The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Hank AaronRead
It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
Interpretation
Success in sports requires perseverance and skill, but sometimes it comes unexpectedly in other areas of life.
Hank Aaron's quote highlights the dedication and effort needed in achieving a remarkable milestone in baseball, represented by the seventeen years he invested to secure three thousand hits. It also reveals the irony that he could achieve a significant accomplishment in a completely different sport, golf, in just one afternoon, suggesting that success can arrive in unexpected ways and that talent may manifest in varied forms.
In practice
During a motivational speech about persistence in sports.
The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.
In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.
In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time.
Making the majors is not as hard as staying there, staying interested day after day. It's like being married. The hardest part is to stay married.
I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him.
Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.
Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.
If critics have problems with my personal life, it's their problem. Anybody with half a brain would realize that it's the charts that count.
When you like something and you're pretty good at it and you can make a living doing it, you don't ask why. You just count your blessings and go with it.
I remember being on film sets when I was younger, and only men got to do the cool action movies. So I thought, 'Maybe I'll get to produce one day and get to do cool stuff too,' which is what happened when we did 'Charlie's Angels.' Starting my production company was a big turning point for me.
You have to work hard AND well. There are a lot of people who work hard but not well.
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