I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I'll tell you this - heroes don't come home. Survivors come home.

Ted Williams was the greatest hitter I ever saw, but DiMaggio was the greatest all around player.

I don't think baseball owes colored people anything. I don't think colored people owe baseball anything, either.

When you make a bad pitch and the hitter puts it out of the park and you cost your team the game, it's a real test of your maturity to be able to stand in front of your locker fifteen minutes later and admit it to the world. How many people in other professions would be willing to have their job performances evaluated that way, in front of millions, every afternoon at five o'clock.

Nowadays, they have more trouble packing hair dryers than baseball equipment.

Baseball in the Navy always was much more fun than it had been in the major leagues.

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.