Best Baseball Quotes

I’m not sure there’s a more colorful sport than baseball. 

The stadiums are all different. What other sport can you have different field sizes in different locations. Can you imagine the Dallas Cowboy’s with a 90 yard field and the Washington Redskins with a 110 yard field. 

A nine inning game can last two hours or six. There’s never a tie. Can you imagine a football game ending in the third quarter because of rain. A baseball game can end after it’s slightly over half way finished. 

The owners, GM’s, umpires, managers and players have also contributed to it’s uniqueness. The’ve made the sportswriters job easy and have sold many newspapers by their antics on and off the field….but their quotes are amazing….these are twenty of my favorites!

Speed is so important …..

#20. "One time he (Cool Papa Bell) hit a line drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit his ass sliding into second." Satchel Paige 

 Cool Papa Bell, a future NSB player?  

#19. “If he raced his pregnant wife he'd finish third”. (on catcher Mike Scioscia)…Tommy Lasorda 

#18. "Problem with (John) Wockenfuss getting on base is that it takes three doubles to score him." Sparky Anderson

 Ouch! Crank their steal frequency to high and set some records (cs)!

Then there’s bat speed…..

#17. "Once (Stan) Musial timed your fastball, your infielders were in jeopardy."  Warren Spahn

There’s the mental aspect of the game…..

#16. “You teach me baseball and I'll teach you relativity. No, we must not. You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball”. Albert Einstein 

So what chance do we have? Ask Mickey Mantle.

#15. "It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life." Mickey Mantle 

Or maybe better yet, ask the Berra’s.

#14. "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." Yogi Berra

#13. “The only thing my father & I have in common is that our similarities are different”. Dale Berra 

Is this what Einstein meant by relativity? 

Is John Lowenstein related to the Berra’s or the Einsteins?

#12. "They should move 1st base back a foot to avoid all those close plays" John Lowenstein

How about the players we can relate to….

#11. “We was going to get you a birthday cake, but we figured you'd drop it”. Casey Stengel to MarvThroneberry

#10. "I was the worst hitter ever. I never even broke a bat until last year when I was backing out of the garage." Lefty Gomez

#9. "Son, we'd like to keep you around this season but we're going to try and win a pennant. Casey Stengel 

Ouch! Hope they’re not type one contracts!

Nothing like an insightful manager…..

#8. "All I know is (as a Yankees Manager), I pass people on the street these days, and they don't know whether to say hello or to say good-bye." Billy Martin

#7. "There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens." Tommy Lasorda

#6. "The Yankees don't pay me to win every day, just two out of three." Casey Stengel

#5. “I manage better when DiMaggio’s in center”. Casey Stengel

We all can relate to Casey Stengel with the last quote.

Then there’s the ego necessary to play MLB…..

#4. "What the hell has Hoover got to do with it (his contract being bigger than the Presidents)? Besides, I had a better year than he did." Babe Ruth

The Babe snapping back at sportswriters!

#3. A young sportswriter was interviewing Ty Cobb later in his life. The sportswriter asked Cobb how he thought he’d hit against modern pitching. Surprised by the answer of only .300, the sportswriter thought he had a major scoop. He asked again, you would only hit .300? Cobb responded…..

"You've got to remember - I'm seventy-three years old”!!!!

The Cobb quotes is one of my all-time favorites.

Quote #2 is brilliant in its simplicity. It should be instilled in all young hitters and pitchers alike. It describes baseball in the simplest way possible. A way even Albert Einstein could understand…

#2. "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." Warren Spahn

It’s the Gettysburg Address of Baseball. Forget the curveball kids. Learn a fastball and changeup and you learn to pitch, and save your arm in the process!

Finally the quote we can all relate to…..

#1. "A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." - Jim Bouton

How True!

Ron J.