Inning Quotes

#1. It is an old baseball joke that big-inning baseball is affirmed in the Bible, in Genesis. In the big inning, God created ...

George Will

#2. I remember one game when I pitched in Yankee Stadium and gave up five runs in the first inning. It would have been easy to quit, but I shut 'em out the rest of the way, and we came back and won the game.

Hal Newhouser

#3. I threw so hard (after striking out Art Fletcher & Doc Crandall in the 9th inning of Game 1 of the 1912 World Series) I thought my arm would fly right off my body.

Smoky Joe Wood

#4. I'd love to play in a Red Sox game. It would be so awesome to actually walk out on the field and play, just for one inning. I'd also steal everything I could get my hands on in the clubhouse, which is why they won't let me do it.

Denis Leary

#5. There is nothing like Ruth ever existed in this game of baseball. I remember we were playing the White Sox in Boston in 1919, and he hit a home run off Lefty Williams over the left-field fence in the ninth inning and won the game. It was majestic. It soared.

Waite Hoyt

#6. Analyzing baseball yields many numbers of interest and value. Yet far and away- far, far and away- the most critical number in all of baseball is 3: the three outs that define an inning. Until the third out, anything is possible; after it, nothing is. [Eric Walker]

Michael Lewis

#7. In the 8th inning you can't hear the roar of the 9th, all you can do to hold yourself together, and trust.

Jim Abbott

#8. During the 1920s New York Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert once described his perfect afternoon at Yankee Stadium. 'It's when the Yankees score eight runs in the first inning,' Ruppert said, 'and then slowly pull away.'

Peter Golenbock

#9. I felt good in the bullpen and even when we came out in the first inning I felt fairly good.

Cat Osterman

#10. We're going to be there for every inning. Not just the peaks and valleys.

Dee Henderson

#11. Performances will determine who actually ends up being the eighth-inning guy.

Brad Ausmus

#12. I would love to say that I have an eighth-inning guy, a seventh-inning guy, a left-handed guy, a long guy.

Brad Ausmus

#13. I like to go see a ball game. I'll have seven, eight, nine - 10 beers, and the second inning will roll around, and I gotta go.

Doug Benson

#14. Baseball is continuity. Pitch to pitch. Inning to inning. Season to season.

Ernie Harwell

#15. Is it in the best interest of baseball to sell beer in the ninth inning? Probably not. The rule has got to be more clearly defined. And then some process should be set up where the judge is not also the appeals judge.

George Steinbrenner

#16. I know in the heat of battle, it's hard not to get angry, especially in the 19th inning.

Joe Torre

#17. There's almost nothing worse than spending an entire day anticipating watching a Yankees vs. Red Sox game, only to have the score be 9-0 in the third inning.

Tucker Elliot

#18. Turning seventy is like beginning the eighth inning of a baseball game. The contest is nearing completion, but there's likely to be some action, and even a few exciting plays, before the game draws to an end.

Mardy Grothe

#19. Sometimes when things happen, it's best to run. Solve the problem later, don't think about it then, just run.

Statement from my character, Brian Cain, in the upcoming book, The Final Inning, Dark Days Ahead.

Ernest Grant

#20. But I'm not going to walk Barry Bonds, like some teams do, in the first inning with nobody on.

Frank Robinson

#21. READ! Books can be as delicious as hot-fudge sundaes, as funny as clowns, as exciting as a baseball game that's tied in the 9th inning, and as beautiful as the best sunset you ever saw.

Judith Viorst

#22. Baseball is great because anything can happen through the ninth inning.

Richard M. Nixon

#23. Life's like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you wake up and find out it's the ninth inning.

Martin Goldsmith

#24. I walk into the clubhouse today and it's like walking into the Mayo Clinic. We have four doctors, three therapists and five trainers. Back when I broke in, we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and by the 7th inning he'd already drunk it.

Tommy Lasorda

#25. Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

Andrew Bacevich

#26. You get to the ninth inning and your stomach is clear up to here. But it's not because of your job. It is because you want to win so badly.

Terry Francona

#27. If the World Series runs until election day, the networks will run the first one-half inning and project the winner.

Lindsey Nelson

#28. The ballgame is over ... in this inning.

Jerry Coleman

#29. I really believe that what happens one day affects the next, and I think that came from that experience of learning that if I told the score inning by inning, play by play, it built up to its natural climax.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

#30. The Cards lead the Dodgers 4-2 after one inning and that one hasn't even started.

Jerry Coleman

#31. (T)his could be the big inning of a wonderful friendship.

Neal Shusterman

#32. During the fifth inning, something came to the edge of the woods and looked at her. Flies and noseeums made a cloud around its rudiment of a face. In the specious brilliance of its eyes was a complete history of nothing. It stood there for a long time.

Stephen King

#33. I love you, Derek!"
Jason tried to drag Haley back to her seat, but she fought him tooth and nail.
"I love you, Derek!"
"He knows, woman! He's known since the first inning. Let the man focus," he
said.

R.L. Mathewson

#34. Trailing 5-1, the Padres added an insurance run in the eighth inning.

Jerry Coleman

#35. People think the leadoff spot is a big deal. I tell people you're going to lead off the first inning, and after that, you can be a No. 4 hitter or No. 3 hitter.

Andruw Jones

#36. If I've got a good pinch-hitter, I hate to have him stay on the bench with men on the bases in an early inning. He may end the game right there.

Casey Stengel

#37. I have to do a better job of minimizing the damage in that inning and getting us back in there with the lead still.

Clay Buchholz

#38. I'm me on the mound. I like to show my emotion, be real aggressive and give everything I've got for one half inning. I don't have to act. What you see on the mound is what I am in real life.

Eric Gagne

#39. Coming into a game in the eighth or ninth inning is like parachuting behind enemy lines. And sometimes the chute doesn't open. You have to live with that. It's an occupational hazard.

Dan Quisenberry

#40. And my parents don't want me to tell my grandmother - who, let's be honest, is already in the bottom of the ninth inning, age-wise - that

Robin Benway

#41. I never understood that when I heard people retire - they said they missed being around the guys. I don't have a need to make a play in the ninth inning of a game anymore. But being on the inside and being part of a team is something that you really do value and you really do miss.

Cal Ripken Jr.

#42. You never know when you're going to throw a no-hitter or if you're ever going to get the chance to do it. It's one of those deals where the ninth inning comes around; it's either going to be your night or just a complete game.

Jon Lester

#43. The game in St. Louis has been halted in the fourth inning because of rain. I'll bet they have the jacuzzis going there.

Jerry Coleman

#44. I am convinced that the reason so many fans leave Dodger Stadium after the seventh inning is that they become bored.

Armand Deutsch

#45. We've got to decide, how much replay do we want? Because if you start doing it from the first inning to the ninth inning, you may have to time the game with a calendar.

Joe Torre

#46. It's never over. You don't want to be in the position to be down four runs in the ninth inning, but it's not over until the last out.

Derek Jeter