E. S. Bouton Quotes

You spend a good deal of your life gripping a baseball, and it turns out it was the other way around all the time.

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?

It never hurts to apologize, especially if you don't mean it.

Statistics are about as interesting as first base coaches.

If you had a pill that would guarantee a pitcher 20 wins, but might take five years off his life, he'd take it.

For a hundred years, the owners screwed the players. For 25 years, the players have screwed the owners-they've got 75 years to go.

Forget goals. Value the process.

We were like farm animals compared to today's players who are treated like thoroughbreds.

Lots of people look up to Billy Martin. That's because he just knocked them down.

You're only as smart as your ERA.

How come nobody wants to argue with me? Is it because I'm always so right?

The older they get, the better they were when they were younger.

A lot of long relievers are ashamed to tell their parents what they do. The only nice thing about it is that you get to wear a uniform like everbody else.

Back then, if you had a sore arm, the only people concerned were you and your wife. Now it's you, your wife, your agent, your investment counselor, your stockbroker, and your publisher.

Opening day -- or Opening Day. Depending on how you feel about it.

You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.

High school games would just as big a deal to me as any major league game.

The older they get, the better they get when they were younger

Front offices are more interested in players that are far than players that are near.

The author emphasizes the importance of self-forgetfulness when his statistics were marred by a bad outing. He forgot all of that outing to such an extent that he quipped, "What was my name?

The pitching coach was bugged by the author's technique because he had never seen anyone do it before, and besides, it wasn't the coach's idea.

The author says his young son, adopted from South Korea, occasionally burps and says thank you but otherwise is doing all right.

I think I should be allowed to be only fair, or even mediocre, for a while.