Top 100 Ball Player Quotes
#1. I've always studied business. Even when I was a ball player, I'd read business journals and the business sections of newspapers.
Magic Johnson
#2. I started playing ball when I was a kid. My dad was a pro ball player and he passed on his knowledge to me.
Kurt Russell
#3. But I was so wrapped up in sports growing up as a kid, that I think I was going to grow to be a pro ball player. But I found out real quick that was not going to happen.
Tim McGraw
#4. A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues.
Joe DiMaggio
#5. I am a ball player in the summer and a farmer in the winter time, and I aim to be a success at both professions.
Zack Wheat
#6. Harriet pushed her hair back and looked at him seriously. 'Sport, what are you going to be when you grow up?'
'You know what. You know I'm going to be a ball player.'
'Well, I'm going to be a writer. And when I say that's a mountain, that's a mountain.' Satisfied, she turned back to her town.
Louise Fitzhugh
#7. 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.
Mickey Mantle
#8. If I would be happy, I would be a very bad ball player. With me, when I get mad, it puts energy in my body.
Roberto Clemente
#9. One of the hardest things for a ball player to do is to accept his role
Scottie Pippen
#10. I was not able to understand how it could be right to pay an actor, or a singer, or an instrumentalist for entertaining the public and wrong to pay a ball player for doing exactly the same thing.
Al Spalding
#11. Son, no matter where your talent takes you, you're going to be a man a lot longer than you're going to be a ball player. Knowledge is the only true power. Learn all you can.
Stephanie Evanovich
#12. I hope I haven't maxed out, because I'm not satisfied. I hope I can be a better ball player, and I hope I'm on my way.
Scott Rolen
#13. I was not successful as a ball player, as it was a game of skill.
Casey Stengel
#14. I never wanted all this hoopla. All I wanted was to be a good ball player and hit twenty-five or thirty homers, drive in a hundred runs, hit .280 and help my club win pennants. I just wanted to be one of the guys, an average player having a good season.
Roger Maris
#15. To be a big league ball player, you have to love the game.
Enos Slaughter
#16. A lot of the moves I make originate from futsal. It's played in a very small space, and the ball control is different in futsal. And to this day my ball control is pretty similar to a futsal player's control.
Ronaldinho
#17. College coaches want to power the ball inside, they want (their post players) to power the ball up, but no one can shoot from that 15-foot area anymore.
Oscar Robertson
#18. Training's completely different now. It used to be a lot of running and work without the ball. Now it's all with the ball, which any player loves.
Frank Lampard
#19. For a 7-iron, you never want the ball to be closer to your left heel than just slightly ahead of the mid-point of your stance. That's especially true if you're a tall player, like me.
Ernie Els
#20. Chris Paul is one of the brightest stars in the National Basketball Association, a must-see player with the New Orleans Hornets whose deft ball skills and eye-popping speed have attracted admirers all over the world.
Don Yaeger
#21. My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor.
Bowden Wyatt
#22. A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player's personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team.
Pat Riley
#23. You get into pro ball and you realize all the guys were the best players on their teams. You have to keep moving forward.
Matt Holliday
#24. There are players that try to imitate others, but at free-kick time it is a personal thing. Every person has their own technique and routine when they stand over the ball and I have mine, I am not trying to copy anyone.
Neymar
#25. Scholes was England's best football player. It was impossible to take the ball from him, and he never mishit a pass.
Sven-Goran Eriksson
#26. I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.
Johan Cruijff
#27. I'm busy working on every aspect of my game - defense, shooting, rebounding - but I really want to become a better overall team player. Help my teammates become better players out on the court in order to win more ball games.
Kevin Durant
#28. How wonderful it is to celebrate a 27 years career! When you moved from basket ball to music, the world of sports lost a great player, but music won a great singer. You transmit good vibrations, a wonderful energy on the stage.
Simone Bittencourt De Oliveira
#29. I'm not one to blow smoke at my players. They kicked our butts on the offensive boards. And it's not just because the ball came their way.
Gregg Popovich
#30. Put your two best players away from the ball and bring it back to them.
Don Meyer
#31. For me, Paul Scholes has been the best midfield player in the Premier League. By a mile. He has the lot. He scores and creates goals, he can pass the ball, he can head it, and rounds all this off with a competitive streak.
Alan Shearer
#32. Baseball players or cricketers do not need to be able to solve explicitly the non-linear differential equations which govern the flight of the ball. They just catch it.
Paul Ormerod
#33. The angle from which the line and ball are seen makes a tremendous difference in the call, and the player who is inclined to fret inwardly about decisions should realize this.
Helen Wills Moody
#34. Having Messi in the team guarantees everything. He doesn't just score, he gives assists, and he works and wins the ball. He is the best player in the world.
Sergio Busquets
#35. In golf, a player can step and mar the line of his adversary's putt. A player can also hit his adversary or his caddie intentionally with his ball and claim the hole - but it isn't usually done.
Charles Brown MacDonald
#36. Ronaldo was my hero. I loved watching players like Zidane, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, but Ronaldo was the best striker I've ever seen. He was so fast he could score from nothing and could shoot the ball better than anyone I've ever seen.
