I don't think anyone ever liked to play more than I did.
If a ballplayer is satisfied, he's going to slip. You have to keep fighting to improve.
No one had to tell me I was never going to be a home run hitter. I was hitting the same ball as the rest of the players, but when the big guys cracked one, it went out of the park. Mine went out of the infield.
What is the top requirement for a second baseman? A fine shortstop. I am fortunate in having the greatest shortstop in baseball, Luis Aparicio.
(Al) Lopez is a great believer in speed and hustle, in the go-go style of baseball. No other manager is so determined a foe of stodgy baseball, lack of hustle and slipshod practices and so powerful an advocate of the unexpected.
All small men, all non-power hitters, must learn to bunt well. It's half your game.
(Doc) Cramer told me I was hitting too much off the front foot and that I wasn't using the right kind of bat. I had been using a long, skinny stick and Cramer got me a thicker one.
On October 19, 1949, I got a telephone call from the Philadelphia (A's) front office informing me I had been traded to the White Sox for Joe Tipton. I was surprised and hurt.
Second base is anything but magic. If it's anything at all, it's speed, sureness with your hands and lots of hard work.
We really had baseball in the family. Even that little habit I've got of chewing tobacco on the ball field sort of comes from my dad.
We won (the pennant) because we've got a superior ball club. Not many stars perhaps, but the kind of team that always plays well together.
(Jim) Landis is such a good player because he plays every day as if he expects to be sent to the minors next week.
You don't have to be big to be a big leaguer. Look at Phil Rizzuto. He's really small and he's been one of the greatest that ever was.
On two legs, Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ballplayer who ever lived.
