All though I didn't meet him. His legend and his saga and his story is just that. Jackie Robinson, we all have to tip our hat to him. Because he made the game available to guys like me.
When Ozzie Virgil became the first Dominican player in the majors, his nationality was barely noticed. What the press and fans talked about was his skin color. He was the first black player on the Detroit Tigers, and a great deal of attention was paid to him as someone who crossed the color line.
In '83, we went over to Amsterdam. I just remember people saying, 'Baseball's just starting over here. They're learning how to play the game of baseball.'
Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.'
The story of Jackie Robinson is also the story of Branch Rickey. He had many reasons for doing what he did, but he stood up against his own people.
I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.
I really wanted to write a book [99: Stories of the Game] on the tradition and history of the league, where kids can pick it up and read it and learn things and say, "Geez, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool."
I've definitely been to my fair share of Dodger games growing up. Didn't grow up too far from the stadium. That's where I first learned, first watched major-league baseball.
I love the game, it's the greatest game on earth, that's why I can't understand all of this talk about trying to make the game better. People talk about the high strike zone and changing this and that. Why? To speed up the game? That's the beauty of baseball. There is no time element.
The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game.
Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.
My dad was big about talking about baseball and Latin players.
Cape Cod baseball dates back to the time of the Civil War. A poster at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown touts a round-trip train ride from Hyannis to Sandwich on July 4, 1885 - the occasion of the 14th annual baseball game between Sandwich and Barnstable.
That was real baseball. We weren't playing for money. They gave us Mickey Mouse watches that ran backwards.
Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. Living up there in 1967 - the Impossible Dream season - that moment was incredibly compelling. I just naturally gravitated to the team. Nineteen seventy-five was arguably the greatest World Series of all time.
Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base.
It is hard to compare the eras, but Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb from the past, Sandy Koufax and Roger Clements from the present.
In the field of outdoor sports, the American boy is easily capable of devising his own amusements, and until some proof is adduced that baseball is not his invention, I protest against this systematic effort to rob him of his dues.
Yankee Stadium is a mistake: Not mine - the Giants'.
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.
The Greatest Living Yankee is Whitey Ford, who came out of Aviation High School, which was then in Manhattan, and helped pitch the Yankees to victory in the 1950 World Series when he was 21.
Honestly, at one time I though Babe Ruth was a cartoon character. I really did, I mean I wasn't born until 1961 and I grew up in Indiana.
The greatest single moment Ive ever known in Detroit was Jim Northrups triple in the seventh game of the World Series in St. Louis. It was a stunning moment because not only were the Tigers winning a world championship that meant so much to an entire city, they were beating the best pitcher I ever saw-Bob Gibson.
I always loved playing in New York, where the Yankees fans expect a winning team every year.
I liked George Weiss when he was with the Yankees. He loved the Old Timers' Day. He loved it. And he invited all these people to come, all these players to come.
