Hank Aaron Quotes

I've had heroes in my life - Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth.

A lot of my friends and guys who I have watched and grew up with and who have been at my house are Hall of Famers, and I just know them as Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray, Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield... I know these guys like my older brothers and uncles, the guys who took care of me.

When I played Little League, I looked up to the big leaguers, too, and collected their baseball cards.

I had some great role models along the way. My on-field heroes were the great Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Willie Mays. I wanted to be like them on the field, and I am so damn proud to join them in the Hall of Fame.

Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees are so famous for Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, all of those guys.

I'm proud to be here as a man that has played first base more than anybody in the game of baseball.

I was taught coming up in the Phillies organization to be seen and not heard by people like Pete Rose, my hero growing up, and players like Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton and Manny Trillo.

You look at all the great players that they've had and the potential of playing in Yankee Stadium.

I want to be part of Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame, but I don't want to be part of the kind of Hall of Fame that's based on voters' beliefs and assumptions.

One of the perks of being an actor is to get to meet athletes that you respect. Especially who played before my time. Brooks Robinson is one of those athletes; they just don't make them any nicer.

They invented the All-Star game for Willie Mays.

Statues of sports stars are all the rage - especially in baseball.

You think about when you're kids and see these guys on TV, and now you're in the same clubhouse as Chipper Jones and Bobby Cox.

Striking out Ruth and Gehrig in succession was too big an order.

I liked George Weiss when he was with the Yankees. He loved the Old Timers' Day. He loved it. And he invited all these people to come, all these players to come.

Baseball was the darling of all sports back then.

Willie Wells, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Buck Leonard, Quincy Troupe, Satchel Paige - earlier than when he was called up - Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson. You see what kind of talent we had, and guys in the majors knew it too.

I don't plan on writing biographies of great sports stars who are still playing ball. But I did write one on Jackie Robinson, who was playing ball in the 20th century.

I love my baseball, and I love my Phillies.

When I came into baseball, I had one goal for my career - the Hall of Fame.

People think of the greatest home run hitters of all time and think of Babe Ruth; they don't think about that Warren Spahn hit more than anybody.

All ballplayers want to wind up their careers with the Cubs, Giants or Yankees. They just can't help it.

Career highlights? I had two - I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.

I played with Willie Mays and against Hank Aaron. They were tremendous players, but they were no Josh Gibson.

Baseball is this intense subculture that actually doesn't speak very much for the larger culture.