Quotations From Herbert Hoover

"Baseball is the greatest of all team sports."

"I pride myself on being one of the oldest fans. I can certainly count up about seventy years of devotion."

"I protest that we fans are being emotionally starved and frustrated by long periods of perfect performance of these batteries. More over, when there are nothing but strikes and balls going on, you relapse into your worries over the Bank of England, or something else."

"I returned to the white House after midnight more depressed than ever before. I had long since arranged to attend the World Series in Philadelphia the next day. Although I like baseball, I kept this engagement only because I felt that my presence at a sporting event might be a gesture of reassurance to a country suffering from a severe attack of 'jitters.'"

"I SEND YOU MY HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS UPON BEGINNING THE THIRTIETH YEAR OF YOUR GREAT CAREER AS MANAGER OF THE NEW YORK GIANTS, IN WHICH YOU HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO UPHOLD THE TRADITIONS OF CLEAN SPORTSMANSHIP IN THE MOST BELOVED NATIONAL GAME." - Telegram to John McGraw in 1932

"I want more runs in baseball itself. When you were raised on a sandlot, where the scores ran twenty-three to sixty-one, you yearn for something more than a five to two score. You know as well as I do that the excitement, temperature and decibels of any big game today rise instantly when there is someone on base. It reaches ecstasy when somebody makes a run."

"I was for a short time on the baseball team as shortstop, where I was no good."

"I was not able to work up much enthusiasm over the ball game, and in the midst of it I was handed a note informing me of the sudden death of Senator Dwight morrow. He had proved a great pillar of strength in the senate and his death was a great loss to the country and to me. I left the ballpark with the chant of the crowd ringing in my ears, 'We Want Beer!'"

"Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution."

"Somebody has inquired as to whether I will be going to the opening baseball game. I hope to have that pleasure."

"The rigid volunteer rules of right and wrong in sports are second only to religious faith in moral training."

"Through baseball we channel boys desire for exercise and let off their explosive violence without letting them get into the police court."

"I know, but I had a better year than (President Herbert) Hoover." - 1930 Babe Ruth response to his salary of $80,000 being more than the President's $75,000

"It seems to me that it is a great tribute to baseball when a man as busy as the President of the United States can find time not only to send the gracious message which you sent but also that you were able to remember the years of service I put in with my present club." - John McGraw (Reply To Above Telegram)

"Not Lincoln, Washington, Alexander Graham Bell, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Attila the Hun. Not Jefferson, Wilson, Churchill, not even FDR, but Herbert Hoover by God, Hoover. Every cure of the Depression was thought up by Hoover. Here is a man who is blamed for things that were not his fault, yet he never complained, and continued to help his country for the rest of his life. To me, that's a real man." - Ted Williams

"This must be the first time a president ever has been booed in public, and at a ball game, of all places." - New York Sun

"You amaze me Yogi (Berra), you've now become such a world figure that you drew more applause yesterday than either Prime Minister Nehru or Herbert Hoover." - Joe Garagiola. Yogi Berra replied, "I'm a better hitter."

Quotations From & About Herbert Hoover