Willie Mays Quotes

To be a big league ball player, you have to love the game.

You have to hit the fastball to play in the big leagues.

If this validates anything, it's that learning how to bunt and hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light at the dug out camera.

I don't believe there's a baseball job that I couldn't take care of.

You never really know baseball until you put on a pair of cleats and get out and play it; and if you play for five years, you still don't really know what it's about.

Always wanted to be a Major League player. Loved baseball. Followed it. Loved to play. Plus, I could always hit.

I enjoy talking pitching and talking baseball. And I don't have all the answers. I don't claim to, but I'm more than happy to share my beliefs.

I just loved to play. I liked to study the other ballplayers. I could talk about it for ages, because I played professional ball for 20 years, and I was still learning when I quit.

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.

My main objective is to prepare candidates for professional baseball; however, the majority of our graduates will go home as much better qualified amateurs.

I was in the American League for 16, 17 years, and I think it's a really tough league to compete in.

I thought I was a pretty good shortstop, but I also wanted to play in the major leagues.

I was a good athlete, a good baseball player. A great baseball player, I should say.

I think that, because of the way I catch, that I'm one of the best catchers to have ever played baseball.

There are some players I always watched, various players who I knew hit the ball well.

How can I play baseball if I'm stupid? If I was stupid I wouldn't have pitched in the World Series. I'd be playing ball in Mexico or Yugoslavia or on Pluto.

I played baseball up until my freshman year of high school. That was my main sport. I played third base.

When did it - When did it become okay for someone to hit home runs and forget how to play the rest of the game?

I think one of the most difficult things for anyone who's played baseball is to accept the fact that maybe the players today are playing just as well as ever.

There's not a pill or an injection that's going to give me, going to give any player the hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball.

I knew how to read box scores and who the baseball heroes were before I had ever seen or even heard much of a game.

It's not like learning how to hit a curve ball in baseball.

Casey knew his baseball. He only made it look like he was fooling around. He knew every move that was ever invented and some that we haven't even caught on to yet.

People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball.

I would love to get back to the big leagues as a coach, possibly a manager. I would love that opportunity.