A Quote by Chi Chi Rodriguez

He told me just to keep the ball low. — © Chi Chi Rodriguez
He told me just to keep the ball low.
My father made me who I am. He gave me a basketball and told me to play with the ball, sleep with the ball, dream with the ball. Just don't take it to school. I used it as a pillow, and it never gave me a stiff neck.
The pitch would normally be low, but my ball starts carrying and stays on a sustained plane. Everyone always complains - 'that ball is low' - but then you go back and look at the tape, and it's right there. My catchers tell me, and the hitters tell me, that the ball stays true flight the last five or six feet.
Nobody likes the ball low and away, but that's where you're going to get it from me. I been pitching it there 50 years, away from them. That way they can't hurt you. You keep the ball in the park.
I was supposed to take the ball out. I told coach, 'There's no way I'm taking the ball out, unless I can shoot it over the backboard and it goes in. I told him, 'Have somebody else take the ball out, give me the ball, and everybody get out of the way.'
Just keep being me, just keep doing me, stay true to who I am and the ball will find me.
With a character like a Captain Jack, who can essentially set up these verbal land mines around him, and just keep passing the "absurdity ball" around and the "irreverence ball" around, and keep people guessing and keep people confused, there's great safety in that. Me, myself, personally, I learn from it. It's a real pleasure, and I do need him.
I always loved hitting a low fade to a back-right pin with the wind howling from the right. Not many guys could get it close in that situation, because they kept it low by just putting the ball back in their stance. You see, playing the ball back turns you into a one-trick pony - you can only hit hooks.
Having more freedom to bring the ball up and have the ball in my hands, just trusting me with the ball, that was one of the big things. My rookie year, I didn't have that. Just having that trust in me, just working and them seeing that I'm getting better at it, that I'm capable, that was kind of like a changing point for me.
If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.
There is stuff going on inside me. But I have always been told to go out there and pitch like you can't tell if you just struck somebody out or just gave up a home run. If something bad happens, I don't dwell on it. Just give me the ball and let me pitch.
The defenders make me very angry. They are kicking, or they are pinching or they say things to me that I don't like. They try to do everything to take me out of the game. I learned to keep my mouth shut, to keep my hands down, just try to put the ball in the net. This is the best answer.
The directors told me they were going to recruit good players with whom I could play decent football. Marko Marin, Oscar and me, we like to have the ball at our feet. Juan Mata likes the ball; so does Ramires.
People always ask me how I can hit the ball so far, and I say, 'I just swing.' It's the coaches who first told me I had good bat speed. I was just swinging, and I guess it was fast. I'm pretty fast at everything.
For years, I felt like I was just whacking at the ball, trying to see how far I could hit it, especially with the driver. Whatever the coach I was working with at the time told me to do, I would just go along with it.
I wasn't really a student of the game. I just played it because I loved it. I didn't really look into the greats as much. They just put a ball in my hand, and I did what the coach told me to.
You have to be smart on your feet. It will be hard on wickets where the ball will keep low. Hopefully, you can get one to fly, and that puts doubts in the batsman's mind.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!