Baseball Culture Quotes

In '83, we went over to Amsterdam. I just remember people saying, 'Baseball's just starting over here. They're learning how to play the game of baseball.'

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.'

I've definitely been to my fair share of Dodger games growing up. Didn't grow up too far from the stadium. That's where I first learned, first watched major-league baseball.

I love the game, it's the greatest game on earth, that's why I can't understand all of this talk about trying to make the game better. People talk about the high strike zone and changing this and that. Why? To speed up the game? That's the beauty of baseball. There is no time element.

I don't know that I've ever looked at baseball like a purely casual fan. That's just realistic when you grow up with it putting food on your table, and with it taking your dad out of town.

Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base.

Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.

Baseball is the greatest of all team sports.

To baseball players, our caps are sacred. We integrate our caps into our strange routines and superstitions, removing and replacing them on our heads with ritual precision so they sit just so.

Baseball is a universal language. Catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball.

If I walked back into the booth in the year 2025, I don't think it would have changed much. I think baseball would be played and managed pretty much the same as it is today. It's a great survivor.

I always loved playing in New York, where the Yankees fans expect a winning team every year.

Baseball ought never be hurried. It is the only unhurried institution we have left, which is one reason, I think, we love it.

On matters of race, on matters of decency, baseball should lead the way.

I'm from Boston, and in Boston, you are born with a baseball bat in your hand. And actually, most of the bats in Massachusetts are used off the field instead of on the field, and we all had baseball bats in our cars in high school.

Basketball is a game. Baseball is a religion. Baseball is American.

I was all-state in four sports in New Jersey, but sometimes I couldn't get served at a restaurant two blocks from my high school. There were no job opportunities then... the only thing a black youth could aspire to be was a bellboy or a pullman or an elevator operator, or, maybe, a teacher. There was a time when all we had was black baseball.

Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind.

That's what makes baseball the best. Nothing matters but winning.

Major league baseball is about the history of the game. Baseball history is so important. It's so much more than money.

There's certainly a large literature around baseball in the U.S.

I think it's a natural fit, major league baseball and country music.

Baseball fans are pedants, there is no other kind.

Mike Matheny, Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile... before he died. Those guys took me under their wing and taught me the way to play the game the right way.

I love being a Yankee, and it's hard not to. It's a special place to play.