Mickey Mantle Quotations

I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.

He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie.

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.

A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.

The only thing I can do is play baseball. I have to play ball. It's the only thing I know.

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.

When I hit a home run I usually didn't care where it went. So long as it was a home run was all that mattered.

Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball.

As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due.

If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.

Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'

Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.

You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.

I could never be a manager. All I have is natural ability.

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.

It was all I lived for, to play baseball.

I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

I don't care who you are, you hear those boos.

Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was.

I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love.

My views are just about the same as Casey's.

The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game.

Whenever someone says something Billy doesn't agree with, he doesn't listen very long.

Mr. Mantle, do you have any observations with reference to the application of antitrust laws to baseball?

My dad taught me to switch-hit. He and my grandfather, who was left-handed, pitched to me everyday after school in the back yard. I batted lefty against my dad and righty against my granddad.

I was prepared to pay $15,000 for the passport. ... He was the greatest guy in the world. When you met him, everyone loved him. He was a fun guy.

But god-damn, to think you're a .300 hitter and end up at .237 in your last season, then find yourself looking at a lifetime .298 average - it made me want to cry.

There's nobody like him, ... He has one plan, and that's to go up with the idea of getting a hit.

He can run, steal bases, throw, hit for average, and hit with power like I've never seen. Just don't put him at shortstop.

The hardest thing to do in sports, I think, is to hit a home run.

Those people don't know how tough that really was.

What did you say, Joe?

If I send the ball home, I know what will happen to it. My twin brothers will take it out on the lot, like any 20-cent rocket.

You might as well go in and start getting dressed. I'm going to hit his first pitch for a home run.

Of course, I didn't tell you about all the times I said I was going to hit one and it didn't happen.

There are two kinds of people. There are leaders and there are followers. And I'm a follower.

You hit .350 you're a leader. You hit .250 and you're not.

I wanted to throw my glass at the TV.

I never saw him fight. I never saw Billy fight.

I never got to see the '27 Yankees. Everyone says that was the greatest team ever. But I think it would've been a great series if we'd have had the chance to play them.

I don't know why Roger (Maris) isn't in the hall of fame. To me, he was as good as there ever was.

It's what you're worth.

To get a better piece of chicken, you'd have to be a rooster.

I don't care what the situation was, how high the stakes were - the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on every pitch, it never bothered Whitey. He pitched his game. Cool. Craft. Nerves of steel.

I never understood how someone who was dying could say he was the luckiest man in the world, but now I understand.

I had it all and blew it.

If the World Series was on the line and I could pick one pitcher to pitch the game, I'd choose Whitey Ford every time.

They should have come out of the dugout on tippy-toes, holding hands and singing.

In 1961 somebody could've hit a home run to win the game and the next day the headline was about the M&M boys not hitting a home run. But everyone was real good about it. Instead of getting mad they joked about it.

The greatest thing I ever saw was Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's record.

Well, I beat my man. Now it's up to you to beat yours.

A body came flying out and landed at my feet. At first I thought it was Billy so I picked him up. But when I saw it wasn't I dropped him back down.

It looked like Roy Rogers rode through on Trigger, and Trigger kicked the guy in the face.

Billy (Martin) wasn't afraid of anything.

Before you go, would you sign that case of balls for me?

When I'm hitting, I'd play for nothing. When I'm not, any kind of money I receive makes me feel as if I'm stealing.

When I first came to Yankee Stadium I used to feel like the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were walking around in there.

After they remodeled Yankee Stadium I didn't feel that the ghosts were there anymore. It just wasn't the same.

He who have the fastest cart never have to play a bad lie.

It gave me a second chance. I'd like everybody to have a second chance if they need it, so I'm trying to let people know how important it is to become an organ donor.

The biggest thrill I ever had was in 1969, when they held day at Yankee Stadium.

Sometimes I sit in my den at home and read stories about myself. Kids used to save whole scrapbooks on me. They get tired of them and mail them to me. I'll go in there and read them, and you know what? They might as well be about (Stan) Musial and (Joe) DiMaggio, it's like reading about somebody else.

If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'

As far as he knew, I was dying.

I don't know why, but for some reason I seem to be more popular now than when I was playing.

Hey Mantle, you win. You're the worst.

You don't have to talk to me about pensions. I won't be around long enough to collect one.

At my best I was as good as anyone.

I think the best all-round baseball player ever was Joe DiMaggio.

The best hitter I ever saw was Ted Williams.

My biggest regret was letting my lifetime average drop below .300. I always felt I was a .300 hitter, and if I could change one thing that would be it.

Billy (Martin) was a great one for jokes. He liked to play a joke more than anyone I ever knew.

I expected him to say, 'Hang in there' or something like that. It took me an hour to talk him into giving me another chance!

Not after all the time my dad spent teaching me to switch-hit.

We know you can bunt, Mick. You're not down here to bunt. You're here to get some hits and get your swing back.

I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.

All I had was natural ability.

I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'

A lot of people wrote that Roger (Maris) and I didn't like each other and that we didn't get along. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1960 when Pittsburgh beat us in the World Series, we outscored them 55-27. It was the only time I think the better team lost. I was so disappointed I cried on the plane ride home.

I've heard about you. I've heard about you, too.

Casey wanted us to stay loose. That didn't mean clowning around. He just meant we should be confident and relaxed. We shouldn't feel that one strikeout was going to end the season for us.

Billy copied Casey to a 'T.'

There were things that would irritate Casey, but trying too hard or getting mad at sitting on the bench weren't among them.

This year I'd rather lead the league in home runs, runs batted in and hitting.

Casey didn't easily forgive a guy who got doubled up on a hit-and-run play. He didn't see any reason why the runner couldn't take a quick glance back toward the plate to make sure the ball was hit safely.

Hey man! Get away from me!

Butcher boy, damn it, butcher boy.

People say Yogi (Berra) is a strange guy, and I've heard Yogi say some funny things. But he has a beautiful wife, he's rich, and he's famous. I don't see anything strange about that.

After a play in the field Casey would turn (to the players on the bench) and say 'What did he do wrong?' or 'You're better than that guy.' Either way, he'd keep them from getting stale.

He said to play louder. He can't hear you.

Hey Yog, what time is it? You mean right now?

Watch the old man. Watch how the old man keeps the guys who aren't playing happy.

Because the players knew that if Billy asked them to jump off a roof, he'd jump off with them.

It was the single greatest feat I ever saw.

If you want to know who was better, me or Willie Mays, you have to look at our career stats. And Willie's bottom line was better.

All I have is natural ability.