, baseball is gonna be there, and you can get some of the same great competition in college that you do in the low minor leagues.
My dad was part of the Oriole way. I think he was there 14 years in the minor leagues; I think seven of those years, they had the same people in place. So it was about continuity. It was about stability.
I've never seen radio as the minor leagues, where I'm just really preparing to be in the show that really counts, namely, television, which is, I think, what people often assume. I've never felt that way.
I kept listening in the minor leagues, and even earlier than that, people would say, 'If you don't hit the fastball, you're not going to get to the big leagues.' Every game, you're going to get a fastball.
The one thing I didn't understand was the Minor Leagues, how that part of the business works. I'd see Todd Hollandsworth out there one game, and the next game he wouldn't be there, and I didn't understand.
To captain your team to promotion in one of the most gruelling leagues in the world is right up there, it goes very high on my list. It's something I'm immensely proud of - I don't think it quite sinks in.
On the court, Jason Collins is not a huge basketball star, but he has already claimed his place in civil rights history as the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues.
The European leagues and teams are more competitive, very technical. It was good to work in Qatar - a good experience for me for the future. In the U.S.A., the teams and the players are improving every season.
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.
The Cubs gave me a chance to play. They signed me as a free agent and brought me to the Major Leagues. The first day I walked into Wrigley Field was one of the best days of my life. And I owe them an awful lot.
I'm not thinking of any other leagues. I'm really not. I'm thinking of what can I do to move Bellator forward. I'm thinking of what we need to fix, what fighters we should sign, where we can expand internationally.
I always think the same: English players don't generally leave England, which is strange. But of course, the Premier League's got the reputation as one of best leagues going, and one of the most competitive leagues.
I don't think I am a great. I think I've done nothing. I've done nothing in soccer. I've won leagues, but I haven't won the Champions League, the World Cup, the Euro. Winning the Euro in France, that wouldn't be bad.
All of a sudden I'm in the major leagues and we're traveling from town to town. I see the other players dressing different every day. I've got only one suit and I keep wearing it over and over. I'm really embarrassed.
If you go down the leagues, you have to understand what level you're working with, and if you get frustrated, then it's not going to ever happen for you. That's why a lot of managers don't succeed where they should do.
If you've followed my career at all, you will know that I perform best in comfortable surroundings. Though other leagues may seem more enticing to other players, it's something I'm just not interested in doing personally.
I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I'd had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I'd already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.
Regions' role in detecting and developing a raw talent is no secret, as they work so hard to produce top class players who go on to represent departments, then national team, and also play in different leagues of the world.
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.
The Premier League is one of the top leagues in the world and I'm a guy that likes to challenge myself, so just to be able to practice against those types of players and play against them every weekend is a dream come true.
Winning domestic tournaments like leagues, cups, and super cups adds to your standing in your country, but once you take a step forward in Europe and lift that European Cup, I think that prestige extends to the global stage.
I developed an interest in the history of the Negro leagues to the point where I visited the museum in Kansas City, Mo., twice and made the museum an integral part of my unheralded 2005 coming-of-age baseball novel, 'Scooter.'
This happens with every player, if it wasn't for money I wouldn't leave Brazil. When you go to Europe you go because of the money and because of the good clubs also, and in Shanghai the project is to be one of the best leagues.
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.
I have been playing soccer since I was about four years old. You always hope you can reach the top of the profession, that you can play in the big leagues and achieve all of the goals you hope to accomplish throughout your life.
I feel a lot of people working in the media don't know how much of a student of the game I am. They don't know that if we play on a Saturday, the first thing I do when I get home is watch the other games, watch the other leagues.
It's that way all the way down the line. I've got a boy coaching college ball and another son coaching high school. All the way down to summer leagues, all the way down to kids who are 14 years old. All those teams have a closer.
You're always going to believe in yourself, and I have to thank God for that, but it's pretty hard to believe that you can make it to the big leagues and that you can possibly get 200 hits three years in a row. I feel very proud.
I guess my critics say, 'He must be crazy. Nothing can be that beautiful.' But when you think that there are so many people around the world who have nothing, you realize how lucky you are to be making a living in the big leagues.
I will choose England before any other destination. My dream has always been to play in one of the top two leagues in the world. Newcastle is a good club, and St James's Park is a monumental stadium where there is passionate fans.
I got to the big leagues when I was 20. I thought I had it all figured out. Went to spring training that next year and started off well, got sent down, and I pouted pretty much all of 2000. And it wasn't the right way to handle it.
Even in the minor leagues, I just said I'll get my little bit of time in here and then get out of here. I was going to try, though. I wasn't going to just give up. I was always going to try. I'm here. I figured I might as well try.
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.
I know all the guys in NXT have a lot of talent, and that's the reason why they are there. But in this sport, you can see guys with a lot of talent in the minor leagues, when they move into the major leagues, they become irrelevant.
But baseball bounced back in the next decade to reclaim its place as the national pastime: new heroes, spirited competition, and booming prosperity gave birth to dreams of expansion, both within the major leagues and around the world.
English football gives other leagues an advantage. There are some traditions you can't change, I realise that. Boxing Day is non-negotiable. But you can't play nine games in December and nine in January. You have to stop at some point.
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.
Even though my dad was a manager in the minor leagues, I still traveled around with him and saw it from the field out. Now, as an owner, you're kind of looking from the whole baseball activity from outside in, from a fan's perspective.
The Varzea is kind of like street basketball in America or like the semi-professional football leagues in Europe. The pitches are all dirt, and you're playing against the marmanjo - the 'hard men.' It's known for being extremely physical.
I started in for the ball but I just couldn't get it. I should have caught it because I was used to catching everything on the sandlots. But they hit the ball a lot harder in the major leagues and I just couldn't reach the ball this time.
The NFL has done a great job of promoting the popularity of the game. There now are youth leagues in Puerto Rico and Mexico. You're starting to see more and more young men with Hispanic surnames come into the NFL and that's a wonderful thing.
Although I may not know a lot about football, I do know a lot about food! As a result, not many people ask me to join their fantasy leagues, but they will come to me for suggestions on what to serve for guests for a weekly Sunday get-together.
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.'
I've had the privilege of playing in our top seven leagues and the main differences when stepping up are organisation, athleticism and decisiveness. Believe me, the gap is even more evident when you achieve the holy grail of the Premier League.
The NBA Schedule was made up by one man, Eddie Gottlieb, who had owned the Philadelphia Warriors. Eddie had a Buddha-like body and a crinkly smile, and because he had also been an owner in baseball's old Negro leagues, he was known as the Mogul.
I need to eat a large meal before I play, and the one thing that was kind of consistent in every single clubhouse at least in the minors was a roast beef sandwich. So that kind of stuck there, and it just kind of stuck in the big leagues as well.
Typically, it takes young players years to adjust to life in the big leagues and to start performing up to their capabilities. Most of the blame for this rests on these ridiculous old baseball norms that say young players are to be seen and not heard.