I don't care what the situation was, how high the stakes were - the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on every pitch, it never bothered Whitey. He pitched his game. Cool. Craft. Nerves of steel.

Mickey Mantle

Categorized in : Games Yankees Riding

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played 7 years without ever hitting the ball.

Mickey Mantle

baseball sports mean

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.

Mickey Mantle

baseball games sports

A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.

Mickey Mantle

teamwork baseball sports

I leaned on him for support when I got out of the cab, and he just crumpled to the ground. That's how we found out.

Mickey Mantle

support baseball found

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'

Mickey Mantle

baseball home running

If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress.

Mickey Mantle

careers dresses rose

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.

Mickey Mantle

baseball running sports

I thought I raised a ballplayer. You're nothing but a coward and a quitter.

Mickey Mantle

quitter coward baseball

You never have to wait long, or look far, to be reminded of how thin the line is between being a hero or a goat.

Mickey Mantle

hero waiting long

Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Listen to your moms and dads. In this great country of ours you do whatever you set your mind to. Make us proud of you.

Mickey Mantle

mom baseball country

Bravery is a complicated thing to describe. You can't say it's three feet long and two feet wide and that it weighs four hundred pounds or that it's colored bright blue or that it sounds like a piano or that it smells like roses. It's a quality, not a thing.

Mickey Mantle

smell piano courage

I've often wondered how a man who knew he was going to die could stand here and say he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth, but now I guess I know how he felt.

Mickey Mantle

baseball earth men

Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.

Mickey Mantle

baseball fun sports

If I hadn't met those two guys (Billy Martin and Whitey Ford) at the start of my career, I would have lasted another five years.

Mickey Mantle

careers baseball years

No man in the history of baseball had as much power as . No man.

Mickey Mantle

baseball men

All the ballparks and the big crowds have a certain mystique. You feel attached, permanently wedded to the sounds that ring out, to the fans chanting your name, even when there are only four or five thousand in the stands on a Wednesday afternoon.

Mickey Mantle

fans names sound

He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie.

Mickey Mantle

golf-carts golf lying

My dad taught me to switch-hit. He and my grandfather, who was left-handed, pitched to me every day after school in the back yard. I batted lefty against my dad and righty against my granddad.

Mickey Mantle

dad baseball school

Don't do as I did. I'm living proof of how not to live.

Mickey Mantle

living-proof proof

I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'

Mickey Mantle

bats yankees baseball