Baseball Career Quotes

I feel very fortunate to have broken in with the Milwaukee Braves organization.

I've pitched too many innings and pitched too many years - one game doesn't make or break my career.

More than anyone else, Hank Aaron made me wish I wasn't a manager.

My real-life athletic career was not very much. I played Little League baseball.

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.

I think I owe it to the people of Seattle, and myself, to retire as a Mariner.

I had started law school at Florida State University as a part-timer. I would go two quarters, and they allowed me to drop out to play baseball, and then I'd get readmitted in September. I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer and was using my baseball salary to pay my way through school.

That's your dream, to play professional baseball. When you get the opportunity like that, getting drafted - especially by Oakland, a California team, pretty close to home - it was tempting. At the time, I just didn't think I was ready or mature enough mentally or physically to start pro ball.

When I started playing the game of baseball, the more I played and the better numbers I got, the more I started thinking about the Hall of Fame. But I never thought I had a chance to be there.

I felt unhappy and trapped. If I left baseball, where could I go, what could I do to earn enough money to help my mother and to marry Rachel? The solution to my problem was only days away in the hands of a tough, shrewd, courageous man called Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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.

When I was growing up, I always had the dream of being an analyst for a minor league baseball team or something like that.

Five World Series rings, 3000-plus hits, the fame, the fortune and playing for the second most historic franchise in baseball... These are just some of the reasons kids would always say they want to grow up to be just like Derek Jeter.

I was a huge fan of Bobby Cox, a huge fan of Chipper Jones and John Smoltz. And just those guys, I grew up watching those guys and often wondered early on in my career if I would ever have the chance to play for the Atlanta Braves, and there it was. God kind of answered my prayers.

I always wondered how it would be to put on a Braves uniform and play in Atlanta.

How lucky have we been that the face of baseball for the past two decades, through ups and downs, has been Derek Jeter.

I'm lucky. I got a chance to play major-league baseball.

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.

I'm really thankful for the opportunity the Marlins gave me. They drafted me in 2010 and gave me a chance to play in the big leagues. I made lifelong friends there, and I've got a lot of great memories.

My major league debut came at old Busch Stadium on Grand Avenue in St. Louis, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The first pitch I threw was to third baseman Bob Bailey. It was a fastball, low and away. He ripped it for a home run down the left field line. I said, 'Damn, that was a pretty good pitch.

My father was an outfielder in the Milwaukee system before he hurt his elbow.

God knows I gave my best in baseball at all times and no man on earth can truthfully judge me otherwise.

I went on inactive duty in August 1945, and since I had stayed in such good shape and had played ball on military teams, I was ready to start for the Indians just two days later, against the Tigers.

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

Yes, I have known Roger Clemens for a long time.