Playing Ball Quotes

#1. I never want to quit playing ball. They'll have to cut this uniform off of me to get me out of it.

Roy Campanella

#2. The beauty of where I'm from - this small little town called Wallburg, North Carolina - I didn't have a TV; I was out playing ball with my dad, shooting clay pigeons.

Jill Wagner

#3. 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

#4. When I spent time with my father, it wasn't playing ball in the back yard. I came to his office and listened to him do business or sat in on meetings. I walked job sites. On Saturday, we'd see my grandfather in Queens for a couple hours, and then he'd say, 'Let's go collect rent!'

Donald Trump Jr.

#5. I want to do as little as possible when I finish playing ball - just spend a lot more time with my family.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#6. I never had only one job. I was either playing ball or writing or doing TV or modeling.

Gabrielle Reece

#7. I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act.

Willie Mays

#8. I'm a musician - I'm always making music. Kobe Bryant is always playing ball. Well, Snoop Dogg is always recording.

Snoop Dogg

#9. In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.

Hank Aaron

#10. A boy cannot begin playing ball too early. I might almost say that while he is still creeping on all fours he should have a bouncing rubber ball.

Christy Mathewson

#11. If I knew this was what I was gonna get out of playing ball, I would have picked it up years ago.

Eve Jagger

#12. I'm super into sneakers! I'm totally addicted. Just from playing ball all the time. I was always looking for the freshest kicks on the court.

Dexter Darden

#13. I started playing ball when I was 13 and a half. Before that, I just wanted to play football and baseball but I kept growing so I figured it was time for basketball.

Moses Malone

#14. How can I play baseball if I'm stupid? If I was stupid I wouldn't have pitched in the World Series. I'd be playing ball in Mexico or Yugoslavia or on Pluto.

Joaquin Andujar

#15. We're out playing ball in the gym, I put boogers on the basketball and pass it to him.

Biz Markie

#16. I'm just playing ball. Trying not to think about it too much.

Buster Posey

#17. Want loud and messy and crazy. I want crayons on the wall and bicycles in the driveway and playing ball in the backyard. I want to teach my kids to read and climb trees and drive a standard. I want noise and laughter and yelling and the kind of love that can't ever be broken.

Shannon Stacey

#18. My entire life has been an attempt to get back to the kind of feelings you have on a field. The sense of brotherhood, the esprit de corps, the focus - there being no past or future, just the ball. As trite as it sounds, I was happiest playing ball.

David Duchovny

#19. I don't plan on writing biographies of great sports stars who are still playing ball. But I did write one on Jackie Robinson, who was playing ball in the 20th century.

David A. Adler

#20. Infield practice is more mystic ritual than preparation, encouraging the big-leaguer, no less than the duffer in the stands, to believe in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that playing ball is a snap.

Roger Angell

#21. October, that's when they pay off for playing ball.

Reggie Jackson

#22. Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that.

Nomar Garciaparra

#23. You, me, & your papa are 3 of the tiny percentage of souls on this miserable earth who've figured out that playing ball is the highest purpose God ever invented the human male body for.

David James Duncan

#24. Thinking back, perhaps it took me longer than it should have to guess that he wasn't playing ball, so to speak. In fact, he actually had to punch me in the face get me off him - although he was very apologetic about it afterward.

Sophie Kinsella

#25. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of this desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring woods:-in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No worldly discussion is necessary, or any explanation.

D.T. Suzuki

#26. While all the other kids were out playing ball and stuff, I used to stay in my room and imagine that there was a camera in the wall. And I used to really believe that I was putting on a television show and that it was going out to somewhere in the world.

Andy Kaufman

#27. He had a passion for cricket right from his childhood and liked nothing else but playing with the bat and the ball. I wanted him to study hard and get into a government service. But, he wanted to do something in cricket and earn a name for himself.

Bill Vaughan

#28. If you only ever like people you don't know and who don't know you, the ball is perpetually in their court. Only they don't realize that you think they're playing basketball with you. They are not actually at the court. You think you're there. But really you're not there, either.

Katie Heaney

#29. By doing that and being very competitive, the grown-ups started telling me even back before I started playing organized ball that I was too physical and too advanced for the kids my own age.

Bo Jackson

#30. I experimented a bunch with Ernie Ball in getting the strings to not flop around too much, but at the same time not to be too thick to where you're playing telephone cables.

John Petrucci

#31. 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

#32. I was playing in the league when Ray Guy was playing in the league. He was the best kicker I've ever seen. He could bullet that ball 70 yards.

Gale Sayers

#33. You don't need a ball to play football; all you need is a strong wish! After then, you can use even a stone as a ball! For all other things you want to do, all you need is a strong wish!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#34. When I was a kid, I used to try and hit every ball out of the ground. After playing one-day cricket and Test cricket, I never thought I'd get a chance to play like that again, ever. Twenty20 has given me the opportunity of playing like a kid again. I can just feel free and go out there and hit.

Yuvraj Singh

#35. When I was younger, I used to bite my nails so bad. I used to play sports; I played, like, every sport. I would be playing soccer, and I'd be in the middle of the field just zoned out, biting my nails, and I'd, like, miss the ball going past me.

