The 150 Best Baseball Quotes from Players, Movies & More

Baseball is considered a mental sport because it depends on focus, strategy, perseverance, and pure luck. If you’re a player, manager, or fan, referencing a baseball quote can help you stay calm and motivated during a game. That’s why we’re providing the ultimate list of baseball quotes to help you play your hardest or support your team in the stands. Keep reading for inspirational , short , funny , and kid-friendly options !

Top-Tier Baseball Quotes

“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” — Yogi Berra
“Baseball is a man maker.” — Al Spalding
“You should seek approval from yourself.” — Ichiro Suzuki
“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth
“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” — The Sandlot
“There are only two seasons: winter and baseball.” — Bill Veeck, Jr.
“I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.” — Pete Rose

Section 1 of 9:

Inspirational Baseball Quotes

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Manage the mental aspect of the game with an inspiring quote. Baseball is one of the most mentally demanding sports because it requires you to stay focused, manage pressure, and quickly bounce back from bad at-bats. This can be overwhelming at times, but turning to a quote can help you overcome adversity and overthinking. Here are the most inspiring quotes to help you lock in: ^{[1]
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- “It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth
- “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.” — Yogi Berra ^{[2]
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- “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” — Babe Ruth
- “I think it’s wasteful to limit myself without any reason by saying ‘It’s my limit.’” — Shohei Ohtani
- “I'd rather be a good person off the field than a good baseball player on the field.” — Bryce Harper
- “The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all.” — Lou Gehrig
- “Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.” — Ty Cobb
- “This game is obviously about failure. You're going to fail most of the time. It's how you handle it.” — Mookie Betts
- “To me, baseball has always been a reflection of life. Like life, it adjusts. It survives everything.” — Willie Stargell
- “This is baseball. It's going to bring you up, it's going to bring you down. You just have to find a way to ride that wave.” — Fernando Tatis Jr.
- “Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.” — Nolan Ryan
- “Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life.” — Ernie Harwell
- “One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something.” — Nolan Ryan
- “In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics, you get shortsighted; if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.” — Tom Seaver
- “Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business, or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.” —Al Lopez

Section 2 of 9:

Motivational Baseball Quotes

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Emphasize teamwork, positivity, and a strong mental spirit. The success of a baseball team relies on the collective effort of all players, meaning everyone has to be on top of their game. Here are some motivational quotes to help everyone succeed, both on and off the field:
- “Teamwork makes the dream work.” — John Maxwell
- “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” — Bo Jackson
- “Baseball is not a lot of statistics to me. It's blood and tears.” — Laraine Day
- “Positive feelings and friendships and all that don't win championships.” — Paul Skenes
- “If your team is in the trenches, you’ve got to be in the trenches with them.” — Aaron Judge
- “If my uniform doesn’t get dirty, I haven’t done anything in the baseball game.” — Rickey Henderson
- “There is no time to fool around when you practice. Every drill must have a purpose.” — Albert Pujols
- “You don't get to where you are by just sitting on your butt and expecting it to come.” — Mookie Betts
- “Failure definitely drives me more than anything else. You change, you adapt, you learn.” — Corey Seager
- “If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.” — Derek Jeter
- “There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.” — Tommy Lasorda
- “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.” — Hank Aaron
- “Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.” — Ty Cobb
- “You can never come into the spring feeling like you've got a guaranteed spot. Once you do that, you kind of get stagnant, and someone's going to pass you up.” — Aaron Judge
- “It's not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn't sing you a song: it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So, how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide? Or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day?” — Jocko Willink
- “Baseball is a game based on adversity. It's a game that's going to test you repeatedly. It's going to find your weaknesses and vulnerabilities and force you to adjust. That adversity, in the big picture, is a really good thing because it shows you where your weaknesses are. It gives you the opportunity to improve.” — Theo Epstein

Section 3 of 9:

Short Baseball Quotes

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Stick to a short and snappy quote to get your point across. Looking for a quick quip to remind someone to get their head in the game? The following quotes are the perfect pick-me-up when you’re at the bottom of the 9th inning or feeling wrecked in the middle of practice:
- “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” — Yogi Berra ^{[3]
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- “Fans don’t boo nobodies.” — Reggie Jackson
- “I don’t rate them, I just hit them.” — Willie Mays
- “Baseball is dull only to dull minds.” — Red Barber
- “I was born to play baseball.” — Roberto Clemente
- “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.” — Yogi Berra
- “You can observe a lot just by watching.” — Yogi Berra
- “I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player.” — John Kruk
- “Luck is the great stabilizer in baseball.” — Tris Speaker
- “Nothing’s ever been as fun as baseball.” — Mickey Mantle
- “Baseball has been very good to me.” — Roberto Clemente
- “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” — Yogi Berra
- “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” — Babe Ruth
- “I’m a winning player and I will do anything to win.” — Juan Soto
- “I knew the record would stand until it was broken.” — Yogi Berra
- “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth ^{[4]
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- “Baseball is more than a game. It's like life played out on a field.” — Juliana Hatfield
- “You can be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.” — Cal Ripken Jr.
- “Baseball is, was, and always will be the best game in the world to me.” — Babe Ruth

Section 4 of 9:

