Quotes - B
"Let's play two!" - Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs
"Baseball is dull only to dull minds." Red Barber, announcer
"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base." - Dave Barry
"I remember one game I got five hits and stole five bases, but none of it was written down because they forgot to bring the scorebook to the game that day." - James "Cool Papa" Bell, Homestead Grays OF
"They say I was born too soon. I say the doors were opened too late." - James "Cool Papa" Bell
"Jimmy Connors plays two tennis matches and winds up with $850,000, and Muhammad Ali fights for one bout and winds up with five million bucks. Me, I play 190 games--if you count exhibitions -- and I'm overpaid!" - Johnny Bench
"I was thinking of making a comeback until I pulled a muscle - vacuuming." - Johnny Bench, on how he felt about Charlton Fisk breaking his record for career home runs by a catcher.
"An ardent supporter of the home town team should go to a game prepared to take offense, no matter what happens." - Robert Benchley
"In batting practice, I don't think I hit one ball hard. It was frustrating, that bat was no good." - Dante Bichette, Colorado Rockies OF, after Bichette hit for the cycle after flinging into the stands the bat he was using for batting practice
"I didn't get over 1300 walks without knowing the strike zone." - Wade Boggs, on being ejected for the first time in the 17th year of his career for arguing a called third strike
"That's the nicest thing a returning player could ever ask for. It shows how classy the New York Fans are. It gave me a warm feeling inside." - Wade Boggs, on the standing ovation he received on his first return to Yankee Stadium (6-3-98)
"This is nothing. I've got nine writers standing here. McGwire had 200 writers when he had 30 home runs." - Barry Bonds (SF Giants OF), on being the first player to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases.
"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 everbody else." - Jim Bouton, NY Yankees pitcher
"The older they get, the better they were when they were younger." - Jim Bouton, on Old Timers Days.
Note: Jim Bouton was invited to return to Yankee Stadium on July 26, 1998 for his first Old Timers Game after 30 years. There were bad feelings for many years after Jim wrote a book revealing that ballplayers weren't the angels that everybody had expected.
"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?" - Jim Bouton
A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." - Jim Bouton, NY Yankees
"If I stay healthy, I have a chance to collect three thousand hits and one thousand errors." - George Brett, Kansas City Royals 3B
"Yeah, he's in pain except between the first and ninth innings." - Dave Bristol (Reds' manager), on Sandy Koufax and his elbow pains that forced him into early retirement.
"Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time." - St. Louis' Lou Brock
"No one wants to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby." - Lou Brock
"In high school I took a little English, some science, some hubcaps and some wheel covers." - William James Gates Brown (Detroit Tigers OF)
When asked if his curve was helped by the absence of an index finger, Mordecai Brown replied, "To know for sure, I'd have to throw with a normal hand, and I've never tried it." - Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown
"I can't conceive of either team winning a single game." - Warren Brown (Chicago writer), when asked for a prediction as to the outcome of the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and the Tigers and an obvious reference to the wartime look of both teams.
"I can sit in a ballpark after a game and love looking at the field. Everybody's gone, and the ballpark is empty, and I'll sit there. I sit there and think, 'Is this as close to heaven as I'm going to get?' Or, 'If I get to heaven, will there be baseball?" - Kim Braatz-Voisard, Silver Bullets' center fielder, 1997
"Jackie was the greatest competitor I ever saw. He didn't win. He triumphed." - Ralph Branca, Dodger pitcher, 1947
Don Baylor, New York Yankees DH, on Billy Martin and his predecessor Yogi Berra: "Playing for Yogi is like playing for your father; playing for Billy is like playing for your father-in-law." - Don Baylor
Dale Berra, Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop and son of noted linguist Yogi Berra, "The only thing my father & I have in common is that our similarities are different."
