Frank Deford Quotes

On the field, everyone is equal.

No one man is superior to the game.

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.

Democracy presumes that we're all created equal; competition proves we are not, or else every race would end in a tie.

We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged.

Equality of opportunity means the achievers must be allowed to achieve.

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

You know how on movie sets there are specific chairs for each person? I hate that. We don't have names on our chairs. We have five chairs. Anyone can sit on them. I think the idea of names on chairs on a set is terrible. It's so dumb. So we got rid of that.

Obama is the splendid fruit of a meritocracy.

Competition is for everyone.

I was a firm believer that every cricketer needs to get a fair chance.

I'm a firm believer in young, old, tall, short, doesn't matter. Basketball is basketball. It's the way you approach it.

Fairness is not the end result, it's the opportunity. And everybody in America today has the opportunity to get ahead.

No band is special, no player royalty.

I don't ever remember them telling us or teaching us that the only way we could be more successful is if other people were less successful. They never inculcated the belief that somehow, in order for us to climb the ladder, other people have to come down from the ladder.

When you are racing in an able-bodied competition, you're all equal and you go out there and try your best, and that's what counts.

The thing I like most about football is it's a meritocracy.

Where we can compete on merit, we do very well.

The genius of our institutions is democratic - baseball is a democratic game.

Where the costs of entry are minimal, there is a wide avenue of opportunity for those with little or nothing, which is why football is just about the most democratic sport of all: African and Brazilian footballers compete on a level playing field with their rich white European counterparts.

Even in its third century, America is still the most meritocratic nation in the world.

My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that people aren't given equality of opportunity.

This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.

If you get so unequal that people believe they don't have a chance, that the field isn't level for them and their children, that puts democracy at risk.

The American dream, to me, means having the opportunity to achieve, because I don't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity.