“To me, baseball is not a game, but a religion.”

I told the umpires to walk back at least thirty-five feet from home plate. That reduced the arguements.

Your job is to umpire for the ball and not the player.

The most cowardly thing in the world is blaming mistakes upon the umpires. Too many managers strut around on the field trying to manage the umpires instead of their teams.

Fix your eye on the ball from the moment the pitcher holds it in his glove. Follow it as he throws to the plate and stay with it until the play is completed. Action takes place only where the ball goes.

That guy in a twenty-five cent bleacher seat is as much entitled to know a call as the guy in the boxes. He can see my arm signal even if he can’t hear my voice.

There are one-hundred fifty-four games in a season and you can find one-hundred fifty-four reasons why your team should have won every one of them.

In my heart, I never called one wrong.

An angry player can’t argue with the back of an umpire who is walking away.

Serra High school, to me, was my most enjoyable time for me in my entire life. That was the only time I was free. We just played baseball because it was fun.

As if you legs were two cannons and your arms were two oars and the great lateral muscles of your back were pterodactyl wings and the brim of your baseball cap was a harpoon.

I think some of the pressure comes from the expectations of other people. Like if your father played baseball, they expect you to be the big lifesaver or something when you play a sport.

Knowin’ all about baseball is just about as profitable as bein’ a good whittler.

I wanted to be a professional baseball player.

The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.

Baseball is just my job.

I grew up playing everything from rugby, football, baseball, volleyball, bike races and boxing. I tried martial arts, loved to ride horses and I’m the youngest of three brothers, so it was a fiercely competitive family.