Sports Figures / Coaches

48 Inspirational Willie Mays Quotes (BASEBALL)

December 2, 2023December 2, 2023

Top 10 Most Famous Willie Mays Quotes (BEST)

“In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won’t be able to do this.”
Willie Mays

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day. — It isn’t hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.

“Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what it most truly is, is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.”
Willie Mays

What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.

I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.

“I can’t tell you about moments because I wasn’t into that. I just played every day and enjoyed what I was doing. When I made a great catch it was just routine. I didn’t worry about it. Winning was important. Winning.”
Willie Mays

Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.

I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em. — I don’t compare ’em, I just catch ’em.

If cows wouldn't eat it, I won't play on it. — If cows wouldn’t eat it, I won’t play on it.

7 Thought-Provoking Willie Mays Quotes

“I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn’t matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act.”
Willie Mays

I didn't say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing. — I didn’t say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing.

I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life. — I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don’t have a good life.

“I was very blessed with a good body. Never got hurt. Never was in the hospital. The only time I was in the hospital was when I would get exhausted a little bit, and go in for a check-up or something.”
Willie Mays

Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.

It was all I could do to not scream. If they were closer they may have seen my eyes tearing up. Man, that hurt.

“I’m not the type of guy to go out and just say, ‘Hey, I’m raising my fist to do this and do that.’ I don’t think I’m that type of guy. I wasn’t a leader the way other people may have wanted me to be.”
Willie Mays

15 Wise Willie Mays Quotes About Baseball

“I’m a very lucky guy. I had so many people help me over the years that I never had many problems. If I had a problem, I could sit down with someone and they would explain the problem to me, and the problem become like a baseball game.”
Willie Mays

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer. — If you can do that – if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game – then you’re a good ballplayer.

In baseball, you respect the team you play, the guys on the other side. That’s how the game works. Play to win but appreciate the opposition. — In baseball, you respect the team you play, the guys on the other side. That’s how the game works. Play to win but appreciate the opposition.

“People talk about that catch and, I’ve said this many times, that I’ve made better catches than that many times in regular season. But of course in my time, you didn’t have a lot of television during the regular season. A lot of people didn’t see me do a lot of things.”
Willie Mays

It's not hard. When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But when I'm hitting, I hit anybody. — It’s not hard. When I’m not hitting, I don’t hit nobody. But when I’m hitting, I hit anybody.

Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.

“And my father didn’t have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn’t have black quarterbacks, and I don’t think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11″. So I just picked baseball.”
Willie Mays

When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.

I didn't teach you that. Catch the ball with your glove. — I didn’t teach you that. Catch the ball with your glove.

“I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It’s like crying for your mother after she’s gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.”
Willie Mays

“When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o’clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.”
Willie Mays

“I didn’t think like that, about best seasons. What if you thought ’97 was your best year — what would you do now? I never looked back. I couldn’t dwell on last year’s season. I always looked forward. I never worried about what other people were doing — except the guy I was playing against.”
Willie Mays

“That’s how easy baseball was for me. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.”
Willie Mays

“Oh, it was difficult. Very difficult. I’ll say that to this day,. You know, a lot of people said when I was forty, I should quit, but I don’t think so. You should play as long as you can and as long as you enjoy the game. In ’73, I wasn’t enjoying the game, so I quit in May, I retired, and they wouldn’t let me retire. So I finished up in the World Series. But I say to players: Play as long as you can, because you only have one chance.”
Willie Mays

“My name gives me a little more publicity, but there is some pressure living up to the standards of a legend. I just tell myself to play my game, be myself and enjoy every minute of it.”
Willie Mays

3 Willie Mays Quotes About Jackie Robinson

“Robinson was important to all blacks. To make it into the majors and to take all the name calling, he had to be something special. He had to take all this for years, not just for Jackie Robinson, but for the nation.”
Willie Mays

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

“The catch off Bobby Morgan (a backhanded grab of the Brooklyn Dodger’s line drive in September 1951 at Ebbets Field) in Brooklyn was the best catch I ever made. Jackie Robinson and (Giants manager) Leo Durocher were the first people I saw when I opened my eyes.”
Willie Mays

2 Willie Mays Quotes About Birmingham Black Barons

At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.

I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.

2 Willie Mays Quotes About Business

“The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.”
Willie Mays

“I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you’ll never have a problem. That’s what I did.”
Willie Mays

2 Willie Mays Quotes on Coaching

“One of the hardest parts of practice is the criticism a player takes from his coaches. Some players think a coach has it in for them when a flaw in style is pointed out. I know that when things start going wrong, for one, I get the coach to keep his eye on me to see what I’m suddenly doing wrong. I can’t see it or I wouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
Willie Mays

Youngsters of Little League can survive under-coaching a lot better than over-coaching.

7 Willie Mays Quotes That Will Make You Think

“In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn’t drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.”
Willie Mays

I don't mean to be bashful, but I was. — I don’t mean to be bashful, but I was.

I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.

“I don’t know what Joe (DiMaggio) wanted (in regards to being called ‘the greatest living ballplayer’), but I don’t have a problem, if he wanted to do that. He was my hero. Joe was the best all-around player. Joe was the best. I only played against him once, in the ’51 Series.”
Willie Mays

Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me. — Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.

Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on his 660th home run, milestones in baseball are meant to be broken and I wish him continued success throughout his career. — Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on his 660th home run, milestones in baseball are meant to be broken and I wish him continued success throughout his career.

“Over the years, a lot of organizations have asked me to be their spokesman, or have wanted me to make speeches about my experiences as a Black athlete or to talk to Congressmen about racial issues in sports. But see, I never recall trouble. I believe I had a happy childhood. Besides playing school sports, we’d play football against the White kids. And we thought nothing of it, neither the Blacks nor the Whites. It was the grown-ups who got upset. I never got into a fight that was caused by racism.”
Willie Mays

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24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid — 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid

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