Baseball is a GREAT GAME. You just got to LOVE IT!
Here we have a collection of quotes and stories that
we believe reflect the true greatness of the AMERICAN GAME!

"Baseball - The Same Game Now As Then"

It has been said that baseball is the only game played that has remained the same. In fact, it has been said that you could take a player from 1910 and bring him to "today" and he could still understand and play the game because it is still basically played the same way it was 100 years ago.

As long as there has been baseball there have been errors. We always say that the team that makes the fewest mistakes always wins. Thats not always true. We always say that the best team always wins. However, that's not always true.

I do know however know that one basic true always prevails in baseball just as it does in real life. You always get what you deserve & deserve what you get! This is especially true when it comes to the BIG THREE Rs IN LIFE, R-respect, R-reputation, & R-results.

Baseball is a true reflection of life. You always get out of it what your put in. Baseball is a game of many emotions; elation, satisfaction, disappointment, frustration, and pride. It can be a very cruel game and it can be extremely forgiving.

"When you're hitting the ball, it comes at you looking like a grapefruit. When you're not, it looks like a blackeyed pea."
George Scott

"So I'm ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face."
Yogi Berra

"I have observed that baseball is not unlike a war, and when you come right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery."
Ty Cobb

Good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice versa."
Casey Stengel

"I'd rather hit than have sex."
Reggie Jackson

About Hank Aaron
"Trying to sneak a fastball past him is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster."
Curt Simmons

"George Brett could get wood on an aspirin."
Jim Frey

"Edie Stanky couldn't hit, couldn't run, couldn't field, and couldn't throw, but he was the best player on the club. All Mr. Stanky could do for you was win."
Branch Rickey

"In a way, an umpire is like a woman. He makes quick decisions, never reverses them, and doesn't think your're safe when you're out."
Larry Goetz

"I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly
declared they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a
few days to correct that impression."

"All right, everybody line up alphabetically according to your height."

"I made up my mind, but I made it up both ways."

"Being with a woman never hurt no professional baseball player.
It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."

"Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice versa."

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from
the guys who are undecided."
On hearing that a rival manager was trying to win the pennant with just three pitchers::

"Well, well, well, I heard it couldn't be done,
but it don't always work."
On players who did not drink:

"It only helps them if they can play."
On winning the 1958 World Series:

"I couldna done it without my players."
On being asked how the Mets were doing:

"Well, we've got this Johnny Lewis in the outfield.
They hit a ball to him yesterday, and he turned left, then he
turned right, then he went straight back and caught the ball.
He made three good plays in one. And Greg Goossen, he's only twenty
and with a good chance in ten years of being thirty."
On being asked about his future in the spring of 1965:

"How the hell should I know? Most of the people
my age are dead. You could look it up."
To his excuse-prone Mets:

"You make your own luck. Some people have bad
luck all their lives."

From Bostonbaseball.com

"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes they look too far... They don't have to look any farther than their home because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes."
Bobby Bonilla

"Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports."
Gen. Omar Bradley

"They can hollar at the uniform all they want, but when they hollar at the man wearing the uniform, they're in trouble."
Umpire Joe Brinkman

"Pro-rated at 500 at-bats per year, my 1,081 strike-outs would mean that for 2 years out of the 14 I played, I never touched the ball."
Norm Cash

"I believe salaries are at their peak, not just in baseball, but all sports. It's quite possible some owners will trade away, or even drop entirely, players who expect $200,000 salaries. There's a superstar born every year... But still there is no way clubs can continue to increase salaries to the level some players are talking about."
Peter O'Malley, 1971.

"I believe in the Rip Van Winkle Theory: that a man from 1910 must be able to wake up after being asleep for seventy years, walk into a ballpark and understand baseball perfectly."
Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of Baseball (1969-1984) [Baldham Boars]

"I think a baseball field must be the most beatiful thing in the world. It's so honest and precise. And we play on it. Every star gets humbled. Every mediocre player has a great moment."
Lowell Cohn in "The Temple of Baseball" (1981) [Baldham Boars]

"When we played softball, I'd steal 2nd base, feel guilty and go back."
Woody Allen

"I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player."
John Kruk

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to safe the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base."

"When you think about it, a home run is a mistake. The idea is to hit the ball hard, on a line, so the defense can't react to it. Hit it high in the air, which is how most home runs are hit, and most of the time it will be caught. It's a mistake."
Matt Williams, Indians third baseman, always a threat to make a mistake. [Freising Grizzlies]

"One thing anyone can go through is a slump. Unless you're Greg Maddux, it's going to happen to everybody."
Mike Piazza, Dodgers Catcher [Freising Grizzlies]

"Errors are part of my image. One night in Pittsburgh, thirty thousand fans gave me a standing ovation when I caught a hot dog wrapper on the fly."
Dick "Stonefingers" Stuart, First Baseman for the Phillies, Pirates, Mets, Dodgers, Angels and Red Sox in the sixties, on himself [Baldham Boars]

From: http://www.bbsv.de/quotes.htm

The hitter's "backyard basketball goal" makes home batting practice as easy and convenient as shooting a "game of horse"! What could 25,000 more practice swings a year do for your game? Think about it!

This next story has all of the emotions of the game entined in it. This story is true. It teaches us a lot about the game.

It happened in September of 1908, in NY City. The Cubs were facing the Giants with the pennant on the line. Each and every game was a must-win situation. The score was tied 1-1, in the bottom of the 9th, the Giants had runners on the corners with two outs.

