Mickey Mantle Quotes about Baseball

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played 7 years without ever hitting the ball.

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.

A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.

I leaned on him for support when I got out of the cab, and he just crumpled to the ground. That's how we found out.

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.

I thought I raised a ballplayer. You're nothing but a coward and a quitter.

Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Listen to your moms and dads. In this great country of ours you do whatever you set your mind to. Make us proud of you.

I've often wondered how a man who knew he was going to die could stand here and say he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth, but now I guess I know how he felt.

Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.

I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'

If I hadn't met those two guys (Billy Martin and Whitey Ford) at the start of my career, I would have lasted another five years.

Hey Yog, what time is it? You mean right now?

No man in the history of baseball had as much power as . No man.

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.

My dad taught me to switch-hit. He and my grandfather, who was left-handed, pitched to me every day after school in the back yard. I batted lefty against my dad and righty against my granddad.

As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due.

Thank God for baseball.

I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.

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.