Lionel Messi
#37. Bad putting is due more to the effect the green has upon the player than it has upon the action of the ball.
Bobby Jones
#38. Billy Loes was the only player in the majors who could lose a ground ball in the sun
Joe Garagiola
#39. Greaseball, greaseball, greaseball, that's all I throw him (Rod Carew), and he still hits them. He's the only player in baseball who consistently hits my grease. He sees the ball so well, I guess he can pick out the dry side.
Gaylord Perry
#40. Someone who has juggled the ball in the air during a game, after which four defenders of the opponent get the time to run back, that's the player people think is great. I say he has to go to a circus.
Johan Cruijff
#41. My first ball I ever got from a Big League player I actually got to purchase in Dodger Stadium in a silent auction, was Reggie Jackson.
Pedro Martinez
#42. I love Courtney Lee. He's a very good player. I know that sounds very simple, but it's true. He does things well. He's a good defender, a great team defender, and he shoots the ball very well.
Doc Rivers
#43. Scholesy was a genius, absolute genius. He was a center-forward's dream, you could make a run and he'd put the ball perfectly in your path. Any footballer you ask will always tell you that Scholesy was one of the best players they've ever played with.
Michael Owen
#44. Barcelona players are passing the ball at least 25 times to reach the goal, while Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso is doing this all in a single pass.
Roberto Mancini
#45. The last player you want the ball to go to is the best player on the planet.
Steven Gerrard
#46. I think there's an awful lot of ball players with great skills, but whether or not they're going to be on winning teams is not going to be answered until you see how they fit in to a team or a program. If they don't, it may be their fault or it may be their coaches.
Tex Winter
#47. At football games the other students would cheer the star black running back, and then when a black player on the other team got the ball, they'd yell, "Kill that nigger! Kill that nigger!" They would yell this sitting right next to her, as though she really were not there.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
#48. There is nothing you can be doing in lacrosse on your own in the fall that would be better for you than going to football or soccer practice every day. You can go bang a ball against a wall all you want, but how do you become a better team player? By playing other team sports.
Dom Starsia
#49. I was a baseball player. I played in high school and a little bit in college. I was a catcher. I don't know if I could have played any other position. As a catcher, you're always on the ball.
Tim DeKay
#50. Paul Scholes has been the best England midfield player for 30-odd years. You'd probably have to go back to Bobby Charlton to find someone who could do as much as Scholes. When the ball arrives at his feet he could tell you where every player on that pitch is at that moment. His awareness is superb.
Gordon Strachan
#51. When you're in between the white lines, the game face is on. I was only focused on the task at hand - out, safe, ball, strike - leaving little time to think about how special a player, moment or game happened to be.
Doug Harvey
#52. I have a tendency, especially when I'm playing with great players, to try and get them the ball.
Steve Nash
#53. Your job is to umpire for the ball and not the player.
Bill Klem
#54. When Cristiano Ronaldo gets the ball, you can just leave him to it while he beats player after player.
Ryan Giggs
#55. I believe in my heart I'm the best player in the world. I'm just a scorer. I try to put the ball in the basket for my team. I'm just confident in my ability to play ball.
Allen Iverson
#56. Well I can't rightly say (which player hit the ball hardest), but the ones (home runs by) Ruth hit got smaller quicker.
Walter Johnson
#57. A ball feels different off every player's racket-there are minute but concrete subtleties of force and spin. Now, hitting with her (Steffi Graf), I feel her subtleties. It's like touching her, though we're forty feet apart. Every forehand is foreplay.
Andre Agassi
#58. Everyone wants to be known as a great striker of the ball for some reason. Nobody wants to be called a lucky, one-putting s.o.b.
Gary Player
#59. Rather than opera, football is more like ballet or a chess game. You can really see it in a team like Arsenal, especially when Dennis Bergkamp was playing. He seemed to be able to read the game like a chessboard and knew where a player would be several seconds later and put the ball there for him.
Marcus Du Sautoy
#60. Yelling doesn't win ball games. It doesn't put any points on the scoreboard. And I don't think words win ball games all the time. Players do. Preparation does.
Jerry Tarkanian
#61. Possessing an array of athletic gifts is something most tennis players can only dream about. Most players, if they're lucky, have one attribute that stands out
either a monster serve, great footspeed, superb touch, superior timing or innate feel for the ball.
Dave McPherson
#62. The more you know about your opponents, the more you learn how to beat them. Where the holes open to run through, blocking schemes, even down to player tendencies and what hand they like to carry the ball with.
Ray Lewis
#63. When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average ... So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you're a good player or not.
Johan Cruijff
#64. We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You'll get it back in no time.
Johan Cruijff
#65. Players taught to watch the man with the ball leaves them totally unprepared for the next move, which is always dictated by a player without the ball.
Tommy Docherty
#66. I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.
Muddy Waters
#67. I've always considered myself a crunch-time player. I just love having the ball in my hands. Everyone in the arena knows the ball is supposed to be in your hands and you still make it. It's the odds. I love the odds.
