Willie Mays Baseball Quotations

I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em.

I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did.

Defense to me is the key to playing baseball

I'm a very lucky guy. I had so many people help me over the years that I never had many problems. If I had a problem, I could sit down with someone and they would explain the problem to me, and the problem become like a baseball game

The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.

I didn't teach you that. Catch the ball with your glove.

"And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11". So I just picked baseball."

That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.

I wanted badly to play and coach (Mike) Goldschmidt gave me that opportunity. My best friend came up here and told me about the program. I want to be drafted after this season. Ultimately, I want to play pro baseball and meet Willie Mays in person.

The home-field advantage in baseball, to me, I don't understand. I had to play as well on the road as I did at home.

Hopefully, they can say, "There goes the best baseball player in the world." I honestly believe I did everything in baseball that a baseball player can do, and I did it with love.

I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.

I don't rate them, I just hit them.

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on his 660th home run, milestones in baseball are meant to be broken and I wish him continued success throughout his career.

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

I remember that last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball and I knew I had to leave it.