Jim Bouton Quotations

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.

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

We broke in together in 1959. You never know who will make it.

Most players saw amphetamines as harmless. But the professional athlete does a lot of things to his body that they don't think of as harmful.

It goes back to the old concept of town teams your guys: the mailman, the milkman, you know, the carpenter, the plumber. The popularity of vintage baseball will thrive on the backlash against the corporate, over-hyped, over-sold Major League Baseball.

It goes back to the old concept of town teams ù your guys: the mailman, the milkman, you know, the carpenter, the plumber. The popularity of vintage baseball will thrive on the backlash against the corporate, over-hyped, over-sold Major League Baseball.

Throw him low smoke and we'll go pound some Budweiser.

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.

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.

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.

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

After I won 21 games, I said, "This isn't that hard actually. I can do this every year for maybe 10, 15 years." To tell you the truth I thought I was going to be in the Hall of Fame. I really thought that. You feel so strong, so powerful walking down the street. You know you can throw a ball harder than any man in the world, or certainly the top five. Sandy Koufax knocked all of us out of the box on that one, so we would think, "I'm the second or third hardest thrower in the game."

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

Forget goals. Value the process.

Statistics are about as interesting as first base coaches.

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

You're only as smart as your ERA.

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

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

Jim Pagliaroni joined the club tonight and is going to be a welcome addition. He was describing a girl that one of the ballplayers had been out with and said, “It's hard to say exactly what she looked like. She was kind of Joe Torre with tits.” This joke can only be explained with a picture of Joe Torre. But I'm not sure any exist. He dissolves camera lenses.

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

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