Willie Mays

My father told me that I was able to walk when I was only six months old. And wouldn't you know it, he got me walking after a baseball. Getting a baseball was just about the first thing I was able to do. He put two chairs close to each other and then put a baseball on one. I was clinging to the other. He walked me through two or three times. 'See the ball," he said. 'See the ball.' Then he turned me loose - and I went for the ball myself. When he knew I could chase a ball, he gave me batting lessons. He handed me a rubber ball and a little stick maybe two feet long, and sat me in the middle of the floor. I'd play with the ball all day long, hitting it with the stick, then crawling or toddling after it across the room. My dad was determined that if I wanted to, I would become a baseball player and not end up in the steel mills the way he did. Show less «

I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball and I knew I had to leave it. Show less «

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

Over the years, a lot of organizations have asked me to be their spokesman, or have wanted me to make speeches about my experiences as a black athlete, or to talk to Congressmen about racial issues in sports. But see, I never recall trouble. I believe I had a happy childhood. Besides playing school sports, we'd play football against the white kids. And we thought nothing of it, neither the blacks nor the whites. ... I never got into a fight that was caused by racism. Show less «

[on fellow ball-player Ernie Banks] Eddie would famously say, 'It's a beautiful day for a baseball game. Let's play two'. And I'd tell him, 'Ernie, we just played a double-header. Nobody wants to play anymore. We're all tired!' Then we'd all just laugh. Show less «

Youngsters of Little League can survive under-coaching a lot better than over-coaching.

I don't compare 'em. I catch 'em.

You know, a lot of people said when I was forty, I should quit, but I don't think so. You should play as long as you can and as long as you enjoy the game. In '73, I wasn't enjoying the game, so I quit in May, I retired, and they wouldn't let me retire. So I finished up in the World Series. But I say to players: Play as long as you can, because you only have one chance. Show less «

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what it most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps. Show less «