Diamond Quotes

“That’s the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball.”

bill veeck

“Baseball endures at least in part because it is a contemplative sport that delights in nuances. Not a brazen game, eager to sell its thrills cheaply, but rather an understated affair that must be courted if it’s to be loved.”

kenneth turan

“To know baseball is to continue to aspire to the condition of freedom, individually, and as a people, for baseball is grounded in America in a way unique to our games. Baseball is part of America’s plot, part of America’s mysterious, underlying design—the plot in which we all conspire and collude, the plot of the story of our national life. Our national plot is to be free enough to consent to an order that will enhance and compound—as it constrains—our freedom. That is our grounding, our national story, the tale America tells the world. Indeed, it is the story we tell ourselves.”

a. bartlett giamatti

“This ain’t a football game. We do this every day.”

earl weaver

“Too many people think an athlete’s life can be an open book. You’re supposed to be an example. Why do I have to be an example for your kid? You be an example for your kid.”

bob gibson

“If you don’t win, you’re going to be fired. If you do win, you’ve only put off the day you’re going to be fired.”

leo durocher

“The first principle of contract negotiations is don’t remind them of what you did in the past; tell them what you’re going to do in the future.”

stan musial

“I couldn’t see well enough when I was a boy, so they gave me a special job—they made me umpire.”

harry s. truman

“A man once told me to walk with the Lord. I’d rather walk with the bases loaded.”

ken singleton