Vida Blue quotes:

Catfish Hunter was a man among men. He was a genuine person. There was nothing phony about him. I learned a lot from him, both on and off the baseball field.

It's a weird scene. You win a few baseball games and all of a sudden you're surrounded by reporters and TV men with cameras asking you about Vietnam and race relations.

I think I have already signed some scrap of paper for every man, woman, and child in the United States. What do they do with all those scraps of paper with my signature on it?

Charlie Finley has soured my stomach for baseball.

Sure, it's nice to win. But there's only one thing that's important to me and that's the money we're going to get, win or lose. . . . I don't love baseball, I like it. And to me, baseball means money, and that's all I care about.

I keep telling myself, don't get cocky. Give your services to the press and the media, be nice to the kids, throw a baseball into the stands once in a while.

Charlie Finley has soured my stomach for baseball. He treated me like a damn colored boy.

I think I have signed some scrap of paper for every man, woman and child in the United States. What do they do with all those scraps of paper with my signature on it?

It's easy, man. I just take the ball and throw. Hard! It's a God-given talent! No one can teach it to you. They either hit it or they don't.

Sometimes in this game its as good to be lucky as it is to be good.