1885-1948
American Baseball Major League Pitcher, Outfielder and Home Hitter
Babe Ruth quotes:
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.
All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.
How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball...The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.
To my sick little pal. I will try to knock you another homer, maybe two today.
Don't ever forget two things I'm going to tell you. One, don't believe everything that's written about you. Two, don't pick up too many checks.
I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run.
All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.
Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.
I didn't mean to hit the umpire with the dirt, but I did mean to hit that bastard in the stands.
If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.
I won't be happy until we have every boy in America between the ages of six and sixteen wearing a glove and swinging a bat.
Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?
Paris ain't much of a town.
You just can't beat the person who never gives up.
Aw, everybody knows that game, the day I hit the homer off ole Charlie Root there in Wrigley Field, the day October first, the third game of that thirty-two World Series. But right now I want to settle all arguments. I didn't exactly point to any spot, like the flagpole. Anyway, I didn't mean to, I just sorta waved at the whole fence, but that was foolish enough. All I wanted to do was give that thing a ride... outta the park... anywhere.
Gee, its lonesome in the outfield. It's hard to keep awake with nothing to do.
That last one sounded kinda high to me.
You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth - that means the boys. And after you've been a boy, and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in our national pastime.
I'd give a year of my life if I could hit a home run on opening day of this great new park.
As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.
Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.
I learned early to drink beer, wine and whiskey. And I think I was about 5 when I first chewed tobacco.
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.
How about a little noise. How do you expect a man to putt?
I thank heaven we have had baseball in this world... the kids... our national pastime.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad. You know, this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you're a boy and grow up to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing clubs today in your national pastime. The only real game in the world, I think, is baseball. As a rule, people think that if you give boys a football or a baseball or something like that, they naturally become athletes right away. But you can't do that in baseball. You got to start from way down, at the bottom, when the boys are six or seven years of age. You can't wait until they're 14 or 15. You got to let it grow up with you, if you're the boy. And if you try hard enough, you're bound to come out on top, just as these boys here have come to the top now. There have been so many lovely things said about me today that I'm glad to have had the opportunity to thank everybody.
I'd play for half my salary if I could hit in this dump (Wrigley Field) all the time.
I never heard a crowd boo a homer, but I've heard plenty of boos after a strikeout.
Hot as hell, ain't it Prez (Calvin Coolidge)?
Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games.
Let me show you how it's done... Loser!
Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit.
I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun.
If I'd just tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around 600.
Reading isn't good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading.
I don't give a damn about any actors. What good will John Barrymore do you with the bases loaded and two down in a tight ball game. Either I get the money (more than Barrymore), or I don't play!
The termites (cancer, the day before he died, to Connie Mack) have got me.
I have just one superstition. Whenever I hit a home run, I make certain I touch all four bases.
Watch my dust.
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Image source: National Curve Bank, California State University Los Angeles
Image © United States Postal Service
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