Bill Veeck
Bill Veeck
William Louis "Bill" Veeck, Jr., also known as "Sport Shirt Bill", was a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a franchise owner and promoter in Major League Baseball. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox. As owner and team president of the Indians in 1947, Veeck signed Larry Doby, thus beginning the integration of the American League. Veeck was the last owner to purchase a baseball franchise without an independent...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth9 February 1914
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
After a month or so in St. Louis, we were looking around desperately for a way to draw a few people into the ball park, it being perfectly clear by that time that the ball club wasn't going to do it unaided.
When you're out there in the big league pressure cooker, a pitcher's attitude -- his utter confidence that he has an advantage of will and luck and guts over the hitter -- is almost as important as his stuff.
We lived and died on every pitch, ... This was the most exciting year, and, let me tell you, I have seen a lot of teams.
I try not to kid myself. You know, I don't mind romancing someone else, but to fool yourself is pretty devastating and dangerous.
I'm for the dreamers. The only really important things in history have been started by the dreamers. They never know what can't be done.
What can I do, I asked myself, that is so spectacular that no one will be able to say he had seen it before? The answer was perfectly obvious. I would send a midget up to bat.
Hating the Yankees isn't part of my act. It is one of those exquisite times when life and art are in perfect conjunction.
When the Supreme Court says baseball isn't run like a business, everybody jumps up and down with joy. When I say the same thing, everybody throws pointy objects at me.
I was in the game for love. After all, where else can an old-timer with one leg, who can't hear or see, live like a king while doing the only thing I wanted to do?
The Falstaff people, romantics all, went for it. They were so anxious to find out what I was going to do that they could hardly bear to wait out the two weeks. I was rather anxious to find out what I was going to do, too.
An island of surety in a changing world.
Three strikes, you're out. I don't care if you hire Edward Bennett Williams to defend you; three strikes, you're still out. Baseball is an island of stability in an unstable world.