Fred Merkle, a 19 year-old rookie, was the runner on first.
The next batter lined a single. The runner at third came home. It appeared to be a Giants victory, they had
taken the lead for the pennant, the cheering fans swarmed the field.

Merkle looked toward home plate and saw his teammate cross the plate. Merkle, startled as the crowd swarmed out of the bleachers onto the field, stopped. Thinking the game was over, Merkle sprinted off the field. But, he had forgotten an improtant rule of baseball, he did not go touch second. The Cubs retreived the ball, went and touched second. The game was declared at tie because order could not be restored because the fans could not be removed from the field. The two teams went on to finish the season in a dead
tie for the pennant. They had to play a one-game playoff. The Cubs won and went to the World Series. One loss, the loss, that day knocked the Giants out!

Merkle was never forgiven by the NY fans for that blunder. He went on to have a solid career of 14 years and a lifetime average of 273. However, everywhere he went he always was reminded by fans of his terrible mistake on that day of his rookie season. A mistake that will always be called, Merkles Boner.

"There are three types of baseplayers: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens."
Tommy Lasorda

"If the guys on the bench were as good as the guys you have out there, they'd be out there in the first place."
Frank Robinson

"Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'ss show you a guy you can best every time."
Lou Brock

"Most ballgames are lost, not won."
Casy Stengel

"Win any way you can, so long as you can get away with it."
Leo Durocher

"There are three secrets to managing. The first secret is 'have patience.' The second is 'be patient.' And the third and most important scret is 'patience.'"
Chuck Tanner

"It's what learned after you know it all that counts."
Earl Weaver

"One time Cool Papa Bell hit a line drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit his ass sliding into second base."
Satchel Paige

"Yogi-isms"

"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."


"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."

"You can observe a lot by watching."

"In baseball, you don't know nothing."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"It's deja vu all over again."

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

"I usually take a two-hour nap, from
one o'clock to four."

"If the people don't want to come out to
the park, nobody's going to stop them."

"Why buy good luggage? You only use
it when you travel."

"Think! How the hell are you gonna
think and hit at the same time?"

"I didn't really say everything I said."
Hey Yogi, what time is it?

"You mean now?"
On being asked his cap size at the beginning of spring training:

"I don't know, I'm not in shape."
On why the Yankees lost the 1960 series to Pittsburgh:

"We made too many wrong mistakes."
On Ted Williams:

"He is a big clog in their machine."
On the tight 1973 National League pennant race:

"It ain't over 'til it's over."
On being told by the wife of New York Mayor John V. Lindsay that he looked cool despite the heat:

"You don't look so hot, either."
On Yogi Berra Appreciation Day in St. Louis in 1947:

"I want to thank you for making this day necessary."
On the American League situation:

"The other teams could make trouble
for us if they win."
After receiving a check made out to "Bearer" for his appearance on Jack Buck's pregame show in St. Louis:

"How long have you known me, Jack? And
you still don't know how to spell my name."
Dale Berra, Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop and son of noted linguist Yogi Berra, on the comparisons being made between him and his father:

"Our similarities are different."
Asked if first baseman Don Mattingly had exceeded his expectations this season:

"I'd say he's done more than that."
On the acquisition of fleet Ricky Henderson:

"He can run anytime he wants. I'm
giving him the red light."
On a fancy White House dinner he attended:

"It was hard to have a conversation with anyone,
there were so many people talking."
Don Baylor, New York Yankees DH, on Billy Martin and his predecessor Yogi Berra:

"Playing for Yogi is like playing for
your father; playing for Billy is like playing
for your father-in-law."
Reminiscing during a tv interview about New York Yankee battery mate Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series:

"It's never happened in the World Series
competition, and it still hasn't."
After Milwaukee Brewer manager Phil Garner told him that he had said a Yogi-ism:

"What's a Yogi-ism?"
After accepting an invitation to dine at the White House this week:

"I thought they said steak dinner, but
then I found it was a state dinner."

From Bostonbaseball.com

Hank Aaron - " Hammerin' Henry "
Ernie Banks - " Mr. Cub "
James Bell - " Cool Papa Bell "
Steve Carlton - " Silent Steve "
Roger Clemens- " The Rocket "
Ty Cobb - " The Georgia Peach "
Jay Hannah Dean - " Dizzy Dean "
Joe DiMaggio - " Joltin' Joe Dimaggio "
Bob Feller - " Rapid Robert "
Jimmie Foxx - " Double X ", " The Beast "
Lou Gehrig - " The Iron Horse "
Bob Gibson - " Hoot "
Ken Griffey Jr. - " The Kid "
Robert Moses Grove - " Lefty Grove "
Rogers Hornsby - " The Rajah "
Jim Hunter - " Catfish Hunter "
Joe Jackson - "Shoeless Joe Jackson "
Reggie Jackson - " Mr. October "
Walter Johnson -" The Big Train "
Harmon Kellebrew - " Killer "
Mickey Mantle - " The Mick "
Willie McCovey - " Stretch "
Mark McGwire - " Big Mac "
Stan Musial - Stan " The Man " Musial
Frank Robinson - " Robby "
Pete Rose - " Charlie Hustle "
George Herman Ruth - " Babe Ruth "," The Sultan of Swat "
Tom Seaver - " Tom Terrific "
Ozzie Smith - " The Wizzard "
Duke Snider - " Duke of Flatbush "
Willie Stargell - " Pops "
Ted Williams - " The Splendid Splinter "
Carl Yastremski - " Yaz "