"A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He's got to ride that nag till it drops."

"I can throw out any man alive."

"I've seldom seen a horny player walk into a bar and not let out exactly what he did for a living."

"I want to win, but there's the grind. There's so much responsibility for a catcher...My arm feels good. My legs will be all right. How long will I go on? How long can I go on? How long for I want to go on playing baseball? Is this what it's like to be thirty?" Source: New York Times (March 27, 1978)

"Jimmy Connors plays two tennis matches and winds up with $850,000, and Muhammad Ali fights one bout and winds up with five million bucks. Me, I play one-hundred and ninety games, and I'm overpaid ($200,000 in 1975)!" Source: New York Times (May 25, 1975)

"They're (hitting slumps) like sleeping in a soft bed. Easy to get into and hard to get out of."

"Every time (Johnny) Bench throws, everybody in baseball drools." - Harry Dalton

"He'll (Johnny Bench) come out on the mound and treat me like a two-year old, but so help me, I like it." - Jim Maloney

"I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him with Johnny Bench." - Sparky Anderson

"I told him (Pete Rose, Jr.) who to watch. I said if you want to be a catcher, watch Johnny Bench. If you want to be a right-handed power hitter, watch Mike Schmidt. If you just want to be a hitter, watch me." - Pete Rose