"Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like
trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster."
Joe Adcock
"Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity
of a Supreme Court judge, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance
of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha."
Time Magazine, 8/25/61
"When you go through a game, make it every pitch
like it was the last pitch that you'll ever call - you'll have a good game!"
Edwin D. Merrill, American League Umpire
"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes
they look too far... They don't have to look any farther than their home
because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes."
Bobby Bonilla
"Every member of our baseball team at West Point
became a general: this proves the value of team sports."
Gen. Omar Bradley
"In baseball, you don't know nothin'.
"Yogi Berra
"How can you think and hit at the same time?"
Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra on seeing a Steve McQueen movie: - "He
must have made that before he died"
Yogi Berra
"There have been only two geniuses in the world: Willie Mays and
Willie Shakespeare."
Tallulah Bankhead, Actress (1903-1968)
"We used to go to the racetrack after spring training
practice in my day. Four of us would chip in fifty cents each to go to the
two-dollar window. Yesterday I asked a player how he did at the track. He
said 'my horse won.' I said, 'how much did it pay?' The player said, 'no,
coach, I didn't bet on the horse, I own it.'"
Yankee Coach Mickey Vernon, 1985
"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
Yogi Berra
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical"
Yogi Berra
"It's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star
game and the old-timer's game."
- Vin Scully
"I would be lost without baseball. I don't think
I could stand being away from it as long as I was alive."
- Roberto Clemente
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball
and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time."
- Jim Bouton
"Last year [1986], in 415 at bats, he had 27 homers
and 80 steals. That's 40 home runs and 120 steals for a full year. [...]
This year [1987], in 93 at bats, he's hitting .409 with those 12 homers,
27 RBI, 28 runs and 13 steals. For a full year, that projects to ... well,
it doesn't project to anything. It's nonsense. More than 70 home runs, 170
RBI, 180 runs, 80 steals. Wayne Gretzky stats for baseball."
Thomas Boswell on Eric Davis
"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine
and I went fishing. I told him I wanted to be a real Major League baseball
player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd
like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the USA
"Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all
you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and
you have defeated time. You remain forever young."
Roger Angell
