Top 376 Pitcher Quotes & Sayings - Page 5

Baseball is a movable conversation across nine innings. It is eye contact with the person seated next to you in a park where the pitcher is separated from the batter by 60 feet, six inches or in a family room where a 60-inch TV screen hangs on the wall.

The beanball is one of the meanest things on Earth and no decent fellow would use it. The beanball is a potential murderer. If I were a batter and thought the pitcher really tried to bean me, I'd be inclined to wait for him outside the park with a baseball bat.

It's always, 'No matter what the outing is, you can always find a way to be a better pitcher.' No matter what you do.

My flexibility is probably my No. 1 asset. Obviously we need to have a strong shoulder, strong scapula, strong lats, and a durable elbow to have longevity as a pitcher, but being mobile in the hips and flexible in the hamstrings takes so much pressure and stress off of my arm.

I didn't feel empty. I wished I'd felt empty. ... I wanted to be empty like an overturned pitcher. But I was full like a stone.

Fix your eye on the ball from the moment the pitcher holds it in his glove. Follow it as he throws to the plate and stay with it until the play is completed. Action takes place only where the ball goes.

I loved baseball. I was a pitcher. I loved being on the mound because I also loved being at the center of the action, the cat and mouse battle with the batter on every pitch. You had to develop grit.

I'm a pitcher, so the glove is my only accessory. The hitters get to have all the fun. They have batting helmets, the actual bats, gloves, elbow guards - all this cool stuff to wear. And all I get is a glove.

I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider. Then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first 30 feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it has crossed the plate.

The difference between winning nineteen games and winning twenty for a pitcher is bigger than anyone out of baseball realizes. It's the same for hitters - someone who hits .300 looks back on the guy who batted .295 and says 'tough luck buddy.

When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've been the equivalent of a fastball pitcher - trying to use blazing speed and brute force to wow the people around me.

I think I'm constantly trying to grow as a pitcher. You start going out there, you're learning stuff, you're finding different ways to try to get guys out. Trying to be creative.

I've matured a lot as a pitcher. I understand what my strengths are. I've learned that I've got a great sinker, I get a lot of ground balls, and it's easy to get a ground-ball double play.

Tiger Woods, Larry Bird, Wayne Gretzky, a pitcher just before a game, I would imagine they all have nervous energy. But as you perform, the nervous energy dissipates and you start to relax and you start to do what you do best.

I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success.

Think. Don't just swing. Think about the pitcher, what he threw you last time up, his best pitch, who's up next. Think.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

To me grinding out a good at-bat is pretty much fighting. And it's not trying to do too much with pitches, just finding a way to spoil a good pitcher's pitches, really.

Byrd has always been that kind of pitcher, trying to trick you, keep the ball low, in and out. He threw a lot of strikes, worked it inside and out, threw breaking balls for strikes behind in the count.

I felt as if the Milky Way, hovering above our heads like a celestial pitcher, had suddenly overturned, pouring suns and planets down my throat. Stars seemed to be shooting out of my finger and toes, the ends of my hair.

People keep telling me I never lived up to my potential, that I wasted my talent. . . I just didn't have as much as people thought. I got more ink for doing less than any pitcher who ever lived.

Certain guys, they can see a guy do a certain thing with their glove and know what pitch is coming. I couldn't do that. But I can get on first base and I can tell you by his move if that pitcher is going to first base or home plate every time.

A pitcher's windup and throw is an explosive, coordinated full-body movement. They perform the move once, then rest, then perform it again. There is nothing aerobic about it.

He[Ted Danson] was clearly not a football player, and not only physically. He didn't bring that attitude, that mentality. At the time, there was a [Red Sox] relief pitcher named Bill Lee, the "Spaceman." He was kind of nuts, as we found out a lot of relievers are.

You must not be afraid of small bits of silence. To use it well is the height of confidence and skill for a comedian. It increases the tension in a good way and adds contrast like a curveball complements the fastball of a good pitcher.

Do not be deceived by the outward appearance of age or youth - a new pitcher may be full of good, old wine, while an old one may be totally empty.

No one intuitively understands quantum mechanics because all of our experience involves a world of classical phenomena where, for example, a baseball thrown from pitcher to catcher seems to take just one path, the one described by Newton's laws of motion. Yet at a microscopic level, the universe behaves quite differently.

It took me a while to figure that out and to realize what a gift that I had been given. And when I finally did, I dedicated myself to be the best pitcher I possibly could be, for as long as I possibly could be.

I started playing well and felt comfortable. That season a set a Jamestown record of consecutive innings pitched with out a walk. (40 2\3 innings, i think) and was named Jamestown Pitcher of the Year.

