Strike Out Quotes

When I was 11 I was scouted by the Thames Valley under-21s. It was really daunting. I was scared for my life when I went in to bat. The first ball hit me on the leg, the second ball got me out, so it wasn't great but it made me stronger.

I can't remember a major league game where I could make eye contact with my dad. I kept wondering if he was going to yell at me for hanging a pitch or something.

Once it gets to two strikes, it's time to battle, put something in play, and try to get the job done.

Now there's three things you can do in a baseball game: You can win or you can lose or it can rain.

We had to adjust and threw a few more rise balls and curves but it worked.

I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

Fastball middle-middle. You can't miss that pitch.

Home run hitters strike out a lot.

I watch the Dodgers every night - no reading anymore - and I dream that I could have hit that home run.

Shooting gives me a good feeling. It is faster than baseball and you are out on one strike.

As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.

There are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain.

[On Willie Mays] He was something like zero for twenty-one the first time I saw him. His first major league hit was a home run off me and I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie (Mays) forever if I'd only struck him out.

My job isn't to strike guys out; it's to get them out - sometimes by striking them out.

Don't let failure get you down. Babe Ruth struck out over 1,300 times.

You score runs to win games. That's how you do it.

I think my job is to keep the ball down. I always say I try to go out there and get early contact, and strikeouts just seem to happen.

If there's a runner on third with less than two outs, I clearly do not want to strike out.

One time in spring training, we had the hit-and-run on, and Carl Erskine threw me a curve and I struck out into a double play. I came back to the bench and Casey [Stengel] said, 'next time, tra-la-la.' I didn't know what tra-la-la meant, but next time up, I hit a line drive, right into a double play. When I sat down, Casey came over and said, 'Like I told you, tra-la-la.'

I would think I drive most hitting coaches crazy. During one single at-bat I used six different stances on six pitches. Oh yeah, I also struck out. So what do I know?

I'm not trying to strike everybody out.

I'm trying to make sure that I get to my 0-2, 1-2 counts. That's really how I would rather phrase it: I'm trying to make sure that I can drive the count into my favor.

If I get two strikes, I'll go to a pitch maybe that will help induce that a little bit.

When I started in professional baseball, I had what you might call a rude awakening. See this scar right next to my left ear? That's where the pitcher hit me the very first time I came to bat as a pro. I was out cold for about 10 minutes.

I'm not trying to throw six or seven pitches just to be able to strike you out. I'm trying to do it in three or four. It's the homework and the process between starts that I really focus on to help me do that.