Players Quotes

The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said, 'A civilization is judged only in its decline.' That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.

Maybe I'm sort of like the players - there's still a lot of little boy in me.

From the time I was 3, I wanted to be a major-league player. To accomplish that at 35, get my name on my jersey, be in the clubhouse with major-league players, see my family for the first time in three months, be in my home state and pitch the day I got called up, was incredible.

I'm very proud of our NHL players. I think they all handle themselves extremely well and they all work really hard.

So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it.

Even though there are some great keyboard players on the album, there are a number of songs with no keyboard on them and the backing is all guitar oriented. This is first time I've ever done this actually.

I've been lucky to broadcast some great events and to broadcast the exploits of some great players.

But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players who want to imitate hip-hop stars. And the NBA is taking advantage of the situation.

My philosophy about the game, for instance, is that you have players out there who really do different things.

And then came the nineties, when management, suddenly frightened that they had ceded control to the players, sought to restore baseball's profitability by 'running the game like a business.'

I admit I was somewhat concerned when we started to sign so many players - naturally you are going to worry about whether you can retain your place in the side.

The young Obama's lack of playing time on the high school basketball team was due more to his ability than the coach's preference for white players.

I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don't get me wrong. But don't try to put the organization above the players.

When Jackie got his big contract at CBS and was putting together what turned out to be almost a stock company of players, he remembered Frank and said, 'Get me that kid who played the jail sketch.'

So if the players trust the coach, it's not a problem. If the players don't trust the coach, it is a problem, and vice versa.

I was also very lucky to be a teammate of two of the greatest players to have ever played the game. I learned very early on by playing for Frank Robinson and with Henry Aaron that even the greatest players in the game were just one of the guys.

Look, I'm in the top 20 of players who ever lived.

It's better to have done because then you know what the player is going through and you understand the pressure, but then on the other hand I know a lot of people that were good players but not good coaches, and vice versa.

You can't let players do what they wish and be professional. That's a fact. As for the team, Boro had two internationals when I got there in 1995. Now they have more than 15. And they didn't cost the fortune some suggest.

I have no distributor... it is indicative to me that there are these pockets of players and collectors all over. You should see the correspondence I get from over the world letting me know how significant they think I am. I know that wherever I go, I am well received.

At the moment there are some England players who are the stars of their club teams, but not for their country. It's difficult to explain.

Players aren't quite as mercenary as people make them out to be. Some of them are but some aren't.

I cannot get myself interested in video games. I've been given video game players and they just sit there connected to my TVs gathering dust until eventually I unplug them so I can put in another special-region DVD player.

I mean, no offense, but I don't really see why, like guitar players from Creed, or something like that, are on the cover of guitar magazines. Almost anybody can sit down and learn to play those songs.

What gets me upset about with the newer players is their lack of intensity. They tend to go through the motions a little bit. They don't understand that you've got to practice the way you play.

Players suffer coaching changes all the time; it's life in the NFL.

The way I look at myself, the biggest achievement in my eyes - forget winning trophies or scoring in World Cups - is that I'm still at a top club playing at a really high standard having been almost two different players.

The fact that we write about it doesn't mean we play better than ordinary players at all.

Award trophies, as opposed to letting the players define and claim their own. Ultimately, pay them to play so that their activity not only resembles work but is work.

They try to say this era was a tainted era. But so many great players played in the last 15 to 20 years. This is going to be the best era in the history of the game in my opinion.