I know who's the best pitcher I ever see and it's old Satchel Paige, that big lanky colored boy. My fastball looks like a change of pace alongside that little pistol bullet ole Satchel (Paige) shoots up to the plate.

There's only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.

As much as you love to finish games and all that kind of stuff, at the same time as a starting pitcher you hate to come out of a game where your closer has no margin for error, ... So at least with one guy on, Braden's got a little margin to make a mistake.

As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.

My first year in the big leagues, I made $17,000. It was easy to go out and get another $17,000 relief pitcher. I never worried about innings or pitches. I just pitched.

I started out real young as a tight end, but I was never getting the football. I knew when I played basketball, I loved to have control of the ball. When I played baseball, I was a pitcher. I always wanted to be the guy throwing the passes and making a difference, I guess.

Know, son, that everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty, the universe is a drop of the 'Tigris of His beauty, this beauty was a Hidden Treasure so full it burst open and made the earth more radiant than the heavens.

I've always - outside of the outfielders running over the hump, and it could be slightly dangerous, and it can impact play; of course it can. But on the other side I think, again, just if you're pitching, a relief pitcher, I think it's kind of a great place to get involved in a game.

I never knew how to throw a fastball, never learned how to throw a curveball, a slider, split-finger, whatever they're throwing nowadays. I was a one-pitch pitcher.

I watched the guy that hits a home run, and he comes across the plate and he points skyward, like thanking for the help from the Almighty to hit the home run. And as he does that, I say to myself, 'God screwed the pitcher.' And I don't know how else you look at it.

I think that's why I like baseball. There's something great about it - you're young, the pitcher's young and he's got this great arm, and he doesn't really realize anything about strategy.

I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider; then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first thirty feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it had crossed the plate.

Winning the game is the single most important thing. If you go 0-for-4, but you catch a shutout or a one-run game, and your pitcher goes seven, eight innings, and the closer closes out the game, that's the ultimate satisfaction for a catcher. Much more than going 4-for-4 and losing.

I like the style of National League baseball. I like the different moves that have to be made. I like the fact that the No. 8 spot in the lineup can be one of the more challenging spots. It's a lot more strategy for that hitter and for the catcher sometimes with the pitcher coming up.

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.

The game of baseball between pitcher and hitter sets up like a game of chess in that you have to anticipate several moves ahead to set up your opponent.

Right now what's in my mind is going up there and being disciplined. I was swinging at so many pitches out of the strike zone, and when you do that, you're not going to get a chance to hit strikes. It makes it easier for the pitcher every time I do that.

During my time, there might have been one pitcher or two that were top pitchers on a team. Teams that won maybe had three, but today they have a lot of depth. They have a lot of long relievers, short relievers, and the strategy is different.

Generally in the Little League you're up against a good pitcher who throws like hell. What does the coach say? Get a walk. Isn't that beautiful way to learn to hit? For four years you stand up there looking for a walk.

I had a lot of fun playing football and basketball, but deep down, the chess match or cat-and-mouse game between the pitcher and batter in baseball really drew me in. It's a thinking man's game, and for me, nothing can compare to that.

Any pitcher who might throw at me should know I'm not giving up my day job or trying to get anyone else's job. I just can't think of anything cooler than being one of the boys of summer!

Years ago, you never concerned yourself with pitch counts. Now, with statistics telling you that between this number and that number bad things happen to this particular pitcher, you have to pay attention to it. The bullpen has become a huge part of what happens now.

I know what kind of pitcher Whitey was, and I know what kind of person Whitey is. It makes me feel proud to be a Yankee. We're keeping this in the family.

I think walks are overrated unless you can run... If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can't run, most of the time they're clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.

Take a pitcher full of water and set it down in the water-now it has water inside and water outside. We mustn't give it a name, lest silly people start talking again about the body and the soul.

I like that the pitcher hits. I think that my feeling is that everybody should play a position. In order to hit, you have to play a position. That's just my view of it. I feel that's more baseball, and the games are managed different. I enjoy the National League, how it's played.

If I could help the pitcher as much as I can, or I could save three to five errors a year with my defense, then that's just a big help for my teammates.

Baseball's Opening Day is full of time-honored traditions: the President throws out the first ball, the Cubs' starting pitcher walks away with a 54.00 ERA, the Royals get mathematically eliminated from the pennant race.

A good hitter has timing. A good pitcher upsets timing.

There are at least three kinds of advantages that the pitcher and batter contest. There's the physical advantage, the strategic advantage, and also the psychological advantage. I didn't want two out of three. I wanted them all.

AT&T Park, chalk it up. This is a great pitcher's park, great weather. It's a great place to pitch. It's all positive and no negative. You can go out and challenge guys. I've got the confidence to attack the strike zone and not nibble so much.