Favourite Baseball Quotes

Doesn't seem to be a dedicated thread. My five favourites, which I've no doubt scattered over other threads, more than once probably.

1. "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 line of Ball Four)

2. "Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn." (Greg Maddux...I have a guess as to what the expletive is, and the quote's even better if you spell it out, but I can't confirm that so I'll leave it as is.)

3. "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other one-third by Garry Maddox." (Attributed to more than one person--Ralph Kiner seems to be the originator.)

4. "We got a kid here named Goossen, twenty years old, and in ten years he’s got a chance to be thirty." (Casey Stengel)

5. "The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play." (Reggie Jackson)

6. I'll forgo the most famous quote from Maybe I'll Pitch Forever for "Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood." (Satchel Paige)

7. "My views are just about the same as Casey's." (Mickey Mantle, addressing Congress in 1958. Needs context...)

8. "If I ain't startin', I ain't departin'." (Wow--according to Wikipedia, "The quote...regarding the 1979 MLB All-Star Game, is often mistakenly attributed to Garry Templeton over his refusal to play. In reality, Jack Buck, Cardinals sportscaster at the time made the statement." I sometimes live by these words with regards to how people treat me--can't believe I'm just finding out now it wasn't Templeton.)

9. "I'm not an athlete, ma'am. I'm a baseball player." (John Kruk)

10. "We do this every day." (Earl Weaver--should have had that in the top three or four.)

11. How could I forget: "(Baseball) breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart." (A. Bartlett Giamatti--much longer, but that's the important part.)

Have you watched the Clubhouse yet? There’s a great part that features that as read out by Joe Castiglione

There’s a clip of it here but the actual filming in the show elevates it imo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWC15C97NB0 2.37 on

I actually started watching two days ago...I'm very slow when it comes to anything I watch at home, chopping it up into 20-30 minute sessions. I'll post after I've watched two or three episodes; expect it will take me at least a month to finish everything.

12. Could go with a few Ruth quotes, but I'll go with this: "Sixty! Count 'em, 60! Let's see some other son of a bitch match that!"