The game of baseball is a game of failure because it's so difficult to play. A 300 hitter, a superstar fails seven out of ten times at the plate. So what does that tell you about the game and its difficulty?
Baseball as I have said before to many... many parents it's not about wins and losses. It's about the life lessons that are learned on that baseball field. The perseverance, the hard work that it takes, dealing with failure.
I was brought into situations God couldn't get out of, and I got out of them.
Hitting in a game is no different than hitting in a home run contest. It pisses me off to say Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter. He's playing in a wussy era. The game is soft. You never get thrown at today. Last thing a hitter has to worry about today is getting hit. The first thing Hank Aaron had to worry about is: Am I going to survive this at-bat because I'm black.
Every life lesson is on that baseball field.
Some of my greatest memories were on a little league field. We didn't even have any uniforms.
I'd like to be remembered for the way I went about doing my job.
The first year was weird. I knew I was just there to talk to pitchers and not step on any toes. I could feel my adrenaline start to flow in about the sixth inning. I had to tell myself, "What the hell are you getting excited about? You're not going anywere, big boy. Just go sign some autographs." I was still programmed.
I played for nine different teams throughout my 22-year major league career and I loved every moment of every team.
Hitters never showed me up, as hard as I threw. And I was pretty mean out on the mound.
In my opinion, the best setup guys now have a tougher job than the closers. They pitch more innings, inherit more runners.
Bert Blyleven certainly was a starting pitcher that had tremendous success in the big leagues. Jimmy Rice, this guy if you had to face him, I tell you what he'd get your attention cause he was a great... great player. I think those guys deserve some recognition, but it didn't happen for them. For whatever reason, I really can't answer that.
The only urgency that I ever had was when my mom was alive. She died last year in September of 2006. She was my number one fan and she always said I'd love to see you go into the Hall of Fame. That was the only urgency that I ever had that I wish if I was going to go into the Hall of Fame that certainly it would've happen when she was around, but it didn't and now that she's passed.
I had set the standard for my style of relief pitching so high that when I came back to the rest of the pack, everybody said I was done.
I think that Jim Rice should be in the Hall of Fame. I think that Craig Nettles should be in the Hall of Fame and he didn't even get a sniff.
If your child's gonna be a star it's going to happen and just let it happen.
These messages that we are sending our kids and the kind of lives people lead today so superficial it seems, just a lot of phony stuff. What does it mean when you really stop and think about it's kind of stupid.
There is nobody that wants to win more than George Steinbrenner.
When I played, Old-Timers Day was my favorite day of the whole season, because I got to share a locker with one of the great Yankees... It was an out-of-body experience.
