I don't think anyone ever liked to play more than I did.Collection: Thinking
If a ballplayer is satisfied, he's going to slip. You have to keep fighting to improve.Collection: Baseball
No one had to tell me I was never going to be a home run hitter. I was hitting the same ball as the rest of the players, but when the big guys cracked one, it went out of the park. Mine went out of the infield.Collection: Running
What is the top requirement for a second baseman? A fine shortstop. I am fortunate in having the greatest shortstop in baseball, Luis Aparicio.Collection: Baseball
(Al) Lopez is a great believer in speed and hustle, in the go-go style of baseball. No other manager is so determined a foe of stodgy baseball, lack of hustle and slipshod practices and so powerful an advocate of the unexpected.Collection: Baseball
All small men, all non-power hitters, must learn to bunt well. It's half your game.Collection: Men
(Doc) Cramer told me I was hitting too much off the front foot and that I wasn't using the right kind of bat. I had been using a long, skinny stick and Cramer got me a thicker one.Collection: Feet
Second base is anything but magic. If it's anything at all, it's speed, sureness with your hands and lots of hard work.Collection: Hard Work
We really had baseball in the family. Even that little habit I've got of chewing tobacco on the ball field sort of comes from my dad.Collection: Baseball
(Jim) Landis is such a good player because he plays every day as if he expects to be sent to the minors next week.Collection: Player
On October 19, 1949, I got a telephone call from the Philadelphia (A's) front office informing me I had been traded to the White Sox for Joe Tipton. I was surprised and hurt.Collection: Hurt
We won (the pennant) because we've got a superior ball club. Not many stars perhaps, but the kind of team that always plays well together.Collection: Stars
You don't have to be big to be a big leaguer. Look at Phil Rizzuto. He's really small and he's been one of the greatest that ever was.Collection: Looks
On two legs, Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ballplayer who ever lived.Collection: Two