Pete Rose Quotations

I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don't know any of them linked to steroids.

A team will take on its manager's personality. If it's a laid back manager, you'll have a laid back personality. The players will see that if it's OK for the Manager to be laid back, then you'll have a laid back team.

If somebody is gracious enough to give me a second chance, I won't need a third.

I'm just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and four-thousand hits.

I bet on the game of baseball and I bet on my team, even the mistakes I made, I have to take a different look at someone betting against their own team... that's throwing the game.

Willie Mays could throw better, and Hank Aaron could hit more home runs. But I've got enthusiasm. I've got desire. I've got hustle. Those are God-given talents, too.

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.

No matter how many times you say you're sorry, somebody is not going to hear you.

My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.

Somebody's gotta win and somebody's gotta lose and I believe in letting the other guy lose.

Sometimes, when you don't have spark, someone in the dugout has to create something.

Back in 1960 at Christmas time, I did work loading and unloading boxcars for Railway Express. That was a kind of weight training that helped me. I weighed about 160 when I started. I began to gain weight and kept right on gaining until I reached 195 pounds.

There is no doubt that because I am a switch hitter I have one of the best offensive advantages that a hitter can have.

They haven't given too many gamblers a second chances in the world of baseball.

If you screw up and do something, don't lie about it; come clean.

I would think if someone connected to steroids made the Hall of Fame, that would enhance my chances of making the Hall of Fame.

I owe baseball. Baseball don't owe me a damn thing.

Baseball and the players association have rules. If you stay within the rules - which say that you can play while you're appealing - I don't see what anyone would be in arms about.

It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square.

I never gave up as a player, and I won't give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it's the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player.

I can't remember, I wish I could remember the first time I bet on baseball.

Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you've got both, you can play baseball.

There is an old saying that money can't buy happiness. If it could, I would buy myself four hits every game.

We were so poor when I was a kid that I had a sister who was stamped, 'Made In Japan.'

Some players you pat their butts, some players you kick their butts, some players you leave alone.

The manager of a team is like a stagecoach, he can't move unless he has the horses.

There's other ways to make your head and muscles bigger than just steroids.

Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.

If baseball wants to get you, they've got enough resources and enough investigators that they'll find a way to get you.

Playing baseball for a living is like having a license to steal.

I'm not going to go back to gambling; I mean, it's as simple as that.

When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand.

Are you tall? Are you strong? How big are your hands? You must be honest with yourself or you will end up using the wrong bat.

I admitted I bet on baseball, but I wasn't suspended from baseball for betting on baseball.

Baseball is an individual game, but it should never be a personal game.

Am I still in uniform? Then I ain't retired.

I was born on the day Lincoln was shot and the Titanic sank.

Who cares if you bunt for a base hit?

Your obligation as a base runner is to try and be safe within the rules. OK?

I always liked the defensive part of baseball.

I came to Vegas because I work 20 days a month here; I couldn't live anywhere else.

I don't go to bed every night worried about getting back into baseball.

I don't think there's any honor bigger than going to your Hall of Fame for your sport.

Some of my biggest friends are big-time horse owners.

When I get the record, all it will make me is the player with the most hits. I'm also the player with the most at bats and the most outs. I never said I was a greater player than (Ty) Cobb.

A lot of these catchers don't understand that they are blocking the plate and they don't have the ball. You're not allowed to block the plate without the ball.

I actually went to some Gamblers Anonymous classes, and I sat there for three or four of them, and I'm trying to figure out what I have in similarities with these other people, and I could never find anything. It just seems like it wasn't the right place for me.

I've never looked forward to a birthday like I'm looking forward to my new daughter's birthday, because two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.

The game of baseball is better when the Dodgers are playing well, just like when the Yankees are playing well, or the Cubs, the Phillies, the big-name teams.

I love the fans, I love the game of baseball, and I love Cincinnati baseball.

The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don't miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game.

With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions.

I know everything about Ty Cobb except the size of his hat.

I get accused of talking about records. But it's the guys who interview me who ask about them.

Can you be a nicer gentleman, or a better man for your sport or your kids than Joe Paterno?

I never picked up my phone and called a bookmaker and bet on a baseball game from the clubhouse. Never.

Hillary Clinton wrote a book. She got paid. I don't understand why I can't.

I'm not sure Mark McGwire was a Hall of Famer to begin with.

The team that wins two-thirds of its one run games usually wins the pennant.

When guys do books or stories, all I like to see is the truth.

