|
"As much as we disliked the Yankees, fans and players alike, they were good for baseball. They consistently unsuccessful teams like the Browns, Senators, and A's paid a lot of their bills with those big crowds that poured through the gates when the Yankees came to town."
"Baseball in the Navy always was much more fun than it had been in the major leagues." Source: Strikeout Story (Bob Feller)
"Changes have been profound and lasting. Others have been cosmetic, but today the under forty fans wouldn't know baseball without them. Exploding scoreboards, names on your back, numbers on your front, gloves when you're at bat as well as in the field, and baseball not just under the lights, but under the roof too, on artificial grass."
"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is."
"I don't think baseball owes colored people anything. I don't think colored people owe baseball anything, either." Source: The Sporting News (August 9, 1969)
"If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands."
"I just reared back and let them go." Source: Look Magazine (October 1951)
"I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game." Source: Strikeout Story (Bob Feller)
"Nowadays, they have more trouble packing hair dryers than baseball equipment."
"Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed upon the Yankees. Apparently it angers them." Source: Strikeout Story (Bob Feller)
"Ted Williams was the greatest hitter I ever saw, but (Joe) DiMaggio was the greatest all around player."
"The difference between relief pitching when I did it today is simple, there is too much of it. It's one of those cases where more is not necessarily better."
"When I pick up the ball and it feels nice and light and small I know I'm going to have a good day. But if I picked it up and it's big and heavy, I know I'm liable to get into a little trouble."
"Where the ball went was up to heaven. Sometimes I threw the ball clean up into the stands."
"When you make a bad pitch and the hitter puts it out of the park and you cost your team the game, it's a real test of your maturity to be able to stand in front of your locker fifteen minutes later and admit it to the world. How many people in other professions would be willing to have their job performances evaluated that way, in front of millions, every afternoon at five o'clock."
"You figure they cheat at the ballpark, they'll cheat on the golf course, they'll cheat in business, and anything else in life. Players may laugh about it and say it's funny, but right down in their heart, they don't think it's funny at all, and they have no respect for a person who cheats."
|