Mike Lupica quotes:

A family of three had become, in Michael Arroyo's young mind, an army of two.

Michael still thought of Havana as home, because he was born there. And he had been Miguel Arroya there. Here, he was Michael.

A friend of mine who used to be my boss at ESPN once was asked why sports had exploded the way it had. He said, "Because you can't go to Blockbuster and rent tonight's game." Every night is different in sports. Every day there are different heroes and villains and conversations after the game.

He imagined himself as a sprinter now, felt his arms and legs pumping, thought of the old Cuban sprinter his father used to tell him about.Juan something?No, no.Juantarena.Alberto Juantarena.His father said it was like watching a god run. And his father, the old fool, wasn't even Cuban, he was Dominican. The only Dominican who wanted to talk about track stars instead of baseball.

It's like they take poison and then hope for the other person to die.

Read. You don't have to read me. But just read. Read the best people. Everybody's trying to do the same thing, which is keep you turning pages. Everyone does it a different way. But we all want you to understand [our books].

We can what-if ourselves to death... But what-if never does anybody any good. All any of us ever have...is one thing, and we better make the most of it while we can: What is.

There's only one ball game for any writer, and it's to keep you turning the pages. That's the whole ball game. That's what I have to do.