Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I was never a strikeout pitcher. Why should I throw eight or nine balls to get a man out when I got away with three or four?
I never want to play timid or scared of anything, especially when my pitcher or my teammates are out there going 100 percent.
A manager uses a relief pitcher like a six shooter, he fires until it's empty then takes the gun and throws it at the villain.
Back in the day when I played, a pitcher had 3 pitches: a fastball, a curveball, a slider, a changeup and a good sinker pitch.
I didn't feel empty. I wished I'd felt empty. ... I wanted to be empty like an overturned pitcher. But I was full like a stone.
What is life, after all, but a challenge? And what better challenge can there be than the one between the pitcher and the hitter.
In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you.
Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard.
If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing.
A torn rotator cuff is a cancer for a pitcher and if a pitcher gets a badly torn one, he has to face the facts, it's all over baby.
If you asked a baseball pitcher from the '50s what a middle reliever was, he'd laugh at you. In the '50s, everyone pitched complete games.
I worry about my voice 24/7 when I'm on tour. It's like a pitcher and his arm. It's constantly the thing that my whole life revolves around.
That's sometimes the hardest thing to do as a professional athlete, because when you get lit up, you wear it, especially as a starting pitcher.
The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
In the minor leagues, previous to 2008, I took a lot of pitches. I prided myself on on-base percentage. I made sure that I made the pitcher work.
That's why, to me, Spring Training is so hard, because every time you go up there, there's a new pitcher, and you have to come up with a new plan.
I don't like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher.
It's really impressive when you've got two teams that are really battling it out, low-scoring game, a pitcher's duel. To me, that's so fun to watch.
When I'm at the plate, I'm not thinking about what I'm trying to do with the bat - I'm thinking about what the pitcher is trying to do with the ball.
If I could help the pitcher as much as I can, or I could save three to five errors a year with my defense, then that's just a big help for my teammates.
I think every facet of running has its benefits towards a starting pitcher. I mean, you're explosive off the mound and yet you've got to have endurance.
I'm always just grinding and figuring out what adjustment I need to make and how to tweak my swing to where I want it to be for that game and that pitcher.
Eternally, woman spills herself away in driblets to the thirsty, seldom being allowed the time, the quiet, the peace, to let the pitcher fill up to the brim.
Baseball can be slow in many ways. The action starts with when the pitcher delivers the ball. But the action really starts when the crack of the bat happens.
When I went to home plate in a game-tied situation or with a chance to do something and help the ballclub win one, I'd try to make eye contact with the pitcher.
Anytime a pitcher hasn't faced a hitter, I feel the pitcher has the advantage. The more times the hitter sees somebody, the more the advantage goes to the hitter.
I never knew how to throw a fastball, never learned how to throw a curveball, a slider, split-finger, whatever they're throwing nowadays. I was a one-pitch pitcher.
The reason I think I'm a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That's what you do to pitch. That's what pitchers have to do to win games.
When I hit, I felt I was in control of the home-plate area, and it was important that I felt that way. If I let the pitcher control it, it would give him an advantage.
After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.
I was a pitcher, shortstop and outfielder, and the Yankees tried to sign me out of high school as a first-round draft pick in 1981. I turned them down to go to college.
To me grinding out a good at-bat is pretty much fighting. And it's not trying to do too much with pitches, just finding a way to spoil a good pitcher's pitches, really.
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.
When you have these big, strong power hitters who can hit the ball a country mile, and they're strong for a reason and able to do that, as a pitcher you have to keep up.
And then when I went to stay in '68, I can honestly say that I was not focused on my career and on what it took to be a major league pitcher and to be a starting pitcher.
I was in the big leagues my first year in pro ball - pretty fast. I really don't think I had an understanding of what it meant to be a pitcher at that level at that point.
I was a pitcher, played third base, shortstop. I was good at all the positions and great at none. All it takes is a .111 lifetime batting average to make you go into acting.
When you're up there and everything feels good and you're competing against the pitcher and the pitcher strikes you out, you're like, 'OK, yeah, I struck out, but that's OK.'
It was much more fun playing with him than against him. If you wanted one pitcher to start the seventh game of the World Series, which he did in 1945, you'd pick Hal Newhouser.
I've won plenty of games by knowing when to take out my pitcher; whom to replace him with; or how to place my infield or outfield to defend properly against the opposing hitter.
I think I'm constantly trying to grow as a pitcher. You start going out there, you're learning stuff, you're finding different ways to try to get guys out. Trying to be creative.
I played for Almendares in Cuba. Guess who was trying out for the team? Castro. Fidel Castro, as a pitcher. He could throw pretty hard, but he was wild. He didn't have any control.
I love both sports, but the deciding factor was, being a left-handed pitcher, I had a huge advantage in baseball because of that, and I didn't have that type of advantage in hockey.
This day and age, you look at baseball as a whole, and not just the pitchers' side of it. You have the weight programs, you have the technology, and as a pitcher, you need to keep up.
I am so happy and proud to learn of Hideo Nomo's election to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He was quite a pitcher and competitor, but he is also a very special and caring person.
You can watch videos and hit off the tee, stuff like that, but at the same time, it's you against the pitcher. I just need one swing or one pitch to click, and you can find your swing.
Usually during the regular season, if you're starting pitcher, you're kind of walking back and forth from the clubhouse to the dugout and not really paying attention to what's going on.
Any pitcher who might throw at me should know I'm not giving up my day job or trying to get anyone else's job. I just can't think of anything cooler than being one of the boys of summer!
You compare a goalie position to a quarterback to a pitcher. You're going to make that decision of what's gonna happen to you. They're a high-pressure position. They're fun just for that.
I think that's why I like baseball. There's something great about it - you're young, the pitcher's young and he's got this great arm, and he doesn't really realize anything about strategy.