Personality is what makes baseball special

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will come most definitely come.”
--James Earl Jones,
from Field of Dreams (1989)

There is no place on earth like a baseball dugout. Doesn’t matter if it’s little league, high school, college ball or pro ball – the dugout, and the antics which go on in there during baseball games, are what make the game so special.
After having been away from being a full-time sports writer since the mid-1990s, I got my first chance over the weekend to follow Gonzales and St. Paul during the weekend’s Yoakum tournament, and I have to admit it brought back a lot of memories for me. Just hearing the kids chatter reminded me of games I’ve sat through in the past, the players I’ve had the privilege to cover, and in some cases play with and against.
I made the observation to one of the kids that, “Baseball is holy,” because you can’t hardly be a sportswriter without being steeped in baseball. I can’t think of a sportswriter I’ve ever met who didn’t start life first as a baseball fan.
Where football, basketball, hockey and all those other endeavors are “sports,” baseball is still a “game.” All the others have time clocks; in baseball, as Yogi Berra noted, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
Moreso than any other sport, where the rules seem to change every few months, baseball has retained the same basic rules for more than a century (with the exception of that abomination called the Designated Hitter rule). And it is because of that consistency that baseball is the one sport where you can look at one of today’s players and compare him to one from 1920, and have the wonders of baseball statistics to back up argument pro and con over which is better.
But most of all, baseball has what the other athletic events lack: personality. So as I kept my scorebook over the weekend just like I first did when I was nine years old, I was tickled to hear that today’s players still have the irreverence and good humor that I associate with the game.
For them, then, I offer a little collection of famous quotes culled from the pages of baseball history:
“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” – Satchel Paige
“I hated to bat against (Don) Drysdale. After he hit you he’d come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, ‘Do you want me to sign it?’ “ – Mickey Mantle
“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” – Ted Williams
“The first pitch to Tucker Ashford is grounded into left field. No, wait a minute. It’s ball one. Low and outside.” – Jerry Coleman, Padres announcer
“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there is a man on base.” – Dave Barry
 “For the parents of a Little Leaguer, a baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into innings.” – Earl Wilson
“It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.” – Hank Aaaron
“Winfield goes back to the wall. He hits his head on the wall and it rolls off! It’s rolling all the way back to second base! This is a terrible thing for the Padres!” – Jerry Coleman, Padres announcer
“The kid doesn’t chew tobacco, smoke, drink, curse, or chase broads. I don’t see how he can possibly make it.” – Richie Ashburn
“A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.” -- Humphrey Bogart
“When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I looked in the other team’s dugout and they were already in street clothes.” – Bob Uecker
“Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up. “ --Bob Lemon
“Baseball players are smarter than football players.  How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?” -- Jim Bouton
“There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball.  Unfortunately, neither of them work.” --Charlie Lau
“The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain’s free throws.” --Rick Wise
“A ball player’s got to be kept hungry to become a big-leaguer.  That’s why no boy from a rich family ever made the big leagues. “ --Joe DiMaggio
“I don’t take batting practice against him because I have a family to think of.” – Bob Watson, on J.R. Richard
“It actually giggles at you as it goes by.”--Rick Monday, on Phil Niekro’s knuckleball
“I’ve come to the conclusion that the two most important things in life are good friends and a good bullpen. “ --Bob Lemon
“You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock.  You’ve got to throw the ball over the (bleep) plate and give the other man his chance.  That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all. “ --Earl Weaver
“Sandy’s fastball was so fast, some batters would start to swing as he was on his way to the mound. “ --Jim Murray, on Sandy Koufax
“Why does everybody stand up and sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ when they’re already there?”--Larry Andersen
“He came to take me out (of the game). I told him, ‘Coach, I’m not tired.’ He said ‘Yes, but the outfielders sure are.’” – pitcher Jim Kern
“I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it. “ --Sandy Koufax
“Hitting is timing.  Pitching is upsetting timing.” --Warren Spahn
“Don’t forget to swing hard, in case you hit the ball.” -- Woodie Held
“What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series?  No Cubs.” --Harry Caray
“You know you’re pitching well when the batters look as bad as you do at the plate.” --Duke Snider
“The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then pick it up.” --Bob Uecker
“Baseball statistics are like a girl in a bikini.  They show a lot, but not everything.” -- Toby Harrah
“Baseball is the only game left for people.  To play basketball, you have to be 7 feet 6 inches.  To play football, you have to be the same width.” -- Bill Veeck
“Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off.”-- Bill Veeck
“Trying to hit Phil Niekro is like trying to eat jello with chopsticks. Sometimes you get a piece but most of the time you get hungry.” – Bobby Mercer, on trying to hit Phil Niekro’s knuckleball
 “They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.” – Willie Mays
“(Roberto) Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.” – Vin Scully

“That guy at third base had time to sit down and eat a burger before you got there so he could tag you out!” -- Gonzales assistant coach Joey Carrizales, to a runner who’d just been thrown out trying to steal third base