Spring Training Quotes

I feel as good now as I have any other spring training.

I thought about it a lot (losing the 2002 NLCS). It's something you have to go home and wrap it up because if you keep thinking about it, you're going to take that to Spring Training and you're not going to be able to concentrate on your work.

I've always approached spring training as I have something to prove.

Spring training means flowers, people coming outdoors, sunshine, optimism and baseball. Spring training is a time to think about being young again.

For some reason in Spring Training, everything just clicked. You don't try to do anything in Spring Training but get ready, but things fell into place.

Before I pitch any game, from spring training to Game 7 of the World Series, I'm scared to death.

In my day, if a guy came to spring training 20 pounds heavier than what he left, he was considered out of shape and was probably in trouble.

It's not a fun process. There is no need for the team and a player to be on opposing sides a week or two before spring training. It's good to be on the same page.

None of the teams that actually probably were offering me a job from the getgo, actually in spring training, are in the playoffs right now.

What you do during the offseason is, first, build a base. That takes about three weeks, and then you try to get as strong as you can before you go to spring training. Once you get there, you taper down and it's just a maintenance program for the next six or seven months.

In spring training I'm in every newspaper (in Korea) every day. In the regular season, they watch it on TV.

I've kind of looked at my whole career as a spring training invite.

You mean guys don't get injured in spring training? Guys get hurt walking down the street.

The good thing is we got this over in spring training. We played them three or four times and got all the hugs out of the way. Now it's time to go out there and beat them.

It's the fans that need spring training. You gotta get them interested. Wake them up and let them know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll.

Spring Training is a fun time for me.

I never forgot the four years I spent with the Phillies, my September call-ups and my big league Spring Trainings. I never forgot that.

A young ballplayer looks on his first spring training trip as a stage struck young woman regards the theater.

The last start of spring training, my (cut fastball) was okay. It just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I tried to work on making it cut more and do more. I think that set (the forearm) off ... trying to make it move a lot, cut a lot. I'm just going to back off and trust it a little bit more and not try and push that.

I had only played five games in my senior year in high school. I was not large enough. Hell, when I graduated, I was about five foot four and weighed 120 pounds. I didn't go with the Dodgers until spring training of 1940 and I weighed all of 155 pounds soaking wet.

I come to spring training and just try to do my job, try to do the best I can. That's all any player can do.

He said I couldn't do (off the field) what I did when I was 23 or 24, and I paid attention to him. Damn it, I got a trainer and went to spring training in the best shape of my career and in 1985 had the best season I ever had and we won the World Series. Before that, I didn't know how long I was going to play. That talk with Mr. Fogelman was the most inspiring talk I ever had with anyone.

Has he (Rickey Henderson) ever been here (Spring Training) the first day? You have to say Rickey's consistent. That's what you want in a ballplayer - consistency.

I first reported to our Marlins spring training complex in Jupiter as well as the other draft picks to receive physicals and to sign contracts. From there I flew to Jamestown, NY to play for the Jamestown Jammers.

You mean guys don't get injured in spring training? Guys get hurt walking down the street. All the managers, pitching coaches are very sensitive. Look, you can always pick at something, but there's a broader picture, a grander picture.

I'm clean, I've always been clean. But it never ends. It seems like every reporter from last season to this season has reported and opened up a new can of (expletive). And I haven't even been to spring training. At least let me get to spring training and (expletive) up before you crucify me.

Spring training is for getting to know your teammates and forming a chemistry. I dont like it.

I got that nickname my first spring training camp with the Expos in 1974. Tim Foli, Ken Singleton and Mike Jorgensen started calling me 'Kid' because I was trying to win every sprint. I was trying to hit every pitch out of the park.

I think Barry Bonds was in a unique situation given his injuries from a year ago, the fact that he played in just 14 games. Even though I spoke to Barry in December and he was enthusiastic and excited about the possibility, I think the closer he got to the reality of spring training, and as he got himself in shape for the regular season and the San Francisco Giants, he felt like it may be too much of a challenge to try to push his body at this point in his career.

This is my best time of the year (spring training). Heck, once the season starts, I go to work.

The last two times I went to spring training, I had to win a job, and if I didn't get off to a blazing start, I'm on the bench. Now, I've proven myself, so it's not essential that I get off to a real good start.

One time in spring training, we had the hit-and-run on, and Carl Erskine threw me a curve and I struck out into a double play. I came back to the bench and Casey [Stengel] said, 'next time, tra-la-la.' I didn't know what tra-la-la meant, but next time up, I hit a line drive, right into a double play. When I sat down, Casey came over and said, 'Like I told you, tra-la-la.'

I tried to use batting gloves at the beginning of every spring training up until 1999. It just didn't feel good.

The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.

Any baseball is beautiful. No other small package comes as close to the ideal design and utility. It is a perfect object for a man's hand. Pick it up and it instantly suggests its purpose; it is meant to be thrown a considerable distance - thrown hard and with precision.

People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball.

I love baseball. I'll probably end up one of those old farts who go to spring training in Florida every year and drive from game to game all day.

How can you think and hit at the same time?

The Florida State League was considered the top A-league back then. You played in the spring training parks of major league teams, traveled throughout some great cities in Florida, and the pay was the best in A-ball.

As far as sleeping goes, you're up and ready to go at six in the morning. Spring training was always a combination of relaxing and working, and I missed that quite a bit. I missed being around the ball field. A baseball. A bat. The smell of the uniform, you might say. Talking baseball. Seeing opponents as well as the Cubs.

Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball.

If I don't make the team out of spring training, I'll keep a good attitude. I'll just go polish up the parts of my game that made me not stay in the big leagues.

What we're going to do is use spring training as sort of a feeling-out process for Phil and Preston and our other outfielders. It gives us a lot of comfort to know that you've got a pure center fielder like Preston. But he's also so athletic, he can come in and play either corner and we'll feel very comfortable with it.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is something every player dreams about, but being a member of God's Hall of Fame is the greatest achievement of all. God offers each of us the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. When we accept God's gift of salvation, our name is written in the Book of Life, guaranteeing us a place in heaven forever. I made that decision during spring training in 1973, asking Jesus to come into my heart as Lord and Savior.

Watching a spring training game is as exciting as watching a tree form its annual ring.

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game.

America overflows with specious "victims" demanding redress for spurious grievances. However, one genuinely oppressed minority is getting overdue relief. Beginning with spring training in Arizona and Florida, Major League Baseball, taking pity on traumatized pitchers, is directing umpires to enforce the strike zone.

These days baseball is different. You come to Spring Training, you get your legs ready, you arms loose, your agents ready your lawyer lined up.

If you don't know where you're going any road will do