The crowd makes the ballgame.

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

The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it.

The first time I faced him I watched him take that easy windup and then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him... Every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park.

I have observed that baseball is not unlike war, and when you get right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery.

I've been called one of the hardest bargainers who ever held out, and I'm proud of it.

I've got to be first. ALL the time.