SKIPPER'S FAVORITE BASEBALL QUOTES

Baer, Arthur

He would climb a mountain to take a punch at an echo.

On Ty Cobb.

He could throw a lambchop past a wolf.

On the fiery pitcher Lefty Grove.

Banks, Ernie

It’s a great day for a ballgame; let’s play two!

His signature line.

Barber, Red

Baseball is dull only to dull minds.

He’s sitting in the catbird seat.

The fat’s in the fire.

They’re tearing up the pea patch.

There’s fever in Flatbush.

Belinski, Bo

My only regret in life is that I can’t sit in the stands and watch me pitch.

If I’d known I was gonna pitch a no-hitter today, I would have gotten a haircut.

Never try to snow a snowman.

Berra, Yogi

Baseball is 90% mental.  The other half is physical.

I want to thank you for making this day necessary.

As fans from his hometown in St. Louis were throwing a day for him in Sportsman’s Park in 1947.

If the people don’t want to come out to the park, nobody’s going to stop them.

Explaining declining attendance in Kansas City.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

It ain’t over till it’s over.

One of Yogi’s most widely repeated sayings.

It gets late early out here.

Yogi’s explanation of why it was difficult to play left field in Yankee Stadium in day games in October.

It’s déjà vu all over again.

A popular Yogi-ism, although he denies saying it.

It’s so crowded nobody goes there anymore.

Talking about Toots Shor’s popular Manhattan restaurant.

So I’m ugly.  So what?  I never saw anyone hit with his face.

A classic Berra-ism.

You can observe a lot by watching.

Explaining why he felt he could be a successful manager even without prior managerial experience.

Dean, Dizzy

Cooke, Bob

Rex Barney would be the league’s best pitcher if the plate were high and outside.

On the hard-throwing but wild Dodger pitcher of the 1940s who never lived up to the brilliance predicted of him.

Harrah, Toby

Baseball statistics are a lot like a bikini.  They show a lot, but they don't show everything. 

Johnson, Lyndon Baines

We cheer for the Senators, we pray for the Senators, and we hope that the Supreme Court doesn’t declare that unconstitutional.

At a Washington, D.C. luncheon for the All-Star game, July 9, 1962.

Monday, Rick

It actually giggles at you as it goes by.

On Phil Niekro’s knuckleball.

Murray, Jim

His face looks like a closed fist.

Describing former Yankee Hank Bauer.

He was a symbol of indestructability—a Gibraltar in cleats.

On Lou Gehrig.

The only eccentric thing about him is his crooked arm.  He looks as if he put it on in the dark.

On former screwballer Carl “Mealticket” Hubbell.

Rice, Grantland

It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.

His most famous line.

McGraw’s very walk across the field in a hostile town was a challenge to the multitudes.

On feisty Giants manager, John McGraw.

The knightliest of all the game’s Paladins.

How Rice described Christy Mathewson.

Skully, Vin

He pitches as though he’s double-parked.

On the fast-working Bob Gibson.

Stengel, Casey

Been in this game a hundred years, but I see new ways to lose ’em I never knew existed before.

As Mets manager, on the inept early Mets teams.

Can’t anybody play this here game?

Stengel’s second or third most famous line, first posed as a question about the original New York Mets.

Best thing wrong with Jack Fisher is nothing.

As Met manager, on his best pitcher.

After marching out to protest the umpire’s call that the hapless Marv Throneberry missed first base on his way to a triple, the umpire reportedly told the Old Perfessor, “Save your breath, Casey, he missed second base, too!”  To which Stengel replied, “Well, I know he didn’t miss third base, ’cause he’s standing on it!”

After a late East Coast game followed by a later still delayed flight into Houston which arrived in the late hours of the morning, the shopworn 70-plus year-old Stengel muttered this classic:  “If anybody’s looking for me, tell them I’m getting embalmed!”

He made the rest of ’em look like plumbers.

Stengel, on Joe DiMaggio playing center field.

Stengel once suggested that the secret for success as a manager was “to keep the twenty guys who hate you away from the five guys who are undecided.”

“When they list all the great catchers…you’ll be there listening.”

Stengel, to former catcher Joe Garagiola

After managing the Yankees to ten pennants in a dozen seasons, Stengel summed up his good fortune:  “There comes a time in everyman’s life at least once, and I’ve had plenty of ’em.”

Casey once reportedly shared the pearl of wisdom that “Good pitching always stops good hitting.  And vice versa.”

After a particularly frustrating loss, Stengel once reportedly told his barber, “Don’t cut my throat.  I may want to do it myself later.”

Describing his longevity as a manager, Casey once proclaimed, “Most people my age are dead at the present time.”

Stengel had strong feelings about drinking.  The team’s hotel bar was off-limits to players.  “That’s where I do my drinking,” he declared.  When Stengel confronted pitcher Mickey McDermott in a freight elevator at 4 a.m., the manager shook his head in disgust and said, “Drunk again.”  The pitcher grinned.  “Me, too.”

When Casey managed the woeful New York Mets years ago, a reporter asked him, after the Mets had a deplorable day afield, what he thought of his team’s execution.  “I think it’s a good idea,” said Casey.