When somebody wants to interview me, I've always got something to say.

I like Barack Obama as a person. He's articulate, he knows sports, his brother-in-law's a coach. He always has the athletes to the White House. But I don't know about some of his policies and some of these people in Congress.

Obama's a great speaker. Because of his speaking ability and his appearance, a lot of guys got on board. Being the first African American, a lot guys got on board.

Umpires got power, man. You ever notice if you go to a ballpark and there's a close play on first base, they will not run the replay at the ballpark? I've seen umpires go underneath and call up and say if you run one more of those replays, we're gonna forfeit the game. That's how strong their union is.

I am grateful that I live in a nation where most believe that one's punishment should fit their wrongdoing and that ours is a nation that judges an individual by both what he has done and how he has changed.

I met Gerald Ford. I met Richard Nixon. I met Jimmy Carter. I met Dwight Eisenhower when he was a general. George Bush senior. I haven't met Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, although I got a letter from him.

Sparky Anderson taught me this a long time ago: 'There's three ways you can treat a person. You can pat 'em on the butt, you can kick 'em in the butt, or you can leave 'em alone.'

When people think of me, they think about me knocking catchers down and knocking second basemen down and yelling at pitchers. But when I took the spikes off after the game, I was a nice guy when I went home.

When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up.

Any time you've got big teams winning, you've got big stars.

I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988.

I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team; I believe in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game.

In the old days, you know, they didn't have batting cages. And in most ball parks, they only had one runway to the dugout.

You know, baseball's not stupid. Baseball does what the fans want, usually.

I look at the records, and you don't win the Cy Young seven times or the MVP without being a good player.

I still gamble, but it's all legal. I own horses, and I go to watch my horse. I don't go daily.

No player or manager has greater respect for the umpires than I do, and I have demonstrated that over the years.

Since 1869, baseball has been doing pretty well.

You don't dominate any sport when you're over 40.

Of course, I believe that Mike Piazza is probably the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, only got over 50%. Johnny Bench is the best catcher in the history of baseball, but Piazza has all the record for catchers as far as offensively.

No one ever asked what was my relationship with Bart Giamatti. We used to talk about baseball a lot as a player and a commissioner, just talk about the game, what could we do to help the game, where's the game going, he was pretty good.

Mr. Selig looked at me and said, 'I want to know one thing. Did you bet on baseball?' ... I looked him in the eye. 'Sir, my daddy taught me two things in life -- how to play baseball and how to take responsibility for my actions. I learned the first one pretty well. The other, I've had some trouble with. Yes, sir, I did bet on baseball.'

One thing about a hitting streak is the stamina.

I don't know what he did the last two years. All I know is the guy can hit.

I broke the record on Sept. 11 and I was born the day Lincoln was shot and the Titanic sank (April 14).

Four or five times a week, ... But I never bet against my own team, and I never made any bets from the clubhouse.

I don't think Pete ran a red light or had a speeding ticket. That's the kind of kid he is, ... I wish people understood how small the mistake he made is.

If I took steroids, I would have gotten 5,000 hits.

Here's my take on steroids: We can say anybody took steroids. We don't know. Unless you took steroids the last two years, I don't care.

had been an alcoholic or a drug addict, baseball would have suspended me for six weeks and paid for my rehabilitation.

I think amphetamines, if I'm not mistaken, are something that's going to give you something like false hope.

I think people understand that I understand I made some mistakes and I can?t change them,

During the times I gambled as a manager, I never took an unfair advantage, ... I never bet more or less based on injuries or inside information. I never allowed my wagers to influence my baseball decisions. So in my mind, I wasn't corrupt.

I've been wrong about six times as far as that goes. Now I am hoping they do something, but I sure am not optimistic. I am less optimistic as every month goes by.

I used to tell him that with two outs and a man on second, I want Arnold at the plate.

This is a tragedy. Anyone who knows this young man knows he is a very, very fine young man. The use of this stuff is common. It's used as a sleep aid by many people in sports.

They know and you know and I know that if there's another strike, the people will come back. They always have and they always will.

It's the best part of music when we play music for free to give back to people. My band always plays better and I always play better when I know I'm playing for free to help heal or benefit or feed or educate someone. . . . It doesn't matter how many times you do concerts for Africa or South America or Indians. If people steal some of it, keep doing it. They can't steal all of it.

Not all rock 'n' roll is like that,

I made a big mistake. I was wrong. But I can't change it. I just wish people would understand and give me a second chance. I won't need a third chance.