Quotable Quotes
Olde-tyme baseball by C. Philip Francis – May 10, 2006
Words are not only entertaining, but can change baseball history. In case you don’t believe it look back at the1951 New York Giants who were far back in the National League standings in mid-season when Brooklyn manager, Chuck Dressen, uttered that classic line, “The Giants is dead.” Those four words spurred New York into a first place tie with the Dodgers at season’s end, and a three-game play-off that included the incredible Bobby Thomson ninth inning home run.
An unthinking off-the-cuff comment may even come back to haunt the speaker. One of the most famous quotations in baseball came from Giant manager Bill Terry who when asked about the Dodgers’ chances before the 1934 season answered, “Is Brooklyn still in the league?” Although the Dodgers finished far back in sixth place, coincidentally the Dodgers and Terry’s Giants finished the season with a two-game series in the Polo Grounds with New York needing only one game to take the league pennant. Yes, the Dodgers proved they were still in the league by taking both games thus allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League flag.
Here are more quotable quotes said throughout the years.
“Baseball must be a great game to survive the fools who run it.”
-Bill Terry
“I think we can win it – if my brains hold out.”
-John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants, during the 1921 pennant race
“I love the crowd. Whenever I need something extra, I look up and there it is.”
-Tug McGraw, left-handed pitcher for the Giants and Phillies in his 19-year career
“A great catch is like watching girls go by – the last one you see is always the prettiest.”
-Bob Gibson, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cardinals in the 1960’s and ‘70’s
“Pro-rated at 500 at-bats a year means
that for two years out of the 17 seasons I played, I never even touched the
ball.”
-Detroit Tiger first baseman Norman Cash reflecting on his 1,091 strikeouts
“It was not very wonderful that Catherine should prefer cricket, baseball…to books.”
-Jane Austen, the first “serious writer” to refer to the game of baseball in
“Northanger Abbey, Chapter 3
“He is a huge man and a small child combined in one runaway personality.”
-Eleanor on husband Babe Ruth
“I regret to this day that I never went to college. I feel I should have been a doctor.”
-Hall of Famer Ty Cobb
“He slides into second with a standup double.”
-Jerry Coleman, former Yankee infield and San Diego announcer
“Sometimes I get lazy and let the dishes stack up. But they don’t stack too high, I’ve got only four dishes.”
-Mark Fidrych who won 19 games for the Detroit Tigers in his rookie year of 1976
“Any ballplayer that don’t sign autographs for little kids ain’t an American. He’s a Communist.”
-Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby
“At the first card show, I felt bad seeing those little kids paying to get my autograph. It didn’t hit me right. I felt it in my heart. I made a vow that once the contract is over, I’m done. I’ll still sign, but not for money. I won’t do it for a million dollars.”
-The late Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett
“How could he be expected to remember where the bases were? He gets on so infrequently.”
-Sportswriter Jack Lang on Marv Throneberry who had hit a triple. but called out after failing to touch first base in 1962.
“The league will be a little drier now, folks.”
-Said in 1983 by a sportswriter after the retirement of Gaylord Perry who was often
alleged of throwing spitballs
“They throw Winfield out at second, and he’s safe.”
-Jerry Coleman, former Yankee infielder and announcer
“Babe, you were a hero to my generation. You are Mr. Baseball to me. Every fan in America is pulling for you. I’m going to say a little prayer for you, Babe. God bless you.”
-Baseball commissioner Happy Chandler during a hospital visit to see Babe Ruth on
February 13, 1947 (Note: Ruth died of cancer on August 16, 1948)
“Pain don’t hurt.”
-Cincinnati and Detroit manager Sparky Anderson
“Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game.”
-Former pitcher and announcer Dizzy Dean
“It’s a beautiful day for a night game.”
-Hall of Famer infielder, manager, and announcer Frankie Frisch
“A lot of people my age are dead at the present time.”
-Hall of Famer outfielder and manager Casey Stengel
“I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.”
-President Gerald Ford, 1978
“Pitching is the cornerstone of most championship teams.”
-Roger Craig, pitcher and manager
“I have found most baseball players to be afflicted with tobacco-chewing minds.”
-Howard Cosell, announcer and writer
“I came into this game sane, and I want to leave it sane.”
-Why Don Baylor, outfielder, DH, and manager, refused to take the manager’s
job when offered by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
“It was a beautiful thing to observe all 36 oars working in unison.”
-Announcer Jack Buck on George Steinbrenner’s new yacht