"I started fouling off his pitches. I took a pitch every now and then. Pretty soon, after twenty-four (24) fouls, old Red could hardly lift his arm and I walked. That's when they took him out of the game and he cussed me all the way to the dugout."

"I swear, that park (Comiskey) must have been built on a junkyard!"

"It was a good pitch (the one thrown by Warren Spahn during the 1982 Old Timer's Game [see fast fact #3 below]) and I just swung away."

"(Lake) Lanier is a good fishing lake. Everybody tells me I put my dock on the best fishing hole in the lake. In fact, I've sat on the dock and caught a 12 pound bass. I saw another guy catch about a 40 pound and 26 pound striper one morning In front of my dock, and I used to catch a lot of 8 to 9 pound largemouth around it." - in Fishing Lanier (1993) by Bill Vanderford

"My Daddy was left-handed, and I was left-handed when I was little. In fact, I was left-handed all the way to high school. Then I switched over to right-handed cause I wanted to play shortstop."

"The fans may be surprised to know that during my freshman year at Oglethorpe, I waited on tables and never made an error, never dropped a tray nor broke a dish." Source: Cooperstown Corner (Lee Allen, 1969)

"You can't let any team awe you. If you do, you'll wind up a horseshit player." Source: The Official New York Yankees Hater's Handbook (1983) by William B. Mead

"(Luke) Appling's biggest individual accomplishments were being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, batting over .300 14 times, being a 7 time member of the American League All-Star team, leading the American League twice in Batting average baseball, the batting average is defined as the ratio of hits to at bats." - TheFreeDictionary.com

"Give me a White Sox fan any day. There's a team that has hosed its fans more completely than nearly any other, and that includes two terms under the best and most fan-friendly owner in history, Bill Veeck. Do you hear them whining endlessly about how God wants them to suffer? Do they bore you with tales of Shoeless Joe Jackson, or Luke Appling, or Wild Bill Dietrich, and how each one has cursed them from beyond the grave? Do they go on and on about Arnold Rothstein and Charlie Comiskey and Chick Gandil and how they robbed their great grandfather of a two-day bender back in '19 whatever Of course not. They say, 'The Sox? They stink. Another beer over here, Hap.' They don't long-suffer, and if they do, they don't do it loud enough for the rest of the neighborhood to hear. And they've known circles of hell you've never even driven through on your way to the company picnic." - Ray Rotto in The San Francisco Chronicle (September 19, 2003)

"He (Luke Appling) eventually became an adequate shortstop, but he was much better known for his hitting." - HickokSports.com

"Like my old coach, Luke Appling, said here, he told me if you're going to be lucky you've got to think lucky." - Dusty Baker on MLB.com (October 8, 2002)

"Luke Appling's ability to put the ball in play made him famous. Although he hit a home run off Warren Spahn in a 1982 old-timers game at age 75, he hit only 45 homers in his career. But he proved a superb contact hitter, once hitting 14 consecutive foul balls into the stands to get even with an owner who would not give him two extra game passes." - TheBaseballPage.com

"Luke Appling was a remarkably steady shortstop with an uncanny batting eye. He spent his entire 20-year career (1930 to 1950) with the White Sox and was twice voted the franchise's greatest player by the fans. A two-time American League batting champion, he topped the .300 mark 14 times. His ability to foul off pitches became his trademark at the plate. Appling was known as "Old Aches and Pains" because of his frequent ailments." - National Baseball Hall of Fame

"When (Luke) Appling was around, the real blunder was to ask him, 'How do you feel?' It would sometimes take half an hour before he stopped telling you." - Maury Allen in Big-Time Baseball (1978)

Quotes From & About Luke Appling