“The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid. And if the hitter is timid, he has to remind the hitter he’s timid.”
~Don Drysdale,
quoted in New York Times,
July 9, 1979
1) Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things. ~Robert Frost
2) It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977
3) A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. ~Earl Wilson
4) Baseball is a fun game. It beats working for a living. ~Phil Linz
5) If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry
6) There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem — once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher, 1971
7) What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game…. There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife’s fidelity and his mother’s respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw
8) I don’t want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it. ~Rogers Hornsby
9) Baseball is the only sport I know that when you’re on offense, the other team controls the ball. ~Ken Harrelson, Sports Illustrated, 6 September 1976
10) Watching a spring training game is as exciting as watching a tree form its annual ring. ~Jerry Izenberg
11) The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain’s free throws. ~Rick Wise, 1974
12) If a horse can’t eat it, I don’t want to play on it. ~Dick Allen, on artificial turf, 1970
13) A ball player’s got to be kept hungry to become a big-leaguer. That’s why no boy from a rich family ever made the big leagues. ~Joe DiMaggio, quoted in New York Times, 30 April 1961
14) Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off. ~Bill Veeck
15) Wives of ballplayers, when they teach their children their prayers, should instruct them how to say: “God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth has upped Daddy’s paycheck by fifteen to forty percent.” ~Waite Hoyt
16) Nolan Ryan is pitching much better now that he has his curve ball straightened out. ~Joe Garagiola
17) I don’t care how long you’ve been around, you’ll never see it all. ~Bob Lemon, 1977
18) It’s hard to win a pennant, but it’s harder losing one. ~Chuck Tanner
19) Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball — you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that. ~Nomar Garciaparra
2o) The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then pick it up. ~Bob Uecker
21) It ain’t like football. You can’t make up no trick plays. ~Yogi Berra
22) I was such a dangerous hitter I even got intentional walks in batting practice. ~Casey Stengel, 1967
23) During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball. ~Mickey Mantle, 1970
24) Sandy’s fastball was so fast, some batters would start to swing as he was on his way to the mound. ~Jim Murray, on Sandy Koufax
25) The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain’s free throws. ~Rick Wise, 1974 *
* I tried sneaking Rick Wise in twice for emphasis, but Greg Lucas caught what I was doing. As a result, here’s # 25a, just to keep us in line with our advertised title of 26 separate quotes. 🙂 …
25a) Good pitching will beat good hitting any time, and vice versa. ~Bob Veale, 1966
The Pecan Park Eagle 
October 16, 2014 at 9:43 pm |
As usual, Bill McCurdy digs out the gems to share with his readership, which includes many friends and baseball bugs. More, please.
October 16, 2014 at 11:24 pm |
Repeating Rick Wise for emphasis, eh? Since most of us old National League guys concur that fits right in.
October 16, 2014 at 11:39 pm |
Greg – You are the rooster of baseball writers. It is impossible to slip one by you at dawn – even when a column doesn’t reach publication until the afternoon..