Ernie Banks Quotes

If someone throws you a good slider, you're not going to hit it. You've got to always hunt those ones that kind of pop up or hang thigh-high or up.

There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don't believe in wasting them throwing to first base.

Basically, hitters fall into a pattern, and once you know what they like, you can set them up for the putout with something else.

Anytime you can see a hitter and face a hitter, you gain knowledge, and you gain that experience. Whether they hit a homerun off you, or you strike them out or whatever it is, it's information.

I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.

I'm pretty close to Miguel Cabrera. We are such different hitters, but at the same time, we're pretty close because we both like to hit the ball middle-away.

You never hit a good slider or curveball; you just try to go after the mistakes.

I was able to play alongside, in my opinion, the best hitter with Miguel Cabrera and kind of watch the way he goes about it and the way he looks at situations, when to try to drive a ball versus when to shoot a ball.

All the in-depth scouting reports we have on the opposing pitchers - just kind of learning how to study that, it's huge.

It would be useless for any player to attempt to explain successful batting.

I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.

Pitchers make adjustments, and it's up to the hitters to readjust and sort of tweak what they do.

When you hit a three-run triple, do you really need to get on third base, or do you need to stand on the double? You gotta be as smart as you can.

In my own case I have frequently faced the pitcher when I had no desire whatever to hit. I wanted to get a base on balls.

If I get two strikes, I'll go to a pitch maybe that will help induce that a little bit.

I have to go with the approach I had in Triple-A. I need to take a lot of those fastballs I am seeing to left field. Also must gear up for the changeup and take them up the middle.

There's no easier pitch to hit than a splitter that doesn't do anything.

There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.

If a pitcher makes a mistake inside, I'm going to hit it.

I kept listening in the minor leagues, and even earlier than that, people would say, 'If you don't hit the fastball, you're not going to get to the big leagues.' Every game, you're going to get a fastball.

If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.

That's where my focus is all the time, trying to get on base.

I just try to make contact with the ball. It's obvious that I like to swing the bat. I'm not thinking of taking a lot of pitches.

I kind of realized that when I take more pitches I put better swings on them.

Sometimes you go to home plate, and you have an idea, like a clear idea, of what they're going to throw to you. I think that's all: getting better pitches to hit, realizing when you hit the ball better, what pitch you hit, if you're chasing too much. If you figure out all that, you can get a little better as a player.