Rafael Palmeiro Quotes

I want to finish my career in Cleveland. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues.

I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues.

Well, I wanted to play twenty years in the major leagues. I never made it twenty though. I played nineteen.

I never forgot the four years I spent with the Phillies, my September call-ups and my big league Spring Trainings. I never forgot that.

I would say I was jock. I went to Sierra College. I was a big baseball player. Getting into the MLB was my dream - to become a left-handed pitcher for the Yankees. That's what I was hoping, but life kind of went the other way.

I kept thinking, 'this must be the coolest job - I'd like to be a professional baseball player.' They were getting paid to play a game, and what a cool lifestyle that was.

I just wanted to go play in the big leagues. But possibly playing for the Yankees is very special.

I knew I'd never make it back to the major leagues as a player. Lee MacPhail came to me and asked if I wanted to manage the Yankees' Fort Lauderdale club. I thought about it for a day or two and decided to take the job. That was the turning point. I knew it was what I wanted to do.

I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that's the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years.

Once you make the majors, it's never a great feeling to go back to the minors - no matter what the circumstances.

When I was growing up, the first thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. That lasted till I was about ten. Then I wanted to be a baseball player. Preferably shortstop for the New York Yankees.

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.

The Oakland A's, I loved all my teammates there. I loved all the coaches. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues. And for that, I thank them. I mean it was a dream come true for me.

If I could do it over, I'd want to come up to the big leagues like Mike Trout. He's exciting and I like watching him.

I thought I was a pretty good shortstop, but I also wanted to play in the major leagues.

This is something I've wanted to do my whole life is play baseball, and I think just the opportunity to put on a big-league uniform every day is just... you know, people dream of it, but not everybody gets to do it. I'm thankful every day I get to do it.

Every player dreams of a big league.

I loved playing baseball, and the only reason I played was to play professional baseball. I wanted that to be my career for a long time. I turned down multiple jobs and meetings because of it.

I was a professional baseball player from the time I was drafted out of high school in 1981 until the time I retired in 2003.

And then 45 years later, as I finished my career in the great city of Cleveland, that was another great way to end my career, going to the World Series.

Baseball cannot be learned as a trade. It begins with the sport of the schoolboy, and though it may end in the professional, I am sure there is not a single one of these who learned the game with the expectation of making it a business. There have been years in the life of each during which he must have ate and drank and dreamed baseball.

I took a huge risk leaving baseball, because I was predicted to play in the big leagues. I'm kind of a prototypical second baseman.

Since I was in high school, I wanted to play professional football and professional baseball, be a two-sport star.

I'm very thankful to the Yankees and to Major League Baseball for allowing me to play this game.

Your first responsibility is to the organization, to teach and prepare players to get to the big leagues and have them ready when they get there, but everyone in the minors wants to be in the majors.