30 Days Hath September: Baseball Quotes for the End of Summer

THROWBACK THURSDAY

It's a long season. Beginning in the spring, when the birds fly north, you hear the first crack of the bat and hearts going pitter-patter awaiting the season opener... followed by the long weary road as the season wears on. Every day is game day with only the All Star break to interfere. 

 

Now, it's September. Pennant hopes come alive, and we see which teams have enough pitchers left who can bring them home, because by now there are a lot of tired arms out there. 

 

Baseball is a game that has inspired many a poet, journalist, philosopher and story teller. It's a sport that, to some extent, defines the American spirit. Despite numerous strikes that broke many a fan's heart, we still get that feeling in September as the days crawl toward the playoffs... At least, I still get that feeling. 

 

I admit that I'm not the fan I used to be, but I still enjoy following the game. For several years I have played Fantasy Baseball as a way of connecting with my brother, and because I am somewhat competitive (some would call that an understatement) I study pitching stats and stay current with who's hot and who's not. The name of my team, the Munger Mudcats, comes from a pitcher named Mudcat Grant, who was an ace for the Cleveland Indians when I was a kid. Grant was the only Indian who made the 1963 All Star team which I saw live in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Munger is the community I live in now. 

 

It's hard to say whether life is more like baseball, or that baseball is like life. Here are some quotes from one of many sources on the internet that collect such pearls.
 
“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there is a man on base “ ~ Dave Barry

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright; 
The band is playing somewhere; and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing; and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville-- mighty Casey has struck out.
~ Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Casey at the Bat
 
"You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.” ~ Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day

"Slump ? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hittin’.” ~ Yogi Berra

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many players on the field?“ ~ Jim Boulton 

"All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street folks will say, ‘There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived.’”
~ Ted Williams

"Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young.”
~ Roger Angell

"Cub fans, by consensus, are the best in baseball. Year after year, in good times and (mostly) bad, they turn out in vociferous numbers, sustaining themselves with a heavenly choir that combines loyalty, criticism, cheerfulness, durability, rage, beer and hope, in exquisite proportions.”
~ Roger Angell

"Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster.” ~ Joe Adcock

“They were starting to hit the dry side of the ball.”
~ Lew Burdette, on when he knew it was time to retire

“It’s designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything is new again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops, and leaves you to face the fall alone.”
~ A. Bartlett Giamatti, Comissioner of Baseball, 1989
 
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
~ Rogers Hornsby, Hall of Famer

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.” ~ Bob Feller
 
“I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball.”
~ Pete Rose

“When you’re in a slump, It’s almost as if you look out at the field and it’s one big glove.” ~ Vance Law
 
“The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don’t have to ask anyone or play politics. You don’t have to wait for the reviews.”
~ Sandy Koufax
 
“Nothing flatters me more than to have it assumed that I could write prose--unless it be to have it assumed that I once pitched a baseball with distinction.”
~ Robert Frost

Initially published in September 2008