Willie Mays Quotes

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.

What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.

In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.

In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated.

Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.

What's tough is being good every day.

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

One of the hardest parts of practice is the criticism a player takes from his coaches. Some players think a coach has it in for them when a flaw in style is pointed out ... I know that when things start going wrong, for one, I get the coach to keep his eye on me to see what I'm suddenly doing wrong. I can't see it or I wouldn't be doing it in the first place.

Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.

I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life.

I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act

Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.

I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.

In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing

When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.

Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.

I don't know what Joe (DiMaggio) wanted (in regards to being called 'the greatest living ballplayer'), but I don't have a problem, if he wanted to do that. He was my hero. Joe was the best all-around player. Joe was the best. I only played against him once, in the '51 Series.

I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.

I don't rate them, I just hit them.