Quotes

Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is!

A kid copies what is good. I remember the first time I saw Lefty O'Doul, and he was as far away as those palms. And I saw the guy come to bat in batting practice. I was looking through a knothole, and I said, 'Geez, does that guy look good!'

There's only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.

At Fenway, I remember him hitting this long, long homer over the Wall into the teeth of a gale, and I remember looking at all those muscles as he trotted around the base and shaking that huge hand of his as he crossed the plate - and feeling almost weak. I was a skinny guy anyway, and I felt weak in comparison to Jimmie Foxx.

There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.

I've found that you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit.

I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400.

If I was being paid $30,000 a year, the very least I could do was hit .400.

Hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders.

DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw. His career cannot be summed up in numbers and awards. It might sound corny, but he had a profound and lasting impact on the country.

By the time you know what to do, you're too old to do it.

A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.'

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.

If there was ever a man born to be a hitter, it was me.

Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as someone else but to be better. That is the nature of man and the name of the game.

People always told me that my natural ability and good eyesight were the reasons for my success. They never talk about the practice, practice, practice.

I used to hit tennis balls, old baseballs, balls made of rags - anything. I didn't think I'd be a particularly good hitter. I just liked to do it. - on practicing hitting while growing up

When somebody says nice things about me, it goes in one ear and out the other. But I remember the criticism the longest. I hate criticism.