"A mollycoddle game."

"I like to see Quentin (Roosevelt) practicing baseball. It gives me hope that one of my boys will not take after his father in this respect, and will prove able to play the national game."

"Quentin (Roosevelt) really seems to be getting on pretty well with his baseball. In each of the last two games he made a base hit and a run."

"When money comes in at the gate (specifically baseball games), sport flies out at the window."

"Father and all us regarded baseball as a mollycoddle game. Tennis, football, lacrosse, boxing, polo, yes - the are violent, which appealed to us. But baseball? Father wouldn't watch it, not even at Harvard." - Alice Roosevelt

"O'Reilly closes his left eye as he goes into the wind-up, and sends another blur of horsehide straight down the middle of the plate. Teddy Roosevelt takes an equally vicious swing but does not connect. He turns and looks down and behind him to where Henry Pulvermacher clutches the ball in his warty hand." - W.P. Kinsella in the fictional The Iowa Baseball Confederacy (1986)

"The president expressed his warm thanks for the beautiful gold card which was presented to him, and said that he regarded the game of base ball as the typical American outdoor sport." - newspaper article

"To its devotees all over this fair land from ocean to ocean there is nothing more gratifying than the fact that the present executive head of this great nation is an ardent champion of the National Game." - Speech by John Farrell during Presidential Pass Ceremony

"With all of his love of outdoor life and sports, Mr. Roosevelt did not go within the ball grounds during his seven years in the White House." - Washington Post (1909)

Quotations From & About Theodore Roosevelt