Baseball

Black sports icons impart wit and wisdom in these timeless quotes on the All-American game of baseball.

All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit.
Hank Aaron

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution.
Hank Aaron

I don't recall a day this year or last when I did not hear the name of Babe Ruth.
Hank Aaron

I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.
Hank Aaron

I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week.
Hank Aaron

I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
Hank Aaron

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.
Hank Aaron

I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and running 99 yards for a touchdown.
Hank Aaron

I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him.
Hank Aaron

It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
Hank Aaron

On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.
Hank Aaron

The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I've been shooting it ever since.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Hank Aaron

The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.
Hank Aaron

You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.
Hank Aaron