Kendall Jenner

#36. The day I think about throwing the ball away at the beginning of a play, I should stop playing.

Robert Griffin III

#37. 'Madden' is all about speed, and the Falcons have it on both sides of the ball. I love playing sports games. I played my PlayStation so much, I pretty much wore it out.

Carl Crawford

#38. At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.

Willie Mays

#39. Too many kids today are playing major league ball and don't belong there.

Joe DiMaggio

#40. One way and another I was having a ball - playing gigs, jamming and listening to fine musicians. Then came a crisis at home. My stepfather fell sick, and it meant I had to support the family.

Mary Lou Williams

#41. The way I grew up playing, and the way most Americans have grown up, is that you hit the ball up in the air and then it stops where it lands.

David Duval

#42. Playing on turf affects everything, you know, it affects the way the ball rolls, it affects the way the ball bounces, it affects the way you think about whether or not going into a slide. It's kind of a nightmare.

Abby Wambach

#43. The practice of our democracy depends on a sense of, and knowledge of, history in the same way that playing in the World Series requires a bat and a ball.

Lewis H. Lapham

#44. 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

#45. The first time I saw Giggsy, he was playing for Salford Boys against United's apprentices. He was thin and wiry but he just glided past four of our apprentices as if they weren't even there, then he put the ball in the back of the net. I just thought 'This kid's an absolute natural'

Bryan Robson

#46. 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

#47. For me, the worst part of playing golf, by far, has always been hitting the ball.

Dave Barry

#48. I used to store my anger and it affected my play. Now I get it out. I'm never rude to my playing partner. I'm very focused on the ball. Then it's over.

Helen Alfredsson

#49. I feel more comfortable with the ball in my hands, playing the point guard. But I like playing the 2, too. I think I bring tough defense and the ability to score and also get my teammates the ball to score.

Willie Green

#50. My mind started wandering. I started playing carefully, instead of playing the way that had gotten me to that point. I had to force myself to keep driving the ball.

Tracy Austin

#51. I was playing golf. I swung, missed the ball, and got a big chunk of dirt. I swung again, missed the ball, and got another big chunk of dirt. Just then, 2 ants climbed on the ball saying, "Let's get up here before we get killed!"

Henny Youngman

#52. Like many men who play tennis, when I hit a ball into the net, I tend to look daggers at my racket, reproaching it for playing so badly when I myself have been trying so hard.

Craig Brown

#53. Every time I went away I was deceiving my mum. I'd tell her I was going to school but I'd be out on the street playing football. I always had a ball on my feet.

Ronaldo

#54. Just the other day someone threw a bra duct-taped to a tennis ball. I just stood there, playing guitar, thinking how this was totally premeditated. Some girl sat around inventing a way to get her bra onstage from 40 rows back.

Dave Grohl

#55. The day I left baseball, I became smart. When I was in baseball, I played for the love of the game. I'd sign any contract they gave me. But then I stopped playing and began doing interviews with the players at the ball park. I began to see the light.

Chuck Connors

#56. Remember, if you don't have a goal you're not playing football, you're just kicking a ball around the park.

Geoff Thompson

#57. Hole in One: an occurence in which a ball is hit directly from the tee into the hole in a single shot by a golfer playing alone.

Henry Beard

#58. I was drawn to street photography because there are pictures everywhere there: a woman holding a dog, a baby screaming to be put in a pram, kids playing punch ball, stores with huge barrels of kosher pickles outside. I wanted to photograph life, and here it was.

Harold Feinstein

#59. The only rule is that you can't cross this line. If the ball hits you, you're
out. If someone catches a ball you throw, you're out. We'll keep playing until there are five of you left," Dinkleman explained.
I thought to myself, "What the fuck? That was like, four rules, not one.

Phil Wohl

#60. Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness ... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.

Blaise Pascal

#61. Since a month, two months ago, you know, I've started hitting the ball well. I'm playing some really good tennis. That really helps. I sort of have to motivate myself to get pumped up. It really helps my game a lot.

Stefan Edberg

#62. You don't need to play every ball but every ball needs your judgement.

Amit Ray

#63. Complexity can be a trap. You can have a ball developing a phrase, inverting it, playing it in different keys and times and all. But it's really more introspective than communicative. Like a crossword puzzle compared to a poem.

Paul Desmond

#64. What I say about actors is you always want to find an actor you can play ball with. You throw the ball at them and you want them to throw it back. Your ball playing is a lot better when you play with good ballplayers, like any sport. Every actor I know feels the same way.

Robert Knepper

#65. When I walked out on the mound, I felt enclosed. You see, I'd been used to playing on pastures, where when somebody hit a ball you had to stop it from rolling. Well, this field had fences around it.

Ted Lyons

#66. Hit the ball pretty solid. Haven't played a lot of golf this year, so was really unsure of what it would be like. I've been playing pretty well lately, especially hitting the ball solid.

