[I] Played a little softball, but there was nowhere on the field it was safe for me to be.

Any game becomes important when you know and love the players.

Discovered W. Somerset Maugham in about 5th grade. Didn't understand the plots, but loved the descriptions.

The crack of the bat, the sound of baseballs thumping into gloves, the infield chatter are like birdsong to the baseball starved.

I became exclusively an American League fan when they instituted the DH rule, and will remain so until the National League moves out of the dark ages.

Growing up is a ritual, more deadly than religion, more complicated than baseball, for there seem to be no rules. Everything is experienced for the first time.

My intuition told me that it was the grass that was important.Now it glows parrot-green, cool as mint, soft as moss, lying there like a cashmere blanket.