Mickey Mantle quotes:

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.

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.

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.

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?'

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

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.

Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Listen to your moms and dads. In this great country of ours you do whatever you set your mind to. Make us proud of you.

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

I don't know why Roger (Maris) isn't in the hall of fame. To me, he was as good as there ever was.

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

People say Yogi (Berra) is a strange guy, and I've heard Yogi say some funny things. But he has a beautiful wife, he's rich, and he's famous. I don't see anything strange about that.

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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

It was all I lived for, to play baseball.

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

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.

Sometimes I sit in my den at home and read stories about myself. Kids used to save whole scrapbooks on me. They get tired of them and mail them to me. I'll go in there and read them, and you know what? They might as well be about (Stan) Musial and (Joe) DiMaggio, it's like reading about somebody else.

It gave me a second chance. I'd like everybody to have a second chance if they need it, so I'm trying to let people know how important it is to become an organ donor.

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.

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

To get a better piece of chicken, you'd have to be a rooster.

If I knew I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said "sure, every time".

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

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

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.

You don't have to talk to me about pensions. I won't be around long enough to collect one.

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

If I send the ball home, I know what will happen to it. My twin brothers will take it out on the lot, like any 20-cent rocket.

The biggest thrill I ever had was in 1969, when they held day at Yankee Stadium.

After they remodeled Yankee Stadium I didn't feel that the ghosts were there anymore. It just wasn't the same.

When I first came to Yankee Stadium I used to feel like the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were walking around in there.

If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'

I don't care what the situation was, how high the stakes were - the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on every pitch, it never bothered Whitey. He pitched his game. Cool. Craft. Nerves of steel.

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

I don't care who you are, you hear those boos.

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

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.

I could never be a manager. All I have is natural ability.

I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.

A body came flying out and landed at my feet. At first I thought it was Billy so I picked him up. But when I saw it wasn't I dropped him back down.

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.

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.

All I had was natural ability.

All I have is natural ability.

As far as he knew, I was dying.

At my best I was as good as anyone.

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

Before you go, would you sign that case of balls for me?

Billy (Martin) was a great one for jokes. He liked to play a joke more than anyone I ever knew.

Billy copied Casey to a 'T.'

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.

Butcher boy, damn it, butcher boy.

Casey didn't easily forgive a guy who got doubled up on a hit-and-run play. He didn't see any reason why the runner couldn't take a quick glance back toward the plate to make sure the ball was hit safely.

Don't do as I did. I'm living proof of how not to live.

Every time I see his name (Dean Chance) on a lineup card, I feel like throwing up.

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.

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.

He said to play louder. He can't hear you.

He who have the fastest cart never have to play a bad lie.

Hey man! Get away from me!

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

Hey Yog, what time is it? You mean right now?

His fielding leaves you wondering. Then he steps up to hit and all doubts start to fade.

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.

I don't know why, but for some reason I seem to be more popular now than when I was playing.

I had it all and blew it.

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.

I never saw him fight. I never saw Billy fight.

I never understood how someone who was dying could say he was the luckiest man in the world, but now I understand.

I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.

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

I thought I raised a ballplayer. You're nothing but a coward and a quitter.

I wanted to throw my glass at the TV.

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.

If the World Series was on the line and I could pick one pitcher to pitch the game, I'd choose Whitey Ford every time.

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.

It was the single greatest feat I ever saw.

It's what you're worth.

I've heard about you. I've heard about you, too.

I've often wondered how a man who knew he was going to die could stand here and say he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth, but now I guess I know how he felt.

My biggest regret was letting my lifetime average drop below .300. I always felt I was a .300 hitter, and if I could change one thing that would be it.

No man in the history of baseball had as much power as . No man.

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

Of course, I didn't tell you about all the times I said I was going to hit one and it didn't happen.

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

Thank God for baseball.

The best hitter I ever saw was Ted Williams.

The best team I ever saw, and I really mean this, was the '61 Yankees.

The hardest thing to do in sports, I think, is to hit a home run.

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

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

They should have come out of the dugout on tippy-toes, holding hands and singing.

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

Those people don't know how tough that really was.

Watch the old man. Watch how the old man keeps the guys who aren't playing happy.

We know you can bunt, Mick. You're not down here to bunt. You're here to get some hits and get your swing back.

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

What did you say, Joe?

When I'm hitting, I'd play for nothing. When I'm not, any kind of money I receive makes me feel as if I'm stealing.

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

You might as well go in and start getting dressed. I'm going to hit his first pitch for a home run.

Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball.

Billy (Martin) wasn't afraid of anything.

I never got to see the '27 Yankees. Everyone says that was the greatest team ever. But I think it would've been a great series if we'd have had the chance to play them.