Ballplayer Quotes

I thought I raised a ballplayer. You're nothing but a coward and a quitter.

Any ballplayer that don't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist.

Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that.

I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can't be measured. You can't measure a ballplayer's heart.

All ballplayers want to wind up their careers with the Cubs, Giants or Yankees.

They just can't help it.

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you.

That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud.

Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you.

The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all.

The greatest manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are.

The best ballplayer's the one who doesn't think he made good. He keeps trying to convince you.

As a ballplayer, (Dizzy) Dean was a natural phenomenon, like the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef. Nobody ever taught him baseball and he never had to learn. He was just doing what came naturally when a scout named Don Curtis discovered him on a Texas sandlot and gave him his first contract.

No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer.

Stan Musial, however, is the closest to being perfect in the game today.

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.

A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance.

I never saw anyone like Ty Cobb. No one even close to him as the greatest all-time ballplayer. That guy was superhuman, amazing.

As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.

The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey.

The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back.

There ain't much to being a ballplayer, if you're a ballplayer.

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

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.

I don't want to be Babe Ruth. He was a great ballplayer. I'm not trying to replace him. The record is there and damn right I want to break it, but that isn't replacing Babe Ruth.

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

Baseball shaded my entire outlook on life, because that's how I first saw the world. I looked at everything, even today, through what I learned about the game. Like pacing yourself, focusing yourself, preparing yourself for what you want to do, keeping yourself healthy for the game. I do all that through the eyes of a ballplayer.

It's no coincidence that female interest in the sport of baseball has increased greatly since the ballplayers swapped those wonderful old-time baggy flannel uniforms for leotards.

Roberto Clemente played the game of baseball with great passion.

That passion could only be matched by his unrelenting commitment to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate and those in need. People saw Roberto as a great ballplayer and humanitarian. He was also a great father, husband, teammate and friend.

If I would be happy, I would be a bad ballplayer.

With me, when I get mad, it puts energy in my body.

I tried marriage. I'm 0 for 3 with the marriage thing. So, being a ballplayer - I believe in numbers. I'm not going 0 for 4. I'm not wearing a golden sombrero.

Reading isn't good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading.

I think that the game is the game. I think that expansion is good for the game because it gives more jobs to the people and more ballplayers can play, but I think the game is still the game. The ballplayers, they come into the game with one thing in mind - it's their job.

I'm a ballplayer. I know how hard the game is... and anybody that makes it in the Hall of Fame, I support. They become a member of our special fraternity.

I haven't seen a player in this game, as long as I've been in it, that can't be pitched to... Barry is an outstanding ballplayer. I respect him an awful lot. I also have confidence in my pitchers that they can pitch to Barry Bonds and get him out.

On two legs, Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ballplayer who ever lived.

The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he's going to be.

A young ballplayer looks on his first spring training trip as a stage struck young woman regards the theater.