My friends and family know I love playing baseball - Little League through college. And every year in the annual Congressional Baseball Game for charity played at Nationals Stadium.
The way that I was taught to play baseball, and to me the way baseball has always been, is... Look, we play 162 games. It's a grinding, hard-nosed game. And even when I was a kid it was about not showing up your opponent. It was about playing the game with class. But, obviously I think you should have fun doing it.
That's what I love about baseball, that it gives the opportunity for every single guy to develop and play the game. There's not a rule that you have to be 6 foot or you have to be real strong to play baseball or to become a good player.
England and America should scrap cricket and baseball and come up with a new game that they both can play. Like baseball, for example.
In baseball, you have to remain calm, cool, and collected. In football, you can let out a little anger sometimes. It was a fun game, and I liked it, but I knew in my heart I was going to play baseball.
The game of baseball is a game of failure because it's so difficult to play. A 300 hitter, a superstar fails seven out of ten times at the plate. So what does that tell you about the game and its difficulty?
I grew up playing football and baseball and moved on to play college baseball, and, you know, as a kid, my dream was to play professional baseball.
I was a fan of baseball growing up. We played baseball; I used to play in an A&P parking lot. It wasn't always easy to find a good baseball field to play in.
Baseball is a slow, boring, complex, cerebral game that doesn't lend itself to histrionics. You "take in" a baseball game, something odd to say about a football or basketball game, with the clock running and the bodies flying.
Baseball is a slow, boring, complex, cerebral game that doesn't lend itself to histrionics. You 'take in' a baseball game, something odd to say about a football or basketball game, with the clock running and the bodies flying.
You've got to play every game until it's over. Baseball is a funny game, so you never know what's going to happen.
We in the Negro leagues felt like we were contributing something to baseball, too, when we were playing. We played with a round ball, and we played with a round bat. And we wore baseball uniforms, and we thought that we were making a contribution to baseball. We loved the game, and we liked to play it.
When you play Futures and Challengers for three, four years, you're playing in obscurity. You play the game for other reasons. You don't play the game for money or attention. You play the game because you like to play. You play the game because you enjoy the journey.
Basketball has always been a sport I loved and grew up playing. For me, it was one of those things that... I guess baseball was just in my genes a little bit. I have a lot of cousins that played baseball. Basketball is not an easy sport - you definitely got to be gifted to play that game. I felt like I was pretty good at it, but my ability was better in baseball.
Ernie Banks was a great great player and when he no longer could play, he became a great ambassador for the game. He represented the game with the highest of class and dignity. Everybody loved Ernie Banks. He enjoyed baseball, life and people. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. We have truly lost a baseball giant.
Baseball is the only game left for people. To play basketball, you have to be 7 feet 6 inches. To play football, you have to be the same width.