Pinch Hitting Quotes

You could have the bases loaded, and you bring up the best pinch-hitter in the world to pinch hit, he hits into a double play, and then all of a sudden: 'How could you do that?'

A lot of pitchers today are afraid of the ball. Warren Spahn pinch-hit for me when I was a rookie. He hit a sacrifice fly. I couldn't argue. I was 20 years old and just happy to be in the big leagues. And Spahnnie was a good hitter.

When you pinch-hit, you know you're getting their best guys, and usually it's a reliever and a guy that's got a really good slider or a really good fastball.

Everyone in the world disagrees with me, including some managers, but I think managing in the American League is much more difficult for that very reason (having the designated hitter). In the National League, my situation is dictated for me. If I'm behind in the game, I've got to pinch hit. I've got to take my pitcher out. In the American League, you have to zero in. You have to know exactly when to take them out of there. In the National League, that's done for you.

I don't know what my numbers are as a DH, but the fact that you're sitting basically for three hours and 38 minutes of a baseball game, you're hoping you get four or five at-bats.

So much happened (in 1968) it was hard to keep up with everything. We had Denny McLain's thirty-one victories, Gates Brown's great pinch-hitting in the clutch, Tom Matchick's home run to beat Baltimore in the ninth inning, then Daryl Patterson striking out the side to beat them in the ninth. Excitement every day in the ballpark.

In baseball, you're always moving people around.

That's the thing about pinch-hitting - you usually have a chance to make a difference in the game.

When you feel like you're going to have a low-scoring game, why not have one of your better hitters have a chance? All of a sudden you're in the ninth inning and you have one of your best hitters on deck that doesn't get up. I always think about that.

I may not hit 50, 40 or 30 home runs, but I can do the little things like moving runners over that don't show up in the box score.