On October 19, 1949, I got a telephone call from the Philadelphia (A's) front office informing me I had been traded to the White Sox for Joe Tipton. I was surprised and hurt.

I don't think anyone ever liked to play more than I did.

If a ballplayer is satisfied, he's going to slip. You have to keep fighting to improve.

On two legs, Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ballplayer who ever lived.

All small men, all non-power hitters, must learn to bunt well. It's half your game.

What is the top requirement for a second baseman? A fine shortstop. I am fortunate in having the greatest shortstop in baseball, Luis Aparicio.

(Doc) Cramer told me I was hitting too much off the front foot and that I wasn't using the right kind of bat. I had been using a long, skinny stick and Cramer got me a thicker one.

(Jim) Landis is such a good player because he plays every day as if he expects to be sent to the minors next week.

Second base is anything but magic. If it's anything at all, it's speed, sureness with your hands and lots of hard work.

We really had baseball in the family. Even that little habit I've got of chewing tobacco on the ball field sort of comes from my dad.

We won (the pennant) because we've got a superior ball club. Not many stars perhaps, but the kind of team that always plays well together.

History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.

I've always loved the showmanship of professional wrestling. While I love making movies, I love that platform, too.

To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.

I think I've been able to fool a lot of people because I know I'm a dork. I'm a geek.

The worst thing, I fear, about being no longer young is that one is no longer young.

Poetry, which is written while no one is looking, is meant to be looked at for all time.

Politics has become unbelievably and unfortunately way too much about how much money is involved rather than what kind of ideas are involved.

Sports must become an indispensable and inseparable part of our social life. Competitiveness is just a by-product.

You are the person who determines what you do. That's a big responsibility. Make the most of it.

I like thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the president of the bank over for dinner.