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"80% of big league ballplayers go out to the race track today. Sneak around in sunglasses. Other 20% ain't that holy. Just can't find anybody who'll give 'em free tickets." Source: The Saturdary Evening Post (June 15, 1963)
"Any ballplayer that don't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist." Source: The Saturdary Evening Post (June 12, 1963)
"(Ty) Cobb
is all wet. He talks about a game which had no night play, a game in which the pitcher had everything his own way. He could apply saliva, tobacco juice, mud, talcum poweder, or a file to the ball. He could load it with phonograph needles, raise the seams and do anything else he wished with it. And a ball remained in play until it was ready to break apart. Now the advantage is all with the hitters." Source: The Sporting News (May 7, 1952)
"I always tried to hit the ball back through the box because that is the largest unprotected area." Source: Baseball Digest (October 1953)
"I'd rather him (Grover Alexander) pitch a crucial game for me drunk, then anyone I've ever known sober. He was that good."
"I don't like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher."
"I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it."
"I hustled (on how he was able to hit .424) on everything I hit."
"It don't make no difference where I go or what happens, so long as I can play the full nine." Source: Sport Magazine's All-Time All Stars
"I've always played hard. If that's rough and tough, I can't help it. I don't believe there's any such thing as a good loser. I wouldn't sit down and play a game of cards with you right now withing wanting to win. If I hadn't felt that way I wouldn't have got very far in baseball."
"I've cheated, or someone on my team has cheated, in almost every single game I've been in."
"I've never been a yes man."
"I've posed with some real major leaguers, not bush leaguers like he (Roger Maris) is. He couldn't carry my bat. He didn't hit in two years what I hit in one." Source: Spring Training Press Conference (March 22, 1962)
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
"Players who stand flat footed and swing with their arms are golfers, not hitters."
"The big trouble is not really who isn't in the Hall of Fame, but who is. It was established for a select few."
"The first rule of baseball is to get a good ball to hit."
"The home run became glorified with Babe Ruth. Starting with him, batters have been thinking in terms of how far they could hit the ball, not how often."
"There is no longer any misunderstanding between us (Branch Rickey). I want to have the best year in baseball I have ever had and I want the Cardinals to have the best year it has ever had."
"To be a good hitter you've got to do one thing - Get a good ball to hit."
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