Classic Yankees Quotes

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George Steinbrenner

(About Free Agency) "I am dead set against free agency. It can ruin baseball"

(On Yankee Hideki Irabu) "That big fat toad"

(After becoming principal owner of the Yankees) "I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all. I can't spread myself so thin. I've got enough headaches with my shipping company."

Alex Rodriguez

"If Boston fans start cheering me, there's something wrong with what I'm doing."

Babe Ruth

(To Ty Cobb) "Hell, I could have hit .600 myself! But I'm paid to hit homers."

(Upon meeting Calvin Coolidge at Yankee Stadium) "Hot as hell, ain't it, Prez?"

Billy Martin

"Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener."

"All I know is, I pass people on the street these days, and they don't know whether to say hello or to say good-bye."

Casey Stengel

"Now you take Ernie Lombardi who's a big man and has a big nose and you take Martin who's a little man and has a bigger nose. How do you figger it?"

"Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits."

"All right, everybody line up alphabetically according to your height."

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided."

"That boy couldn't hit the ground if he fell out of an airplane."

"Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."

Catfish Hunter

(On Reggie Jackson) "He'd give you the shirt off his back. Of course, he'd call a press conference to announce it."

David Letterman

"I heard doctors revived a man who had been dead for 4-1/2 minutes. When they asked him what it was like being dead, he said it was like listening to Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto during a rain delay."

Don Larsen

Asked if he ever gets tired of talking about his perfect World Series game: "No, why should I?"

Frank Sullivan

Asked how he pitched to Mickey Mantle: "With tears in my eyes."

Yankee Sportscaster Jerry Coleman

"There's a fly to deep center field. Winfield is going back, back. He hits his head against the wall. It's rolling toward second base."

Jim Bouton

"A lot of long relievers are ashamed to tell their parents what they do. The only nice thing about it is that you get to wear a uniform like everybody else."

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many players on the field."

"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and it turns out it was the other way around all the time."

Joe DiMaggio

(Referring to Opening Day) "You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen."

Joe Garagiola

"When I covered the Yankees in the '60s, they had players like Horace Clarke, Ross Moschitto, Jake Gibbs and Dooley Womack. It was like the first-team missed the bus."

Joe McCarthy

(Asked if Joe Dimaggio could bunt) "I don't know -- nor have I any intention of ever finding out."

Johnny Bench

(On Graig Nettles winning the World Series MVP award) "If we'd known he wanted a car so bad, we'd have given it to him."

Mickey Mantle

"If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.”

Mickey Rivers

(On the weather during a game) "Man, it was tough. The wind was blowing about 100 degrees."

Pedro Martinez

(On his inability to beat the New York Yankees) "What can I say--just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy."

Phil Rizzuto

(After a news bulletin reported the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978) "Well, that kind of puts a damper on another Yankees win."

Reggie Jackson

"The only way I'm going to get a Gold Glove is with a can of spray paint."

"When you take a pitch and line it somewhere, it's like you've thought of something and put it with beautiful clarity."

Waite Hoyte

"All the lies about Ruth are true."

Yogi Berra

"Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't come to yours."

"If the people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's gonna stop them."

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

Don Zimmer

(After being thrown to the ground by Pedro Martinez) "I should have stayed in the dugout"












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