"Baseball is all I ever wanted. I could eat, sleep, and dream baseball." Source: CMG Worldwide (website)

"But wherever I was I played baseball. That's all I lived for. When I sat up on the front seat of that covered wagon next to my father, I was wearing a baseball glove. That showed anybody who was interested where I wanted to go." Source: Baseball : The Biographical Encyclopedia (Total Sports, 2000)

"I threw so hard (after striking out Art Fletcher & Doc Crandall in the 9^th inning of Game 1 of the 1912 World Series) I thought my arm would fly right off my body." Source: Baseball's Greatest Quotations (Paul Dickson, 1991)

"The smaller the town the more important the ball club was. But if you beat a bigger town they'd practically hand you the key to the city. Any if you lost a game by making an error in the ninth or something like that, well, the best thing to do was just pack your grip and hit the road, because they'd never let you forget it." Source: Baseball: The People's Game (Harold Seymour, 1991)

"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen mister, no man alive can throw any harder than Smoky Joe Wood." - Walter Johnson

"I've seen some pretty fair pitching, but I've seen anything like Smoky Joe Wood in 1912." - Teammate Harry Hooper in Baseball : The Biographical Encyclopedia (Totals Sports, 2000)

"Joe (Wood) was quickly dubbed 'Smoky' for the great balls of fire he threw from the mound." - CMG Worldwide (website)

"Pedro Martinez? Roger Clemens? Babe Ruth? Awesome Red Sox pitchers all, but none of them ever approached Joe Wood in 1912." - The Diamond Angle (website)

"Wood had one of the best fastballs in baseball history, comparable to that of his contemporary Walter Johnson." - The Baseball Library (website)

Quotes From & About Smoky Joe Wood