Reggie Miller
#68. Our offensive philosophy is to simply find a way to get the ball into the hands of our team's best player.
Kelvin Sampson
#69. Zidane is unique. The ball flows with him. He is more like a dancer than a football player.
Zinedine Zidane
#70. In soccer, the blindest player is the one who sees nothing but the ball.
Nelson Rodrigues
#71. Few golfers are born with the natural talent for hitting the ball, but every player is blessed with the God-given ability to throw a club.
Henry Beard
#72. I feel like I have everything else as far as being creative and athletic. But it's the little things that's going to push me over, like ball-handling, passing, boxing out when I'm setting screens. Little things like that that you would overlook that can make me a complete player.
Derrick Rose
#73. No one had to tell me I was never going to be a home run hitter. I was hitting the same ball as the rest of the players, but when the big guys cracked one, it went out of the park. Mine went out of the infield.
Nellie Fox
#74. The proper method of playing mixed doubles is to swipe the ball accidentally and straight at the woman opponent as hard and as accurately as possible. Male players must not only retain equanimity on their side of the net, but create dissension on the other.
Art Hoppe
#75. When I see Messi - who is the best player in the world in my opinion - lose the ball, he runs off until he gets it back or commits a foul. Our guys lose the ball and fold their arms.
Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva
#76. Owners want to make their team a winner so they can get more fans in the stands, and that's why they go after the best ball-players and pay 'em what they're worth.
Moses Malone
#77. My reality was that if there was a defenseless player, if that person didn't touch the ball, I would not hit them. I was not going to strike you if you didn't have an opportunity to get the ball.
Willie Lanier
#78. In regards to core training, I try to incorporate the medicine ball whenever possible. As a baseball player, there is a lot of twisting and turning that I will do. Keeping my abs strong is as important as anything else.
Albert Pujols
#79. I'm a selfish football player. Each time the ball is snapped, I tell myself that I want to make that tackle, make that big play.
Jevon Kearse
#80. I hope that more [African-Americans] decide to play after seeing the things that I was able to accomplish; not only myself, but other African-American players. Hopefully, they pick up a bat and a ball and go out there and play.
Dontrelle Willis
#81. I'm one of those players that I think I can do what's asked of me. Whether it's putting the ball in the basket, rebounding the ball, diving on the floor, making other people better, I'm willing to do anything just to win.
Lamar Odom
#82. I'm proud of the fact that I'm the only player to hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium.
Willie Stargell
#83. I'm not a person or a selfish player, but we have to move the ball more, and we have to look further the team game, because we have enough talent to use different players.
Pau Gasol
#84. The best have the courage and I say this all the time. The courage to take the ball all the time, the courage to make sure that they are not going to be intimidated by their opponents, and the courage to express themselves at all times and I think that all the great players have got that.
Alex Ferguson
#85. The average player has the ball for only 53.4 seconds every game (according to Chris Carling, the English performance analyst at Lille in France) so any player's main job is to occupy the right positions for the other eighty-nine minutes and 6.6 seconds.
Simon Kuper
#86. Somebody once said that good conversation should be like a tennis match, with each player gracefully sending the ball back across the net; instead, most conversation is like a golf game, with each player stroking only his own ball, and waiting impatiently for the other to finish.
Sydney J. Harris
#87. Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.
Pele
#88. I appreciate this moment in time ... ball players and actors be knowing my rhymes
Common
#89. The player who puts the ball through the hoop has ten hands.
John Wooden
#90. Life is a game. To be a world changer choose to be the player and not the ball
Mofoluwaso Ilevbare
#91. Writing a long sentence is like watching a soccer player in slow motion as he kicks the ball across the field, as I leave a trail of dots and loops behind me.
James Rumford
#92. With a versatile player, there's no spot on the court you can't pass him the ball. You can do anything.
Kevin Durant
#93. I sometimes have the feeling that her entire life was merely a continuation of her mother's, much as the course of a ball on the billiard table is merely the continuation of the player's arm movement.
Milan Kundera
#94. If you're a good experienced player, you wknow what it takes to do. If you're in trouble, you know how to change. One hundred percent of my game is instinct. I never stop and think I'm going to hit a ball crosscourt or down the line. I just do it.
Bjorn Borg
#96. The first good player I watched as a kid was Joe DiMaggio, and that was like ballet. Since then, I played sandlot and college ball and came to understand how difficult it can be.
Mario Cuomo
#97. I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.
Glenn Hoddle
#98. Scholesy is one of my favourite players of all time. He was a great professional who had everything and I used to love playing with him. You could give him the ball in any position, he would take one touch and you would know exactly what the next move would be. [ ... ] He was magical, pure class.
Paul Gascoigne
#99. All I can do is do my best work, try to create the best kind of moment to moment reality that I can do. That's what I do. I'm an actor. And all the rest of it is like baseball. You hit the ball. Sometimes it goes in the hole. Sometimes it goes to the player.
Tobin Bell
#100. In going for the last shot of the game most people wait too long to take the shot. Give yourself a chance to get the first shot and tap the ball in. Your players are normally inside the defense.
Norm Sloan
