"I've got twelve pages here. That's not like me. I'll probably skip half of it and get half way through this thing and quit anyhow. It's getting awful hot out here, so that's a good excuse to make it short. So, but anyhow, I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame. Defense deserves as much credit as pitching and hitting. And I'm proud and honored to be going in to the Hall of Fame on the defensive side and mostly for my defensive abilities. I feel special. This is gonna be hard, so I probably won't say about half of this stuff. I want to thank the Veteran's Committee for this great, great honor. The highest honor in baseball. I thought when the Pirates retired my number that that would be the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's hard to top this. I don't think I'm gonna make it. I think you can kiss these twelve pages down the drain. I just want to thank everybody. I want to thank the Hall of Fame, I want to thank the Veteran's Committee, I want to thank all the friends and family that made this long trip up here to listen to me speak and hear this crap. Thank you very, very much. Thanks everybody. That's enough." - Bill Mazeroski Hall of Fame Induction Day Speech (August 5, 2001)