And if I have my choice between a pennant and a triple crown, I'll take the pennant every time.

Ed (Runge), you're the second best umpire in the league. The other twenty-three are tied for first.

I knew when the ball was going out. It was something I worked into the decoy, but it used to tick the pitchers off. Bill Monbouquette used to say, 'Can't you at least make it look like you can catch it?' Meanwhile, the ball would be on its way over the fence to a spot three-quarters of the way out to the railroad tracks.

If that guy (Mickey Mantle) were healthy, he'd hit 80 home runs.

I loved the game. I loved the competition. But I never had any fun. I never enjoyed it. All hard work all the time.

I'm very pleased and very proud of my accomplishments, but I'm most proud of that (hitting four-hundred home runs and three-thousand hits). Not Williams, not Gehrig, not DiMaggio did that. They were Cadillacs and I'm a Chevrolet.

I remember I was a scared rookie, hitting .220 after the first three months of my baseball season, and doubting my ability.

I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day and I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it.

I was a lousy hitter in May doing the same things that made me a great hitter in June.

I was lucky enough to have the talent to play baseball. That's how I treated my career. I didn't think I was anybody special, anybody different.

The moment the game was over I sprinted for the dugout. The fans were pouring onto the field. If they'd caught me they'd have torn my uniform into shreds for souvenirs.

The three-thousand hitting thing was the first time I let individual pressure get to me. I was uptight about it. When I saw the hit going through, I had a sigh of relief more than anything.

They can talk about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial and all the rest, but I'm sure not one of them could hold cards and spades to Williams in his sheer knowledge of hitting. He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market, and could spot at a glance mistakes that others couldn't see in a week.

This is a strange game.

You don't always make an out. Sometimes the pitcher gets you out.

He's a dull, boring potato farmer from Long Island who just happened to be a great ballplayer. But he was the worst dresser in organized baseball. He made Inspector Clouseau look like a candidate for Mr. Blackwell's list of best-dressed men. He had the same London Fog raincoat during his entire career. We'd throw it in trashcans all around the league, and somehow it mysteriously made its way back. - Bill Lee

I know - I know all about you. Look, kid, don't ever - ya 'understand me? - don't ever let anyone monkey with your swing. - Ted Williams

There can be little doubt that Carl Yastrzemski was the master of Wall-ball defense. An infielder as a collegian at Notre Dame, Yastrzemski had the coordination, the instincts, and the work ethic to make the Wall work for him. He was among the American League's outfield assist leaders annually until baserunners learned to stop going for two when they clanged one off the Wall. Yaz could decoy better than any outfielder and routinely pretended he was ready to catch a ball that he knew was going to carom off the Wall. Sometimes this would make runners slow down or stop altogether. Yaz had another Wall habit that annoyed some Boston pitchers. When a slugger unloaded on a meatball from a Sox hurler, Yaz would sometimes stand motionless, hands on hips, staring forward as the ball sailed over his head, over the screen, and out toward the Mass. Turnpike. He didn't want to give the hitter the satisfaction of turning around, and sometimes it was a message to a Boston pitcher who may have thrown the wrong pitch to the wrong guy. - Dan Shaughnessy

Yaz did it all the time. We'd be on the road and he'd call, 'C'mon, we're going to the ballpark.' I'd say, 'Christ, it's only one o'clock. The game's at seven.' He lived, breathed, ate, and slept baseball. If he went 0-for-4, he couldn't live with it. He could live with himself if he went 1-for-3. He was happy if he went 2-for-4. That's the way the man suffered. - Joe Lahoud