George Vecsey Quotes

Bill Veeck was a charismatic and somewhat eccentric owner-fan during the post-WWII years.

Few names have left a firmer imprint upon the pages of the history of American times than has that of Ty Cobb... he seems to have understood that in the competition of baseball, just as in war, defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory.

I'm probably the only guy who worked for (Casey) Stengel before and after he was a genius.

With the Giants I broadcast the debut of Hall of Famer Willie Mays.

George Steinbrenner forever changed baseball and hopefully someday we will see him honored in baseball's Hall of Fame as one of the great figures in the history of sports.

Babe Ruth was the home-run king of his time, but also the strikeout king.

To wind up in Cooperstown is surreal for me. To go into the Hall of Fame is one thing. When you think of all the other Yankees that are in here, it's pretty special. This is just a shrine. To visit it, much less be inducted, it's still sort of unbelievable to me.

Major league baseball is about the history of the game. Baseball history is so important. It's so much more than money.

I know that there are no famous 'Doug Harvey plays.' And I'm proud of that.

You know, you meet some people, and do a lot of interviews, and you come across a Buck O'Neill and you know you are going to know him for the rest of your life. The same thing happened with Curt Flood.

My first interest in baseball is the welfare of baseball itself. My second is the Cincinnati Reds, and my third is Warren Giles.

I'm not sure Mark McGwire was a Hall of Famer to begin with.

When I went to Brooklyn in 1948 Jackie Robinson was at the height of his brilliant career.

The first time that I ever saw Babe Ruth was in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse.

I know everything about Ty Cobb except the size of his hat.

By the 1880s, baseball was entrenched in the Cape's sandy soil. Semipro teams, commonplace before World War I, were organized into the first Cape Cod League in 1923 - Orleans joined the four original teams five years later. By 1940, the league had foundered on financial shoals and disbanded.

The only change is that baseball has turned Paige from a second class citizen to a second class immortal.

I would love to see as many of the black players as possible in today's Major League Baseball make every effort to go to the Negro Leagues Museum and get a first-hand view of how it all started.

Jackie Robinson is a true legend.

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.'

I guess what really made me a Dodgers fan from the beginning was that the team had Jackie Robinson, the first 'Negro' in the major leagues.

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that.

When they told me there would be a statue erected at Wrigley Field, I was happy with that. I know there will be a meeting place for a lot of people. There will be a conversation every day. They say now, 'I'll meet you at Ernie Banks' statue.' After Sept. 7, they'll say, 'I'll meet you by Billy Williams' statue.'

As I look out there and see the culture of baseball, a lot of blacks and Latins, it's given me a lot of joy to know that Jackie started that. If Jackie hadn't come in '47, me and Ron Santo wouldn't have played in Double-A and all those years in the big leagues.