Quotes About Shortstop

#1. Different styles work for different guys ... If you can handle shortstop and hit, teams will find a way to pencil you into the lineup.

Cal Ripken Jr.

#2. I played Little League. I was a 'pitcher.' But we had a pitching machine, so I was just basically an 'in-infield' shortstop because all I got to do was field bloopers six feet from the plate. I couldn't hit, so that was pretty much my entire job.

Freddie Prinze Jr.

#3. I just wanted to be like my dad, Jesus. He was a good shortstop.

Johan Santana

#4. The Phillies in the 1960s had shortstop Bobby Wine and second baseman Cookie Rojas, a period known as the Days of Wine and Rojas.

Tim Kurkjian

#5. I have the greatest job in the world. Only one person can have it. You have shortstops on other teams - I'm not knocking other teams - but there's only one shortstop on the Yankees.

Derek Jeter

#6. Playing shortstop is 75 to 80 percent anticipation, knowing the hitter and the pitch being thrown.

Lou Boudreau

#7. Despite the loud booing from Shari and Greg, Bird managed to punch the ball past the shortstop for a single.
"Lucky hit!" Greg yelled, cupping his hands into a megaphone.
Bird pretended not to hear him.

R.L. Stine

#8. I feel a lot more comfortable at shortstop, but it's no problem, I'll move to make room.

Jose Reyes

#9. There's so much attached to playing shortstop that you lose your concentration on hitting, unless you're a natural hitter. There's so much to think about in the field, you don't have time to think about what you did at the plate last time. 'How did he get me out?'

Lou Boudreau

#10. What is the top requirement for a second baseman? A fine shortstop. I am fortunate in having the greatest shortstop in baseball, Luis Aparicio.

Nellie Fox

#11. The overall thinking of the shortstop covers the overall context of the ballgame. You have to know the count they'll hit-and-run on. You're thinking of the speed, not only of the runner at first base, but the runner at the plate. You have to know how fast the pitcher is on a particular day.

Lou Boudreau

#12. Jill continues: "I scored a top-10 shortstop by getting rid of two players I had planned to drop and, oh yes, a blow job that I never ever planned to give.

Matthew Berry

#13. There's just not a lot of inventory, and to find a shortstop or a catcher, or a centerfielder, that you think that could stay at those positions ... they're very hard to acquire. Sometimes you have to overpay for them, because of that lack of inventory.

Kevin Towers

#14. I'd like to be remembered. I'd like to think that someday two guys will be talking in a bar and one of them will say something like, 'Yeah, he's a good shortstop, but he's not as good as ole Ripken was.'

Cal Ripken Jr.

#15. My dad had been shortstop when he was in college, and you know, when you're a kid, you want to be just like your dad.

Derek Jeter

#16. The shortstop is a perfectly conditioned athlete. You're running out on relays all the time. You're covering second base. On every pitch, you're moving.

Lou Boudreau

#17. You should have seen Willie Wells play shortstop: as good as Ozzie Smith and a better hitter. How I wish people could have seen Ray Dandridge play third base, as good as Brooks Robinson and Craig Nettles and all of those. He was bowlegged; a train might go through there, but not a baseball.

Monte Irvin

#18. Nobody ever won a pennant without a star shortstop.

Leo Durocher

#19. He can run, steal bases, throw, hit for average, and hit with power like I've never seen. Just don't put him at shortstop.

Mickey Mantle

#20. I always wanted to be a shortstop so I could play more often!

Jim Abbott

#21. To reach a ball he has never reached before, to extend himself to the very limits of his range, and then a step farther, this is the shortstop's dream.

Chad Harbach

#22. All that analysis is well and good, but what I need right now is a left-handed batter who can hit the ball over the shortstop's head.

Casey Stengel

#23. I made the varsity team as a freshman at 15. Then, I tore a tendon and never fully recovered. I was a shortstop, then third baseman, then second baseman.

Peter Scolari

#24. You are recognized by your bat. If you are the best hitting shortstop out there, that's how you win a Gold Glove. That's the way it is. It shouldn't be-it's a defensive award.

Jimmy Rollins

#25. I used to get made fun of in the minor leagues. I'd be 0 for 2, and then in my last at-bat I'd hit a chopper that wouldn't even reach the shortstop, and I'd get a hit out of it. The guys would be all over me, but a hit's a hit. I'll take 3,000 of 'em.

Mike Trout

#26. You've just got to keep playing hard. You have to remember that you are not just playing for the Twins. There are other teams out there. If anybody needs a shortstop they are going to come knocking on the door. So, you just have to be ready at all times.

Jason Bartlett

#27. I liked playing with David Eckstein (former Angels shortstop). I'm not talking about players with top skills, I'm sure there were players with way more skill than him, but there were very few people in the league that had the heart like him.

Bengie Molina

#28. Putting Henry at shortstop - it was like taking a painting that had been shoved in a closet and hanging it in the ideal spot. You instantly forgot what the room had looked like before.

Chad Harbach

#29. I was a pitcher, shortstop and outfielder, and the Yankees tried to sign me out of high school as a first-round draft pick in 1981. I turned them down to go to college.

Bo Jackson

#30. My Daddy was left-handed, and I was left-handed when I was little. In fact, I was left-handed all the way to high school. Then I switched over to right-handed cause I wanted to play shortstop.

Luke Appling

#31. If the shortstop makes an error, I am responsible. I let the batter hit the ball.

Pedro Martinez

#32. I am a lefty, though I bat right-handed ... When I was a kid I pitched, played first, outfield and shortstop as well. Now it's mainly softball with some friends.

Josh Charles

#33. I was for a short time on the baseball team as shortstop, where I was no good.

Herbert Hoover

#34. Yount, who was an 18-year-old shortstop when he met Uecker, and is one of Bob's closest friends, noticed immediately that the event was held in the afternoon with only a smattering of media members on hand. "God, this unbelievable," Yount said. "Fifty thousand empty seats. What a ceremony.

Bill Schroeder

#35. Carl Yastrzemski was the best all-around player. He could run, throw and hit. He had the ability to play a number of different positions. He signed as a shortstop. He could play the outfield, of course, and third base and first, too. He was a tremendous athlete. Mickey Mantle was unbelievable, too.

Al Kaline

#36. I never wanted to be a dancer. It's true! I wanted to be a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Gene Kelly

#37. When I was growing up, the first thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. That lasted till I was about ten. Then I wanted to be a baseball player. Preferably shortstop for the New York Yankees.

Jerry Spinelli

#38. If Albert Einstein was right, Cal Ripken should have been a CEO or politician rather than a shortstop, because Ripken led by example over and over ... and over again.

Don Yaeger