Charlie Rose Quotes

Baseball needs more superstars.

Growing up, my favorite player was either Derek Jeter or Manny Ramirez.

It was much more fun playing with him than against him. If you wanted one pitcher to start the seventh game of the World Series, which he did in 1945, you'd pick Hal Newhouser.

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.

There are some players I always watched, various players who I knew hit the ball well.

I'm playing in the World Series. Can't get any better than this.

Ted Williams, an extraordinary hitter in his day, has said the swing starts in the hips, and Sosa arrived with one of the strongest lower bodies in the game.

I consider Billy Keeler, Mike Tiernan, Ed Delihanty and Larrie La Joie the toughest hitters I had to pitch to, but I did not dread them. Remember, Hughie Duffy was a member of our team, so I did not face him. In my opinion, Duffy was the greatest hitter.

Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers - .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation. And those are the two things that keep a ballplayer in business.

I have been blessed to win a number of awards and be involved in numerous historical baseball moments over my 20-year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

Ted Williams was the greatest hitter I ever saw, but DiMaggio was the greatest all around player.

At the Home Run Derby, you're expected to hit home runs. You're up there trying to hit home runs.

I played for 18 years, but the only thing that meant anything to me was the World Series.

I didn't think much about batting average when I was playing.

I'm not a headline guy. I know that as long as I was following Ruth to the plate I could have stood on my head and no one would have known the difference.

I have no idea what my batting average was in high school, but I know it wasn't below .450, and that's pretty good hitting where I come from.

Baseball's what I do.

The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but Cobb would drive you crazy.

Joe Morgan was the one guy that absolutely put our team really over the top. ... Then we had George Foster come in; Ken Griffey Sr. was as good a two-place hitter as there has ever been in the game, and Cesar Geronimo won four Gold Glove awards. I mean, how could you ask for a better team?

In the spring of 1957, Mickey Mantle was the king of New York. He had the Triple Crown to prove it, having become only the 12th player in history to earn baseball's gaudiest jewel. In 1956, he had finally fulfilled the promise of his promise, batting .353, with 52 homers and 130 RBIs. Everybody loved Mickey.

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.

It was funny, when I thought of it afterward, how Ruth and Gehrig looked as they stood there. The Babe must have been waiting for me to get the ball up a little so he could get his bat under it.

The first time I picked up a bat in a professional game, I hit a ball hard left-handed, and my first home run was so effortless, it surprised me.

Baseball has long been a national pastime that many Americans have cherished.

Gaylord Perry and Willie McCovey should know each other like a book. They've been ex-teammates for years now.