“They were ridiculous times. After I won my World Championship in 1976, I went to Japan.”

I thought: This is not racing, it’s a suicide mission.

I race in two or three classic races a year and I may carry on for 10 more years or I may stop tomorrow.

Endless motorbike talk can and does bore me.

I vowed I would do everything I could to stop the Isle of Man counting towards the World Championship. And it was stopped, so they love me in the Isle of Man.

The advantage of the rain is that, if you have a quick bike, there’s no advantage.

Nobody within motorcycling has or deserves any respect.

Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out and meet the bloody thing.

To win a national championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky.

I expected to be a pretty good NBA point guard and hopefully win a championship. But MVP and all this stuff? Not really.

In sixth grade, my basketball team made it to the league championships. In double overtime, with three seconds left.

In Dortmund, they say the derby is more important than the championship. You can feel it around the game.

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game.

Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship – and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that.

The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.

If it weren’t for a new rule that came into being, we’d have played three years in a row in the championship game.