- When I throw a ground ball, I expect it to be an out, maybe two.
- After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work. You get over feeling like that when you spend days on end sleeping in frozen tank tracks in enemy threatened territory. The Army taught me something about challenges and about what's important and what isn't. Everything I tackle in baseball and in life I take as a challenge rather than work.
- Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.
- A pitcher needs two pitches, one they're looking for and one to cross them up.
- What is life, after all, but a challenge? And what better challenge can there be than the one between the pitcher and the hitter.
- You don't just throw the ball - you propel it.
- A sore arm is like a headache or a toothache. It can make you feel bad, but if you just forget about it and do what you have to do, it will go away. If you really like to pitch and you want to pitch, that's what you'll do.
- On Willie Mays: "He was something like zero for twenty-one the first time I saw him. His first major league hit was a home run off me and I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out."
- On returning from WWII to the major leagues: "I felt like, wow what a great way to make a living. If I goof up, there's going to be a relief pitcher coming in there. Nobody's going to shoot me."
- The difference between winning 19 games and winning 20 for a pitcher is bigger than anyone out of baseball realizes. It's the same for hitters - someone who hits .300 looks back on the guy who batted .295 and says, 'Tough luck buddy.'
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content