I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love.
When I'm hitting, I'd play for nothing. When I'm not, any kind of money I receive makes me feel as if I'm stealing.
I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.
All the ballparks and the big crowds have a certain mystique. You feel attached, permanently wedded to the sounds that ring out, to the fans chanting your name, even when there are only four or five thousand in the stands on a Wednesday afternoon.
Every time I see his name (Dean Chance) on a lineup card, I feel like throwing up.
If you want to know who was better, me or Willie Mays, you have to look at our career stats. And Willie's bottom line was better.
The best team I ever saw, and I really mean this, was the '61 Yankees.
You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.
If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'
The thing I really liked about Mickey was the way he treated everyone the same.
When I first came to Yankee Stadium I used to feel like the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were walking around in there.
Watch the old man. Watch how the old man keeps the guys who aren't playing happy.
At my best I was as good as anyone.
I had it all and blew it.
It's what you're worth.
The best hitter I ever saw was Ted Williams.
They should have come out of the dugout on tippy-toes, holding hands and singing.
Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.
The strain on Roger (Maris) was unbelievable. After I dropped out the reporters only had one guy to go to. They surrounded him everywhere he went. He had big clumps of hair falling out. That he went ahead and did it was unbelievable.
It was all I lived for, to play baseball.
He foresaw the platooning that managers like Casey Stengel used years before it happened. He told me I had to be a switch-hitter if I was going to play.
I don't care who you are, you hear those boos.
After they remodeled Yankee Stadium I didn't feel that the ghosts were there anymore. It just wasn't the same.
All I have is natural ability.
In 1961 somebody could've hit a home run to win the game and the next day the headline was about the M&M boys not hitting a home run. But everyone was real good about it. Instead of getting mad they joked about it.
