Mickey Mantle

“Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.”

“When I hit a home run I usually didn't care where it went. So long as it was a home run was all that mattered.”

“Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'”

“I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.”

“I could never be a manager. All I have is natural ability.”

“The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game.”

“Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.”

“Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was.”

“Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.”

“You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.”

“After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.”

“As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due.”

“Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball.”

“I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.”

“It was all I lived for, to play baseball.”

“Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.”

“He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie.”

“A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.”

“To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.”

“If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.”