Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.

As long as you live keep smiling because it brightens everybody's day.

I really love baseball. The guys and the game, and I love the challenge of describing things. The only thing I hate - and I know you have to be realistic and pay the bills in this life - is the loneliness on the road.

Losing feels worse than winning feels good.

It's a wonderful feeling to be a bridge to the past and to unite generations. The sport of baseball does that, and I am just a part of it.

I guess my thermometer for my baseball fever is still a goose bump.

When I was very small, maybe 8 years old, we had a big radio that stood on four legs, and it had a cross piece underneath it, and I used to take a pillow and crawl under the radio.

Almost all of us growing up have played baseball on some level. It has an inside track with people. It has a unifying effect.

It's easier to pick off a fast runner than to pick off a lazy runner.

Good is not good when better is expected.

I don't like to be alone, but I do cherish the moments that I'm alone with a good book.

I'm going to sit back, light up, and hope I don't chew the cigarette to pieces.

I've told several writers this, and, again, I get back to it, but if you want to make God smile, tell him your plans.

It's a great time of the year... if you can stand it.

The roar of the crowd has always been the sweetest music. It's intoxicating.

You can almost taste the pressure now.

If I can get a story about a player, I would give you a ship load of numbers, batting averages and all just for that one precious story. That's the kind of thing that I love to do.