They haven't given too many gamblers a second chances in the world of baseball.
— Pete Rose
I always liked the defensive part of baseball.
I know everything about Ty Cobb except the size of his hat.
I bet on the game of baseball and I bet on my team, even the mistakes I made, I have to take a different look at someone betting against their own team... that's throwing the game.
I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988.
I don't go to bed every night worried about getting back into baseball.
Some players you pat their butts, some players you kick their butts, some players you leave alone.
See the ball; hit the ball.
With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions.
The team that wins two-thirds of its one run games usually wins the pennant.
The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don't miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game.
I'm just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and four-thousand hits.
Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league.
I never gave up as a player, and I won't give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it's the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player.
Baseball is an individual game, but it should never be a personal game.
I'm not sure Mark McGwire was a Hall of Famer to begin with.
No one ever asked what was my relationship with Bart Giamatti. We used to talk about baseball a lot as a player and a commissioner, just talk about the game, what could we do to help the game, where's the game going, he was pretty good.
You know, baseball's not stupid. Baseball does what the fans want, usually.
I don't think there's any honor bigger than going to your Hall of Fame for your sport.
I was born on the day Lincoln was shot and the Titanic sank.
Somebody's gotta win and somebody's gotta lose and I believe in letting the other guy lose.
When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand.
There is an old saying that money can't buy happiness. If it could, I would buy myself four hits every game.
Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.
I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.
Am I still in uniform? Then I ain't retired.
Of course, I believe that Mike Piazza is probably the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, only got over 50%. Johnny Bench is the best catcher in the history of baseball, but Piazza has all the record for catchers as far as offensively.
In the old days, you know, they didn't have batting cages. And in most ball parks, they only had one runway to the dugout.
I can't remember, I wish I could remember the first time I bet on baseball.
I owe baseball. Baseball don't owe me a damn thing.
I admitted I bet on baseball, but I wasn't suspended from baseball for betting on baseball.
My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.
Never bet on baseball.
It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square.
When I get the record, all it will make me is the player with the most hits. I'm also the player with the most at bats and the most outs. I never said I was a greater player than Cobb.
The manager of a team is like a stagecoach, he can't move unless he has the horses.
Playing baseball for a living is like having a license to steal.
Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you've got both, you can play baseball.
I've never looked forward to a birthday like I'm looking forward to my new daughter's birthday, because two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.
