Pete's Baseball Quotes

Miscellaneous

George F. Will
This book is a study of that sort of heroism. It is not an exercise in hero worship. Rather, more soberly, it is an act of hero appreciation. I use the word 'hero' advisedly, cognizant of the derision it invites. We live in a relentlessly antiheroic age. Perhaps in a democratic culture there is always a leveling impulse, a desire to cut down those who rise. Today, however, there also seems to be a small-minded, mean-spirited resentment of those who rise, a reluctance to give credit where it is due, a flinching from unstinting admiration, a desire to disbelieve in the rewarded virtue of the few. We have a swamp of journalism suited to such an age, a journalism infused with a corrosive leveling spirit.

Yet it has been said that no man is a hero to his valet, not because no man is a hero but because all valets are valets. It requires a certain largeness of spirit to give generous appreciation to large achievements. A society with a crabbed spirit and a cynical urge to discount and devalue will find that one day, when it needs to draw upon the resevoirs of excellence, the resevoirs have run dry. A society in which the capacity for warm appreciation of excellence atrophies will find that its capacity for excellence diminishes. That is no small loss, least of all to a nation in which the pursuit of happiness was endorsed in the founding moment. (mw 328) (mw 328)

Casey Stengel:
Now you take Ernie Lombardi who's a big man and has a big nose and you take Martin who's a little man and has a bigger nose. How do you figger it?

Casey Stengel:
Lopat looks like he is throwing wads of tissue paper. Every time he wins a game, fans come down out of the stands asking for contracts.

Mike Flanagan, Baltimore pitcher, about the Toronto Blue Jays' record-setting 10 HRs in one game against the Orioles:
We tried looking for the record-breaking ball out beyond the fence in right, but there were too many of them all bunched up there.

Yogi Berra, calling a teammate about his new piano:
Come over here and show me how to work this thing!

Yogi Berra:
I don't know if we're the oldest battery, but we're certainly the ugliest.

Tommy Lasorda, on Jerry Reuss's no-hitter:
It couldn't have happened to a greater guy. Well, yes it could. It could have happened to me.

Ralph Kiner:
Two thirds of the earth is covered by water, the other one-third is covered by Gary Maddox.

Elrod Hendricks, on Mike Cueller:
Mike always thinks two pitches ahead. When they make an out on one of his set-up pitches he looks like they've spoiled his fun.

Earl Weaver:
I've given Mike Cuellar more chances than my first wife.

Don Larsen, asked if he ever gets tired of talking about his perfect world series game:
No, why should I?

Joe Garagiola, on Rick Burleson:
He's even tempered. He comes to the ballpark mad and stays that way.

Lee Allen, on Pepper Martin:
A chunky, unshaven hobo who ran the bases like a beserk locomotive, slept in the raw, and swore at pitchers in his sleep.

Pete Rose, to Tony Perez:
How can anyone as slow as you pull a muscle?

Pete's Baseball Quotes