Base Stealing Quotes

If you want to steal a base, steal a base. Don't make the hitter swing at a bad pitch trying to protect the runner.

I am convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile.

Stealing bases was put to me almost as a prerequisite for staying in the game. They didn't give me a handbook on how to do it; they said do it. Under those conditions you go out and develop your own handbook.

I just want to become a great leadoff hitter.

Stealing bases is just something I like to do. I figure if I can hit home runs and steal bases, I'd be different than everybody else.

I was stealing all the bases, and when you had to go to arbitration they said, 'You know, only the big boys make the money.' So I got to try and figure out how to hit a home run, too.

I let the players use their abilities and what they're capable of doing. If they're capable of stealing bases, I'm going to give them the green light. I'm going to teach them to pick their spots and to get a base when they can get a base.

I'm more conscious of where the outfielders are playing when I'm on base, and I don't take such wide turns anymore running around the bases. I'm still learning.

(Rogers) Hornsby could run like anything but not like this kid. (Ty) Cobb was the fastest I ever saw for being sensational on the bases.

What I liked was to set the tone - set the pace for the team. I know when we're starting the game, I can get on and steal a base, then a guy bring me in. Then we're in the lead and in a good position to win. That was the most exciting thing - to help the team.

Nobody talked about my defense or that I used to steal bases, too.

Base stealers are often considered their own breed: reckless, egocentric, even a touch mad.

Well, stealing bases adds some runs but very few, and you lose most of the runs that you gain by having runners caught stealing.

Stealing home is one of the most sensational plays in baseball. If the run thus scored is the winning tally, the play is, of course, all the more thrilling. It is a play that requires a lot of quick thinking to bring about a successful completion. The chap who has slow moving feet and a slower moving brain had better never try to steal home.

Of all the plays in baseball, stealing home is by far the most exciting.

Whenever I get a chance, I'm trying to take the extra base and make them make a play on me. I'm not going to stop looking for the extra base unless the scoreboard tells me.

A good base stealer should make the whole infield jumpy. Whether you steal or not, you're changing the rhythm of the game. If the pitcher is concerned about you, he isn't concentrating enough on the batter.

I want to develop every base of my game-stealing bases, hitting, being a better fielder.

I don't want to get on base and just run for the sake of running. What good is it if you steal 100 bases and get caught 60 times?

Sometimes you are going to have to games where you are going to have to manufacture runs, stealing. Particularly when you face real good pitching.

This [counterterrorism] is a game of drag bunts and stolen bases, not home runs.

There's nobody on my ball club that doesn't go from first to third on a base hit, or from second to home. Every time you steal a base, you're taking a gamble on getting thrown out, and taking the bat out of the hitter's hand.

Lou Brock, along with Maury Wills, are probably the two players most responsible for the biggest change in the game over the last fifteen years - the stolen base.

I could get better at baserunning.

I wasn't going to be drafted to steal bases at 18.