Thoughts from the baseball world (and a few that belong):

Some of the names are no longer familiar. Baseball-reference.com is a good source for info, as well as somebody's father.

"When I put on my uniform, I feel I am the proudest man on earth."
-- Roberto Clemente

"Stats are a joke. Box scores are irrelevant. Looking at them doesn't tell me anything—not one thing. All that matters is if we win or lose."
-- Nomar Garciaparra

"I didn't know I hit that way (.625 with runners in scoring position). Maybe not knowing is my secret. If I chased numbers, maybe I wouldn't have as good results."
-- Ichiro Suzuki

"Don't miss the chance to get better."
--Jeff Garcia

"Last year, I was sort of a kid and I was a little scared, I ain't scared anymore."
-- Hank Aaron

"When people say (nice) things you take them as compliments and it's nice, but it won't help you win your next game. The thing I am trying to keep in mind is that relying on my past performance will not make me win my next game, it'll only get in my way."
-- Greg Maddox

"How can a you hit and think at the same time?"
-- Yogi Berra

"The only way to prove that you're a good sport is to lose."
-- Ernie Banks

"I come to win."
-- Leo Durocher

"I guess more players beat themselves that are ever beat by an opposing team. The first thing any man has to know is how to handle himself."
-- Connie Mack

"I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it."
--Sandy Koufax

"Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser."
--Sandy Koufax

"The only time I really try for a strikeout is when I'm in a jam. If the bases are loaded with none out, for example, then I'll go for a strikeout. But most of the time I try to throw to spots. I try to get them to pop up or ground out. On a strikeout I might have to throw five or six pitches, sometimes more if there are foul-offs. That tires me. So I just try to get outs. That's what counts - outs. You win with outs, not strikeouts."
-- Sandy Koufax

"To win. Nothing else matters, and nothing else will do."
-- Sandy Koufax

"I can't tell you about moments because I wasn't into that. I just played every day and enjoyed what I was doing. When I made a great catch it was just routine. I didn't worry about it. Winning was important. Winning."
-- Willie Mays

"It was all I lived for, to play baseball."
-- Mickey Mantle

"Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move."
-- Leroy "Satchell" Paige

"Hey, big mouth, how do you spell triple?"
-- Shoeless Joe Jackson

"Above anything else, I hate to lose."
-- Jackie Robinson #42

"I never could stand losing. Second place didn't interest me. I had a fire in my belly."
-- Ty Cobb

"They're (hitting slumps) like sleeping in a soft bed. Easy to get into and hard to get out of."
-- Johnny Bench

"I hustled (on how he was able to hit .424) on everything I hit."
-- Rogers Hornsby

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
-- George Herman "Babe" Ruth

Once, when the catcher came to the mound for a conference, "Lefty" Gomez said, "I don't wanna throw him nothing, maybe he'll get tired of waiting and leave."

If you can get an out on one pitch, take it. Let the strikeouts come on the outstanding pitches. Winning is the big thing. If you throw a lot of pitches, before you know it, your arm is gone."
-- Dwight Gooden

"A good base stealer should make the whole infield jumpy. Whether you steal or not, you're changing the rhythm of the game. If the pitcher is concerned about you, he isn't concentrating enough on the batter."
-- Joe Morgan

"Let's face it. Umpiring is not an easy or happy way to make a living. In the abuse they suffer, and the pay they get for it, you see an imbalance that can only be explained by their need to stay close to a game they can't resist."
-- Bob Uecker

"It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know."
-- Willie Stargell

"If a ballplayer is satisfied, he's going to slip. You have to keep fighting to improve."
-- Nellie Fox

"You don't always make an out. Sometimes the pitcher gets you out."
-- Carl Yazstremski

"Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn't let that pitcher get me out. They say you can't hit if you're on your back, but I didn't hit on my back. I got up."
--Frank Robinson

Willie Mays played his first Major League game on May 25, 1951, and went 0-for-5 at the plate. He started his career 1-for-25 and told his manager, "I can't do it, Mr. Leo. You better bench me."

Casey Stengel played his first Major League game on July 27, 1912, and went 4-for-4 at the plate. He commented later in his life, "I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly decided they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a few days to correct that impression."

The dumber a pitcher is, the better. When he gets smart and begins to experiment with a lot of different pitches, he's in trouble. All I ever had was a fastball, a curve and a changeup and I did pretty good."
-- Dizzy Dean

"You can't let any team awe you. If you do, you'll wind up a horse____ player."
-- Luke Appling

"The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round."
-- Gaylord Perry

"You would be amazed how many important outs you can get by working the count down to where the hitter is sure you're going to throw to his weakness, and then throw to his power instead."
-- Whitey Ford

"You figure they cheat at the ballpark, they'll cheat on the golf course, they'll cheat in business, and anything else in life. Players may laugh about it and say it's funny, but right down in their heart, they don't think it's funny at all, and they have no respect for a person who cheats."
-- Bob Feller

"One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something."
-- Nolan Ryan

"You should enter a ballpark the way you enter a church."
-- Bill "Spaceman" Lee

"You've got to have an attitude if your going to go far in this game."
-- Bob Gibson

"You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat."
-- Christy Mathewson

"Ya Gotta Believe!" (1973 regular season rally cry)
-- Tug McGraw

"My job isn't to strike guys out, its to get them out, sometimes by striking them out."
-- Tom Seaver

"If you don't think baseball is a big deal, don't do it. But if you do, do it right."
-- Tom Seaver

"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 his."
-- Willie Mays

"They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it."
-- Willie Mays

“I think of myself as ‘catching' the ball with my bat and letting the pitcher supply the power.”
-- Barry Lamar Bonds

"I don't see anyone playing in the major leagues today (1982) who combines both the talent and the intensity that I had. I always tried to do the best. I knew I couldn't always be the best, but I tried to be."
-- Frank Robinson

"If you're not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he'll be ready to take your job."
-- Brooks Robinson

"I'm beginning to see Brooks (Robinson) in my sleep. If I dropped a paper plate, he'd pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first."
-- Sparky Anderson

"I am more valuable to my team hitting .330 than swinging for home runs."
-- Roberto Clemente

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
-- Jackie Robinson #42

"If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out."
-- George Brett

"In baseball, even the best hitters fail seven of ten times, and of those seven failures there are different reasons why. Some are personal failures; others are losses to the pitcher. You just get beat. In those personal failures, I felt I could have done better."
-- Ichiro Suzuki