I came to the Braves on business, and I intended to see that business was good as long as I could..

Baseball is a lot like the ivy-covered wall of Wrigley Field--it gives off a great appearance, but when you run into it, you discover the bricks unde….

The first thing baseball wants to do is make you a superstar and then say that you owe baseball something. I don't owe baseball anything. Baseball ow….

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel ….

Roger Maris lost his hair the season he hit sixty-one, I still have all my hair, but when it's over, I'm going home to Mobile and fish for a long tim….

I never thought we'd ever have a black president. President Obama has done such a tremendous job He just has been unable to get what he needs to be m….

Baseball needs me because it needs somebody to stir the pot, and I need it because it's my life. It's the means I have to make a little difference in….

There's only one way to break the color line. Be good. I mean, play good. Play so good that they can't remember what color you were before the season….

I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat..

I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen b….

I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played ev….

There wasn't much white people would allow us to do in those days. You could be a schoolteacher or an athlete to get away from the manual labor and s….

You visualize [pitches]. You see it in your head; you think it...I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started get….

On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the ….

I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice..

I am very proud to be an American. This country has so much potential, I'd just like to see things better, or whatever, and I think it will be..

To this day, whenever I'm in Milwaukee, which is often, I'm reminded that the people there still haven't gotten over the Braves leaving ... If it hel….

I had many, many, many death threats. I couldn't open letters for a long time, because they all had to be opened by either the FBI or somebody. I cou….

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being a successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution..

I think about how a guy mentally prepared himself to do battle, to go out and face the pitcher. I think so many hitters do not know how to get themse….

Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit..