No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference.
I walk into the clubhouse today and it's like walking into the Mayo Clinic. We have four doctors, three therapists and five trainers. Back when I broke in, we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and by the 7th inning he'd already drunk it.
If he raced his pregnant wife he'd finish third.
The best possible thing in baseball is winning The World Series. The second best thing is losing The World Series.
The saddest day of the year is the day baseball season ends.
When you say you're a padre, people ask when did you become a parent. When you say you're a cardinal, they tell you to work hard because the next step is pope. But when you say you're a Dodger, everybody knows you're in the Major Leagues.
The worst team in baseball's history won only 55 games. The best team ever won 110 out of 160, so you're virtually guaranteed to win 1/3 of the time and lose 1/3 of the time. The difference is the 1/3 in the middle. You don't know what bucket the game you're playing falls into, so if you're smart, you'll fight like everything for all of them.
I've been able to dine with presidents, with leaders of corporations, traveled for 14 years with (financier and philanthropist) Michael Milken, who has taught me so much about life. Hanging around with them, it's nothing I could have believed in grade school. I could be with all of them? Milton Berle, Don Rickles, Dean Martin ... this former third-string pitcher from the Norristown High baseball team and the son of an Italian immigrant? I really am in awe when I think that has happened to me. What a life.
All last year we tried to teach him (Fernando Valenzuela) English, and the only word he learned was million.
Bruce Benedict is so slow he'd finish third in a race with a pregnant woman.
I am so happy and proud to learn of Hideo Nomo's election to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He was quite a pitcher and competitor, but he is also a very special and caring person.
Baseball is like driving, it's the one who gets home safely that counts.
Say 'Dodgers' and people know you're talking about baseball. Say 'Braves' and they ask, 'What reservation?' Say 'Reds' and they think of communism. Say 'Padres' and they look around for a priest.
I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that's the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years.
My wife tells me one day, 'I think you love baseball more than me.' I say, 'Well, I guess that's true, but hey, I love you more than football and hockey.'
Ernie Banks was a great great player and when he no longer could play, he became a great ambassador for the game. He represented the game with the highest of class and dignity. Everybody loved Ernie Banks. He enjoyed baseball, life and people. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. We have truly lost a baseball giant.
I managed the Dodgers for 20 years. It's hard to believe that there are only four guys in the history of baseball who managed the same team for 20 years or more. One was owner of the team, Connie Mack. Another was part owner of the team, John McGraw. Then there was my predecessor, Walter Alston, and me. It's amazing. In the 20 years I managed the Dodgers, 210 managers were fired.
When I took the job as the manager of the Olympic team, I didn't take it because I was a Dodger. I did it because I was an American, and I wanted to bring that gold medal where it belongs in baseball, the United States. And that's exactly what our team did.
Baseball is played by all countries now, and softball, too.
It's still the best game in town because you don't have to be big to play, and everybody plays. Even your grandmother probably played baseball.
You can have the best team in baseball, and if nobody goes through the turnstiles, you've got to shut the doors down.
Everything I have, I owe to baseball and the Dodgers.
