A biography for Willie Stargellhasn’t been written yet.
“I've witnessed thousands of superior athletes try to becomes hitters and fail at it.”
“They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square.”
“People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life, you can't think about a future without it, so you hang on as long as you can.”
“To me, baseball has always been a reflection of life. Like life, it adjusts. It survives everything.”
“To be successful, one must take chances.”
“I don't really feel that I deserve all my applause.”
“I gave out stars whenever an appropriate situation presented itself.”
“You only have a few years to play this game and you can't play it if you're all tied up in knots.”
“Playing baseball was my dream, and no amount of money could sway my opinion.”
“If a reporter doesn't like the person he's writing about, it shows up in his article.”
“Baseball for me was instinctive, born within me, given to me as a gift from God.”
“I never did allow anything to keep me from my kids. They're the most important part of my life.”
“I found myself in a race with Mother Nature to play as much baseball as I could before she forced me to stop.”
“I love September, especially when we're in it.”
“It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know.”
“The Giants were a good team, but our biggest enemy was said to be Candlestick Park.”
“Reporters often forget that athletes are human beings.”
“There's nothing I value more than the closeness of friends and family, a smile as I pass someone on the street.”
“I'm a God-fearing man who worships with my heart and with my life.”
“Never had I had so many friends and so much fun as I did in the projects.”