25 Quotes About Baseball You Need to Hear

by Editorial team

Baseball can be a magical game, both for players and spectators. To the average person, it may seem like a simple game played with a bat and a ball. However, true lovers of the sport know that baseball is not just a game, but a way of life. Baseball serves as a masterful storyteller, mirroring the constant challenges and victories people experience in everyday life.

Throughout the years, the game has seen an astounding number of breathtaking plays, inspiring moments, and heroic figures. To celebrate its lasting impact, here are 25 quotes from some of baseball’s most prominent figures.

Babe Ruth

As one of the most well-known baseball players of all time, Hall of Famer Babe Ruth’s legacy has continued to amaze those in the world of baseball. Playing twenty-two seasons in the MLB from 1914 to 1935, Ruth had an exceptional career in which he set numerous batting records including those for career home runs and career slugging percentage. During his time in the MLB Babe Ruth also won the World Series championship seven times, three times with the Boston Red Socks and four times with the New York Yankees. Even though it has been over seventy-two years since Babe Ruth’s passing, his legacy continues to live on.

 Some of Babe Ruth’s greatest achievements include:

  • Becoming the first batter to hit 60 home runs in a season
  • Becoming the first batter to hit 500 home runs in a career
  • Playing in 2 MLB All-Star Games
  • Leading the American League in home runs 12 times
  • Leading the American League in RBI 6 times
  • Posthumously being voted onto the MLB All-Century Team
  • Continuing to hold the record for career slugging percentage (0.690)

Some of Babe Ruth’s most notable quotes include:

  • “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
  • “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
  • “Baseball was, is, and always will be to me the best game in the world.”
  • “I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.”
  • “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.”

Derek Jeter

Now CEO of the Miami Marlins, Derek Jeter was once an extremely talented MLB player. During his twenty-year career in the MLB, Jeter played solely for the New York Yankees. As a Yankee, he had an immensely successful career during which he won many awards and made a lasting name for himself.

Some of Derek Jeter’s greatest achievements include:

  • Winning the World Series championship 5 times
  • Winning the Rawlings Gold Glove Award 5 times
  • Winning the Silver Slugger Award 5 times
  • Winning the Hank Aaron Award 2 times
  • Playing in 14 MLB All-Star Games
  • Being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with a nearly unanimous vote of 396/397

Some of Derek Jeter’s most notable quotes include:

  • “I always take criticism as a challenge. It's the way I've always looked at it.”
  • “I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong.”
  • “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”
  • “You're a person a lot longer before and after you're a professional athlete. People always say to me, 'Your image is this, your image is that.' Your image isn't your character. Character is what you are as a person.”

Ernie Harwell

Well-known for his long-lasting career as a MiLB and MLB announcer, Ernie Harwell commentated on baseball games for over 40 years. From 1943 to 1992, Ernie worked as an announcer for 55 seasons. While he spent the majority of his career announcing for the Detroit Tigers, Ernie also announced for other teams including the Atlanta Crackers, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, Baltimore Orioles, and California Angels.

Some of Ernie Harwell’s greatest achievements include:

  • Being named Michigan Sportscaster of the Year 19 times
  • Being inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame
  • Receiving the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame
  • Being inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame
  • Being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame
  • Receiving the Ty Tyson Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting

Some of Ernie Harwell’s most notable quotes include:

  • “Baseball is a ballet without music. Drama without words.”
  • “Baseball is a rookie, his experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream.”
  • "I love the game because it's so simple, yet it can be so complex. There's a lot of layers to it, but they aren't hard to peel back."
  • “Baseball is a lot like life. It’s a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life.”
  • “Baseball? It’s just a game – as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It’s a sport, a business – and sometimes almost even religion.”
  • “In baseball, democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rule book. And color, merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another’s.”
  • “Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.”

Quotes From Other Notable Baseball Figures:

  • “Baseball is about talent, hard work, and strategy. But at the deepest level, it’s about love, integrity, and respect.”
    • Pat Gillick – Former MiLB player, general manager of 4 MLB teams, and Hall of Fame inductee
  • “That’s one of the great gifts of this, the greatest of all games, baseball: it allows you, still, to lose yourself in a dream, to feel and remember a season of life when summer never seemed to die and the assault of cynicism hadn’t begun to batter optimism.”
    • Mike Barnicle - award-winning print and broadcast journalist, social and political commentator, and devoted baseball fan
  • “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.”
    • Rogers Hornsby – Former MLB player, manager, coach, and Hall of Fame inductee
  • “I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.”
    • Sandy Koufax – Former MLB player, Cy Young Award winner, Hall of Fame inductee
  • “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”
    • A. Bartlett Giamatti – Former Professor, President of Yale University, President of the National League, Commissioner of Baseball
  • “I learned early in my life that sometimes I’m going to lose. I don’t like it, but I accept it, meaning that I understand it’s going to happen. But I don’t see it like defeat; I see it like a learning process. Then if there’s nothing to learn, I move on.”
    • Mariano Rivera – Former MLB player, World Series MVP, ALCS MVP, Hall of Fame inductee
  • “Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.”
    • George Will – Political commentator, author, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and devoted baseball fan
  • “When I hit the ball, I do want to hurt it.”
    • Bryce Harper – Current MLB player, National League Rookie of the Year, Home Run Derby winner, Hank Aaron Award winner, Silver Slugger Award winner, and ESPN’s 2015 MLB “Person of the Year”
  • "I’m a businessman. I bring my bat and glove and attaché case to the office and go to work.”
    • Reggie Jackson – Former MLB player, World Series MVP, Silver Slugger Award winner, AL MVP, and Hall of Fame inductee

Conclusion

Commonly known as America’s National Pastime, baseball is a sport that lies at the very heart of American culture. For many people, it is not only a game but also a way of life.

The quotes listed throughout this post illustrate the very best parts of both baseball and American culture, including:

  1. Being determined to work hard and improve yourself
  2. Being brave enough to face your fears head-on
  3. Having hope for the future and remaining optimistic in trying times
  4. Being resilient enough to overcome failure
  5. Loving what you do and being passionate
  6. Being a team player and showing compassion for your fellow man

 

Be sure to check out Ryan Weiss's coaching program and his other training programs to elevate your game.

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