Pitcher Quotes

Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn't let that pitcher get me out. They say you can't hit if you're on your back, but I didn't hit on my back. I got up.

A pitcher will never be a big winner until he hates hitters.

The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid, and if he is timid, he has to remind the hitter he's timid.

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.

I figured that pitchers had a better chance of getting drafted than fielders, so I decided I should be a pitcher. But I never expected to be picked in the first round. I wasn't even sure I'd get picked at all.

The way we're going... if I called up another pitcher, he'd just hang up the phone on me.

Let the pitcher move first, then, as he draws his arm back, you draw the bat back and you are ready.

The pitcher setting up the batter. It's chess, and you play with it.

A manager uses a relief pitcher like a six shooter, he fires until it's empty then takes the gun and throws it at the villain.

You better be looking for another pitcher.

A pitcher has to look at the hitter as his mortal enemy.

Momentum? Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.

I'm always amazed when a pitcher becomes angry at a hitter for hitting a home run off him. When I strike out, I don't get angry at the pitcher, I get angry at myself. I would think that if a pitcher threw up a home run ball, he should be angry at himself.

And then when I went to stay in '68, I can honestly say that I was not focused on my career and on what it took to be a major league pitcher and to be a starting pitcher.

The reason I think I'm a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That's what you do to pitch. That's what pitchers have to do to win games.

I never faced a pitcher with better stuff than Nolan Ryan.

Any pitcher who might throw at me should know I'm not giving up my day job or trying to get anyone else's job. I just can't think of anything cooler than being one of the boys of summer!

During my time, there might have been one pitcher or two that were top pitchers on a team. Teams that won maybe had three, but today they have a lot of depth. They have a lot of long relievers, short relievers, and the strategy is different.

A pitcher needs two pitches, one they're looking for and one to cross them up.

But because I could throw so hard when I got to college they made me a pitcher.

A pitcher is only as good as his legs.

I don't know why you would trade a stud pitcher.

In the White House, you can be on the pitcher's mound or you can be in the catcher's position. Put points on the board. Show people you can govern. Deliver on what you said you were going to deliver on.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

When I was 12, I had a coach tell me I would never be a championship pitcher. That devastated me. I was crushed.

If a pitcher sees you fiddling with the bat, he'll stall until your arms are tired before you even get a chance to hit.

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being a successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution.

I think that's why I like baseball. There's something great about it - you're young, the pitcher's young and he's got this great arm, and he doesn't really realize anything about strategy.

Fix your eye on the ball from the moment the pitcher holds it in his glove. Follow it as he throws to the plate and stay with it until the play is completed. Action takes place only where the ball goes.

Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.