Some books have too much tennis. Some books have too much baseball. Some books have too much boxing. Some books have too much horse.
There are many kids in and out of baseball who think that just because they have some natural talent, they have the world by the tail.
These old ballparks are like cathedrals in America. We don't have big old Gothic cathedrals like they do in Europe. But we got baseball parks.
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.
You see, 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.
Back in East St. Louis, tennis wasn't the real thing. If you weren't playing baseball, basketball, football, you were kind of on the outside.
These days baseball is different. You come to spring training, you get your legs ready, you arms loose, your agents ready, your lawyer lined up.
I could've played basketball, but my mind was on baseball. I didn't know what I was in for. In high school it was a matter of talent. No one told you what to do.
I don't wish I did anything differently. The most important thing to me was to play baseball.
When I played, I never needed the spotlight, nor did I want it. I simply wanted to play baseball and be respected by my teammates and the opposing players.
Major League Baseball is a national institution and we take our responsibilities seriously when it comes to how the game affects the lives of American youth.
Baseball hasn't forgotten me. I go to a lot of old-timers games and I haven't lost a thing. I sit in the bullpen and let people throw things at me. Just like old times.
Any teammate of mine that had a kid and a boy that was capable of playing baseball, I think I set a terrific example of 'Don't do this' and 'Don't do that.' And that's one of the things that I'm most proud of.
It's the mathematical potential for a single game to last forever, in a suspended world where no clock rules the day, that aligns baseball as much with the dead as the living.
I know that baseball players have certain rituals or habits that they develop, because sometimes it becomes somewhat superstitious if they get on a streak and want to do the same thing over and over again.
I've never had to pitch a movie to a studio. I usually just let people read the script, then I cast it. I always think pitching is for baseball.
I went to school every day, like everyone else, and I played baseball for my high school team. I was a part of a lot of different activities outside of school.
I mean the game is just, everybody talks about baseball but I really think football probably has a little bit more American feeling than anything.
There will never be another Mariano Rivera. He was a friend and a champion of a teammate. He really cared about the game of baseball, the way it was played, and whatever it took to win that night.
Finally, for all of us but a lucky few, the dream of playing big-time baseball is relinquished so we can get on with grown-up things.
I was lucky enough to have the talent to play baseball. That's how I treated my career. I didn't think I was anybody special, anybody different.
