Baseball Controversy Quotes

If you ask me if I got hit in Game 7 because they stole signs, I don't think so. The Astros have great players who don't have to do that. So I think that whether or not they stole signs, the results wouldn't have changed.

If an umpire misses a called third strike and the other side ends up scoring because of it, I'm not going to forget it. If there are runners on second and third and two out, and if the umpire has just given the hitter an extra strike and the next pitch goes into the hole and both runs score, I've got to say something to the guy.

Tony La Russa was quoted as saying that I was using steroids back then, and I was talking about it in the clubhouse, openly.

A cloud hangs over baseball. It's a cloud called drugs and it's permeated our game.

Someone wanted me to write a profile for ESPN about the commissioner of baseball, and I said, "He's just some suit! Some Republican. No!" I mean if you want me to write about baseball, boxing or football, I'll write about those things because I watch them, I think about them a lot and I like them. But I don't want to write about Barry Bonds.

You can't interview Pete Rose and not ask about betting on the Reds and being banned from baseball.

I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids.

I cannot bet my life on it, because I was not involved, that Alex Rodriguez ever used steroids. But in my opinion, I suspect he has, yes.

When the Red Sox spent $300million on Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, Liverpool fans were irate. It actually should have been Boston fans.

The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end if a sorry episode. One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement.

I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don't know any of them linked to steroids.

Here lies Mickey Mantle. Banned from baseball.

My motive, and I will make it clear and look you in the eyes, is to attack major league baseball. That's my motive.

The perception is that baseball's players' union is protecting players to use steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Yes, I was in that game where George Brett hit that home run. Billy saw there was too much pine tar on the bat and he went to the umpire, the next thing we knew they were fighting about it.

Billy Martin was a human tragedy, in the real sense of the words.

It's no secret what's going on in baseball. At least half the players are using steroids.

I think the cloud of suspicion has been hanging over baseball for a while. I think there has been some positive things that have come out of that. There has been a drug test policy that was been implemented that got the blessings of both the Players Association and MLB. They are trying to maintain the integrity of this sport and trying to get it back, but that cloud I think will hang over a little longer.

Baseball cannot avoid conflicts. Games are played on Good Friday, the most solemn day on the Christian calendar. On Oct. 2, 1978, they played on Rosh Hashana, and Bucky Dent hit one into the screen at Fenway Park. Supply your own moral.

Umpires got power, man. You ever notice if you go to a ballpark and there's a close play on first base, they will not run the replay at the ballpark? I've seen umpires go underneath and call up and say if you run one more of those replays, we're gonna forfeit the game. That's how strong their union is.