"You mix two jiggers of scotch to one jigger of Metrecal. So far I've lost five pounds and my driver's license." - Rocky Bridges, minor league manager, on his new diet drink
"The players are too serious. They don't have any fun any more. They come to camp with a financial adviser and they read the stock market page before the sports pages. They concern themselves with statistics rather than simply playing the game and enjoying it for what it is." - Rocky Bridges, from The Sporting News, December 12, 1970
"It's a good thing I stayed in Cincinnati for four years -- It took me that long to learn how to spell it." - Rocky Bridges
"Coaching third with a pitcher on base is like being a member of a bomb disposal squad. The thing could blow up in your face at any moment." - Rocky Bridges
"You know when you've got it made? When you get your name in the crossword puzzles." - Rocky Bridges
"I prefer fast food." - Rocky Bridges, on why he won't eat snails
"No little boy in the hospital asked me to hit one, I didn't promise it to my kid for his birthday, and my wife will be too shocked to appreciate it. I hit it for me." - Rocky Bridges, after hitting his first home run in two seasons
"The more I played with them, the more I found that no one could take a joke - my batting average." - Rocky Bridges, on his two seasons with the Dodgers and his .237 batting average
"Coaching third with a pitcher on base is like being a member of a bomb disposal squad. The thing could blow up in your face at any moment." - Rocky Bridges
"The trouble with having a wired jaw is that you can never tell when you're sleepy. You can't yawn." - Rocky Bridges
On Jose Gonzalez changing his name to Jose Uribe: "He was definitely the player to be named later." - Rocky Bridges
"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes they look too far... They don't have to look any farther than their home because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes." - Bobby Bonilla
"Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports." - Gen. Omar Bradley
"They can hollar at the uniform all they want, but when they hollar at the man wearing the uniform, they're in trouble." - Umpire Joe Brinkman
"Nobody's gone after Reds with this much vigor since Joe McCarthy." - Jeff Blair of the Montreal Gazette, on the Expos' Shane Andrews, who hit .471 (16-for-34) with six homers and 21 RBI against Cincinnati in August 1996
"The best place to catch a baseball hit by (Mark) McGwire is definitely not within the confines of the playing field, or sometimes even the ballpark. Other players dial '1' for long distance. McGwire has to ask for an international operator." - Thomas Boswell, writing in the Washington Post
"Last year [1986], in 415 at bats, he had 27 homers and 80 steals. That's 40 home runs and 120 steals for a full year. [...] This year [1987], in 93 at bats, he's hitting .409 with those 12 homers, 27 RBI, 28 runs and 13 steals. For a full year, that projects to ... well, it doesn't project to anything. It's nonsense. More than 70 home runs, 170 RBI, 180 runs, 80 steals. Wayne Gretzky stats for baseball." - Thomas Boswell on Eric Davis
"Baseball is religion without the mischief." - Thomas Boswell
"This is a tough park for a hitter when the air conditioning is blowing in." - Bob Boone on the Astrodome in Houston
"There have been only two geniuses in the world: Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare." - Tallulah Bankhead, Actress (1903-1968)
"Expansion's coming up (in 1998), pitching is thin and I'm left-handed." - Former pitcher Tom Browning, who is eyeing a comeback after retiring last spring when he was unable to make the Royals' pitching staff
"I was hoping we'd be opening at Joe Robbie Stadium against Elmer Milktoast and the Gigiville nine. But unfortunately, it's Bobby Cox and the world champion Atlanta Braves in Atlanta." - Florida Marlins manager John Boles on his managerial debut
"This is the type of thing that as a kid you dream about. Something I've done in my backyard a hundred times. And you never know if you're going to get the opportunity to do it." - Scott Brosius (NY Yankees 3B) on hitting the game winning home run in Game 3 of the 1998 World Series. Brosius went on to win the 1998 World Series MVP.
"There were only two Bash Brothers (Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco), and one's in Boston now. Maybe I can be a Bash Stepchild." - Oakland's Scott Brosius, who has 10 homers, after suggestions he's ready to become a Bash Brother.
"It's hard to win when you can't keep the ball in the ballpark. I don't think they could hit more home runs if you told them what was coming. I don't think they could hit any more if it was batting practice." - Dusty Baker (SF Giants manager), on the Giants giving up 24 home runs in one seven game stretch.
"The only people I ever felt intimidated by in my whole life were Bob Gibson and my Daddy." - Dusty Baker
"For five years in the minor leagues, I wore the same underwear and still hit .250, so no, I don't believe in that stuff." - Dusty Baker, on stuperstitions
"I'm tired of it. I don't want to hear about it anymore." - Bill Buckner
"I get tired of hearing my ballplayers bellyache all the time. They should sit in the press box sometime and watch themselves play." - San Diego Padres president Buzzie Bavasi, 1973
"How can a guy win a game if you don't give him any runs?" - Robert "Bo" Belinsky, after losing a game 15-0
"Everybody in the park knows he is going to run, and he makes it anyway." - Larry Bowa, on Lou Brock
"He seemed to have an obligation to hit." - Lou Brock, on Pete Rose
"Why Mr. Summers, don't you know that the spitter has been outlawed for years? How would I ever learn to throw one?" - Thomas Jefferson Davis Bridges, to plate umpire Bill Summers, after being accused of throwing the spitter
"There'll be two buses leaving the hotel for the park tomorrow. The two o'clock bus will be for those of you who need a little extra work. The empty bus will leave at five o'clock." - David Bristol, Milwaukee Brewers manager
"I threw about 90% fastballs and sliders, 50% fastballs and 50 % sliders...I'm starting to sound like Mickey Rivers." - John Butcher
"I exploit the greed of all hitters." - Lew Burdette
"Let them think I throw it. That gives me an edge because it is another pitch they have to worry about." - Lew Burdette, on throwing the spitball
"They were starting to hit the dry side of the ball." - Lew Burdette, on when he knew it was time to retire
