Baseball Tactics Quotes

Preparation is very important. The pitcher is going to do his job and prepare for you, so you as a hitter must do the same. I always watch videotape of pitchers before the game and even sometimes during.

When I went to home plate in a game-tied situation or with a chance to do something and help the ballclub win one, I'd try to make eye contact with the pitcher.

The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.

Strikeouts are something that just happen. You don't go for strikeouts, because your pitch count gets too high. When you do get that opportunity, you have to put them away with whatever is working that day.

Typically, being under the strike zone with the sinker isn't a big issue. I need to be a little bit higher with the strike zone earlier in the count. If you miss under with one here and there when you're ahead, it's really not an issue.

Baseball is about homecoming. It is a journey by theft and strength, guile and speed, out around first to the far island of second, where foes lurk in the reefs and the green sea suddenly grows deeper, then to turn sharply, skimming the shallows, making for a shore that will show a friendly face, a color, a familiar language and, at third, to proceed, no longer by paths indirect but straight, to home.

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

I was never a strikeout pitcher. Why should I throw eight or nine balls to get a man out when I got away with three or four?

If you want to steal a base, steal a base. Don't make the hitter swing at a bad pitch trying to protect the runner.

Whenever I hit a ball in the gap, I'm thinking the extra bases. I never slow down. That's the only way you're going to get triples.

What you have to do in certain situations, that's called situational hitting.

The way those clubs shift against Ted Williams, I can't understand how he can be so stupid not to accept the challenge to him and hit to left field.

I like to hit with men in scoring position.

I used to be a pretty good hit-and-run man when I played in the minors. I handled the bat well and could hit the ball to the right side of the infield. Nevertheless, I know that you often give the opposition an out on the hit-and-run play.

If you try to give them a scheme, most hitters will rebel.

I cant think of anything more humiliating than losing a ballgame to a guy who steals home on you. It happened to me one time against Kansas City. I had a 2-2 count on the hitter - and Amos Otis broke from third. The pitch was a ball and slid in safe. I felt like a nickel.

When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.

I always tried to watch the pitcher and his complete windup from the moment he had the ball in his glove all the way through his motion, and tried to follow it all the way out of his hand, all the way to home plate.

Basically, hitters fall into a pattern, and once you know what they like, you can set them up for the putout with something else.

Don't play for one run unless you know that run will win a ballgame.

I think there's more of opportunity to win games in the National League than the American League because there are more decisions to make.

Bunting is usually a waste of time. The - generally, yeah, I mean, if you think about it, bunt is the only play in baseball that both sides applaud. The - if the home team bunts, you get a base. The home team applauds because they get an out, and the other team applauds because they get a base. So what does that tell you?

I just try to make the pitcher work.

When I move to second after playing right field, I feel like my action has gotten too deliberate, and I have to switch back into that quicker, boom-boom infield mode.

I could probably throw harder if I wanted, but why? When they're in a jam, a lot of pitchers...try to throw harder. Me, I try to locate better.