Mickey Mantle famous quotes

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'
-- Mickey Mantle

#Running #Baseball #Home

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Baseball #Running

Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Fun #Whole Life

The thing I really liked about Mickey was the way he treated everyone the same.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Way #Mickey

He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Lying #Golf #Golf Carts

You never have to wait long, or look far, to be reminded of how thin the line is between being a hero or a goat.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Hero #Long #Waiting

A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Teamwork #Sports #Baseball

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Athlete #Mean #Average

If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Careers #Rose #Dresses

My dad taught me to switch-hit. He and my grandfather, who was left-handed, pitched to me every day after school in the back yard. I batted lefty against my dad and righty against my granddad.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Dad #School

I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Hurt #Games

All the ballparks and the big crowds have a certain mystique. You feel attached, permanently wedded to the sounds that ring out, to the fans chanting your name, even when there are only four or five thousand in the stands on a Wednesday afternoon.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Names #Fans #Afternoon

You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Funny #Baseball #Games

All I have is natural ability.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Natural #Ability

It was all I lived for, to play baseball.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Play

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Baseball #Running

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Baseball #Games

At my best I was as good as anyone.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball

The best hitter I ever saw was Ted Williams.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Saws

Hey Mantle, you win. You're the worst.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Winning #Hey

Billy (Martin) wasn't afraid of anything.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball

There were things that would irritate Casey, but trying too hard or getting mad at sitting on the bench weren't among them.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Mad #Trying

Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Men #Roger

Bravery is a complicated thing to describe. You can't say it's three feet long and two feet wide and that it weighs four hundred pounds or that it's colored bright blue or that it sounds like a piano or that it smells like roses. It's a quality, not a thing.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Courage #Blue #Two

Butcher boy, damn it, butcher boy.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Boys #Butchers

After a play in the field Casey would turn (to the players on the bench) and say 'What did he do wrong?' or 'You're better than that guy.' Either way, he'd keep them from getting stale.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Player #Guy

He foresaw the platooning that managers like Casey Stengel used years before it happened. He told me I had to be a switch-hitter if I was going to play.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Years #Play

My views are just about the same as Casey's.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Views

Not after all the time my dad spent teaching me to switch-hit.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Dad #Teaching

Casey wanted us to stay loose. That didn't mean clowning around. He just meant we should be confident and relaxed. We shouldn't feel that one strikeout was going to end the season for us.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Mean #Be Confident

I've heard about you. I've heard about you, too.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Heard

I leaned on him for support when I got out of the cab, and he just crumpled to the ground. That's how we found out.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Support #Found

Because the players knew that if Billy asked them to jump off a roof, he'd jump off with them.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Player #Roof

This year I'd rather lead the league in home runs, runs batted in and hitting.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Running #Baseball #Home

It looked like Roy Rogers rode through on Trigger, and Trigger kicked the guy in the face.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Guy #Roger

If I hadn't met those two guys (Billy Martin and Whitey Ford) at the start of my career, I would have lasted another five years.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Careers #Two

I wanted to throw my glass at the TV.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Glasses #Tvs

You hit .350 you're a leader. You hit .250 and you're not.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Leader

There are two kinds of people. There are leaders and there are followers. And I'm a follower.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Two #People

If you want to know who was better, me or Willie Mays, you have to look at our career stats. And Willie's bottom line was better.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Careers #Lines

The strain on Roger (Maris) was unbelievable. After I dropped out the reporters only had one guy to go to. They surrounded him everywhere he went. He had big clumps of hair falling out. That he went ahead and did it was unbelievable.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Fall #Hair

Well, I beat my man. Now it's up to you to beat yours.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Men #Beats

The greatest thing I ever saw was Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's record.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Records #Ruth

In 1961 somebody could've hit a home run to win the game and the next day the headline was about the M&M boys not hitting a home run. But everyone was real good about it. Instead of getting mad they joked about it.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Running #Baseball #Real

Ralph (Houk) brought out the best in everybody, and that included me. I consider myself lucky to have played for him.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Lucky

He said to play louder. He can't hear you.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Play #Said

I think the best all-round baseball player ever was Joe DiMaggio.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Thinking #Player

I expected him to say, 'Hang in there' or something like that. It took me an hour to talk him into giving me another chance!
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Giving #Another Chance

Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Sports #Hero #Player

I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Years #Hitting #Balls

I can't play any more. I can't hit the ball when I need to. I can't steal second when I need to. I can't go from first to third when I need to. I can't score from second when I need to. I have to quit.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Play #Balls #Firsts

When I hit a home run I usually didn't care where it went. So long as it was a home run was all that mattered.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Running #Home #Long

The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Games #Perfect

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Player #Thinking #Brain

The only thing I can do is play baseball. I have to play ball. It's the only thing I know.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Play #Balls

In 1960 when Pittsburgh beat us in the World Series, we outscored them 55-27. It was the only time I think the better team lost. I was so disappointed I cried on the plane ride home.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Team #Home #Thinking

A lot of people wrote that Roger (Maris) and I didn't like each other and that we didn't get along. Nothing could be further from the truth.
-- Mickey Mantle

#People #Roger

All I had was natural ability.
-- Mickey Mantle

#Natural #Ability

I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'
-- Mickey Mantle

#Baseball #Looks #Bruises