Trent Dilfer

#67. I grew up playing on unprepared surfaces where your wicket depended on quickly adapting to the bounce. As a kid, I could never differentiate off-spin from leg-spin. All I looked to do was to try to hit the ball before it pitched.

Gautam Gambhir

#68. Last year they came in and won the game; that's how I would define it. Revenge is never on our mind. What's on our mind is playing defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball, and running our transition game.

Karl Hobbs

#69. I have three younger siblings, so the four of us were outside all the time after school playing games, making up games. My sister made up a game called 'roof ball.' We'd play that constantly. She always beat me in it, and it made me very mad. But we were outside all the time.

Andrew Luck

#70. When the coach told me I was playing, I said: 'We're going to Brazil.' It doesn't matter how. If I'd had to score with my hand, the ball would have been in the back of the net.

Mamadou Sakho

#71. How you play the game is for college ball. When you're playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters.

Leo Durocher

#72. On the best tactic when playing alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- Just give him the ball.

Magic Johnson

#73. In playing or managing, the game of ball is only fun for me when I'm out in front and winning. I don't give a hill of beans for the rest of the game.

John McGraw

#74. Golf is me and buddies out having a good time, but most of all, golf is about me and my dad. Anytime I think of golf, I think about my dad. He taught me how to hit a golf ball, and he got me playing.

Justin Timberlake

#75. I give everything I have every time I take the ball. With that, I also know that there will always be a risk of injury when playing this game that I love.

Masahiro Tanaka

#76. Onstage, you just have to tell the absolute truth about the character you are playing. You hope you communicate it, and you hope it comes back like a tennis ball. If you're listening to the sound of your own voice, nobody else is. The audience knows, and they freeze on you.

Carol Channing

#77. My first memories are from when I was very little, maybe three or four years old playing in my neighbourhood at home. I can picture myself with the ball at my feet from a very young age.

Lionel Messi

#78. When the effort is in question, the ball goes in different directions and the ball doesn't always bounce your way. When you're playing in the home of the NBA champions, it isn't going to be easy.

Ray Allen

#79. Giving advice is like playing pinball: only by pushing and pulling can you encourage the ball to go in a new direction and increase your score. But too much pushing and pulling can cause a tilt and stop the game.

Chip R. Bell

#80. When I was about 16, I got my ball taken off me by the police for playing in the street - which is pathetic really.

Wayne Rooney

#81. But there is a difference between playing well and hitting the ball well. Hitting the ball well is about thirty percent of it. The rest is being comfortable with the different situations on the course.

Mickey Wright

#82. The street is where we all learn. I played organized football growing up as well, but when that was over, I went right to the street. I remember twisting my ankles, breaking my thumb, I hurt everything when I was little playing street ball.

Champ Bailey

#83. I could always throw the ball pretty well and I worked pretty hard at learning how to play the game. But I didn't consider it work as a kid, since I just loved playing baseball.

Jim Abbott

#84. I know when I've been playing a lot of golf it takes me a while to get back into cricket again. It's not so much the different shape of the swings, more the fact that you are stationary when you hit a golf ball. In cricket you have to move forward or back, which is an instinctive timing thing.

Ricky Ponting

#85. The only real happiness a ballplayer has is when he is playing a ball game and accomplishes something he didn't think he could do.

Ring Lardner

#86. 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

#87. I think there's a lot of different things that factor into playing good defense, and you just can't say, "All right, if we just hold on to the ball long enough, we're going to play good defense."

Chip Kelly

#88. I have a tendency, especially when I'm playing with great players, to try and get them the ball.

Steve Nash

#89. When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside.

Bobby Knight

#90. To catch the ball, face up, look at all of my options and then pass. I was playing hot potato. I didn't want to be the guy to stall the triangle.

Karl Malone

#91. I loved playing football. In this particular match the ball happened to hit my right eye, the only one which I could see light and colour with.

Andrea Bocelli

#92. Doctors of ancient times used to recommend reading to their patients as a physical exercise on an equal level as walking, running, or ball-playing.

Jean Leclercq

#93. Contours on the second half of a long putt have more impact on how the ball rolls because it's going slower. Adjust your speed if that last part is playing uphill or downhill. Don't get fooled by an early slope or break.

Ernie Els

#94. Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn't thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I'm just happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn't paid to be a professional footballer I would willingly play for nothing.

Lionel Messi

#95. Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, has long believed that he, his staff and players should be as devoted to family time as they are to playing time, as focused on giving to charities as they are to taking the ball away from opponents.

Don Yaeger

#96. I was the kid who always liked to take the ball down to the school even in my free time, kick it against the wall, juggle it in the front yard and so it was kind of a perpetual state of playing soccer for me.

Brandi Chastain

#97. You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football - for me, at least.

Xavi

#98. The best advice I can give for playing a ball out of water is - don't.

Tony Lema

#99. I approach football like a street-ball game, like I'm playing with the fellas in the yard.

Simeon Rice

#100. Playing rugby at school I once fell on a loose ball and, through ignorance and fear, held on despite a fierce pummelling. After that it took me months to convince my team-mates I was a coward.

Peter Cook