Phil Niekro Quotes

I started playing ball when I was a kid. My dad was a pro ball player and he passed on his knowledge to me.

My dad played for a coal-mining team in eastern Ohio; he was a very good pitcher. If he hadn't hurt his arm, he probably would have got a shot somewhere. He hurt his arm one spring, didn't warm up good enough, couldn't throw a fastball anymore. Another coal miner taught him how to throw the knuckleball.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm a pitcher, but I think that's pretty cool that a guy can throw a ball 100 miles an hour.

In baseball, it doesn't matter if you're tall, skinny, fat, whatever. If you really have talent and you really love to play, I feel like you can make it.

I definitely want to be known as an educated person as well as being a good football player.

Pitching is 80% of the game and the other half is hitting and fielding.

Baseball gives a growing boy self poise and self reliance.

When I was a little boy, I didn't know what the Hall of Fame was. I was just playing the game of baseball, and I wanted to be just like my dad.

My dad introduced me to baseball. Then one of my friends asked if I could play on a team; my dad said I could, and I just fell in love with the game.

I grew up in a small town in Illinois, and my dad was a basketball coach. Thanks to him, I have excellent fundamentals in both basketball and baseball.

Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser.

I know Koufax' weakness. He can't hit.

I watched the guy that hits a home run, and he comes across the plate and he points skyward, like thanking for the help from the Almighty to hit the home run. And as he does that, I say to myself, 'God screwed the pitcher.' And I don't know how else you look at it.

Everything I learned about the game of baseball, I learned from my dad.

There are days when I go out on the court and I feel like I can't miss a ball.

Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it.

My dad had been shortstop when he was in college, and you know, when you're a kid, you want to be just like your dad.

I was a ballplayer, but only for a limited time. I grew up playing in Wisconsin. It's a very sports-centric part of the country that I grew up in and I played a lot of sports, but baseball first and foremost. I played through high school. I was a middle-infielder.

I just loved to play. I liked to study the other ballplayers. I could talk about it for ages, because I played professional ball for 20 years, and I was still learning when I quit.

I've learned over the years that it doesn't matter where you pitch in the rotation. For me, preparation is everything.

Never played football, but I'm an athlete. I'm a competitor.

And I found out, the other part of it is that I found out and in my desire to life successfully, that baseball fit very well into my life. It's been a great teacher, trainer, mentor and you'll see what I mean in the next few minutes that I have to speak.

I went on and was still able to play some good hockey.

I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position.

You love the competitive one-on-one aspect, where you look across the net, and you're trying to beat your opponent. You're doing everything you physically can to win on that day.