Funny Baseball Quotes

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Get the giggles going with a funny and memorable baseball quote. Grab your bat, step up to the plate, and prepare for a lineup of laughs! Here are the funniest baseball quotes to crack up everyone in the dugout (or the grandstands):
- “I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.” — Gerald R. Ford
- “You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.” — Yogi Berra
- “Baseball and malaria keep coming back.” — Gene Mauch
- “How can you think and hit at the same time?” — Yogi Berra
- “I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.” — Willie Mays
- “There are only two seasons: winter and baseball.” — Bill Veeck, Jr.
- “I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.” — Pete Rose
- “A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz.” — Humphrey Bogart
- “Playing baseball for a living is like having a license to steal.” — Pete Rose
- “Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip.” — Erma Bombeck
- “If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.” — Babe Ruth
- “A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.” — Earl Wilson
- “Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.” — George Bernard Shaw
- “I knew when my career was over. In 1965, my baseball card came out with no picture.” — Bob Uecker
- “They say baseball's a game of failure. Well, that's only true on the offensive side.” — Clayton Kershaw
- “The only change is that baseball has turned Paige from a second-class citizen to a second-class immortal.” — Satchel Paige
- “It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.” — Hank Aaron
- “You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” — Jim Bouton
- “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” — Ted Williams
- “Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off.” — Bill Veeck
- “These old ballparks are like cathedrals in America. We don't have big old Gothic cathedrals like they do in Europe. But we got baseball parks.” — Jimmy Buffett
- “The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, ‘Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.’ She's got a baseball bat and yelling, ‘You want a piece of me?’” — Robin Williams

Section 5 of 9:

Baseball Quotes from Players

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Share wise words from current and past players to navigate the game. Baseball has been around since the 1840s, and while the rules and regulations have changed over time, the heart of the game has remained the same. Here are some winning quotes from iconic and underrated players throughout history:
- “Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.” — Willie Mays
- “Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand.” — Leo Ernest Durocher
- “Baseball is a hard game. There's going to be ups and downs.” — Andrew Benintendi
- “The ups and downs, that's baseball life. That's what I live for, play for.” — Aaron Judge
- “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” — Yogi Berra
- “If you have a bad day in baseball and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more.” — Sammy Sosa
- “There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all.” — Lou Gehrig
- “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” — Joe DiMaggio
- “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 ^{[5]
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- “I'd rather be in a good position in the playoffs and holding up a World Series trophy than holding up an MVP trophy.” — Aaron Judge
- “Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.” — Jackie Robinson
- “Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game.” — Branch Rickey
- “It's just so much fun to relax and just play baseball for a living. It's a great time in my life. I'm never going to forget it, and it's very humbling.” — Freddie Freeman
- “I felt that I'd rather be lucky than good. That's the aspect I kept bringing to baseball. The more superstitions I had, the better off I'd have of finding more luck.” — Wade Boggs
- “I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day, and I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it.” — Carl Yastrzemski
- “People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life, you can't think about a future without it, so you hang on as long as you can.” — Willie Stargell

Section 6 of 9:

Baseball Quotes from Managers & Umpires

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Highlight the importance of perseverance and handling pressure. Managers and umpires offer unique perspectives on the game, including topics like responsibilities, leadership, and life. Here are some motivating quotes from the unsung heroes of the baseball world:
- “It ain't nothin' till I call it.” — Bill Klem
- “Baseball is a man maker.” — Al Spalding
- “Never drew a paycheck outside of baseball.” — Don Zimmer
- “A baseball manager is a necessary evil.” — Sparky Anderson
- “I owe baseball. Baseball don't owe me a damn thing.” — Pete Rose
- “Everything I have, I owe to baseball and the Dodgers.” — Tommy Lasorda
- “Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up.” — Bob Lemon
- “Baseball is like driving; it's the one who gets home safely that counts.” — Tommy Lasorda
- “Close doesn't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades.” — Frank Robinson
- “No baseball pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who could handle the hot fastball.” — Casey Stengel
- “There are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain.” — Casey Stengel
- “If you're playing baseball and thinking about managing, you're crazy. You'd be better off thinking about being an owner.” — Casey Stengel
- “People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” — Rogers Hornsby
- “Building a baseball team is like building a house. You look for the best architects, the best builders—and then you let them do their jobs.” — Pat Gillick
- “Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind, then the manager is a success.” — Sparky Anderson
- “You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.” — Earl Weaver
- “The math works. Over the course of a season, there's some predictability to baseball. When you play 162 games, you eliminate a lot of random outcomes. There's so much data that you can predict: individual players' performances and also the odds that certain strategies will pay off.” — Billy Beane

Section 7 of 9:

Baseball Quotes from Movies

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Steal a line from your favorite film to capture your love of the game. From The Sandlot to Field of Dreams , there are so many baseball movies featuring iconic lines and characters. Here are some silly, inspirational, and heartfelt quotes that every baseball fan should know: ^{[6]
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- “God, I love baseball.” — The Natural
- “You think losing is fun?” — Moneyball
- “You’re killin’ me, Smalls.” — The Sandlot
- “Juuuussssst a bit outside.” — Major League
- “You wanna have a catch?” — Field of Dreams
- “There’s no crying in baseball.” — A League of Their Own
- “How can you not get romantic about baseball?” — Moneyball
- “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” — The Sandlot
- “Man, this is baseball. You gotta stop thinking. Just have fun!” — The Sandlot
- “You know what we get to do today, Brooks? We get to play baseball.” — The Rookie
- “All the arguing in the world can’t change the decision of the umpire.” — The Pride of the Yankees
- “Making love is like hitting a baseball. You just gotta relax and concentrate.” — Bull Durham
- “All I know is when we win a game, it's a team win. When we lose a game, it's a team loss.” — The Bad News Bears
- “I see great things in baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us all.” — Bull Durham
- “I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.” — Bull Durham
- “I’d wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet… The thrill of the grass.” — Field of Dreams
- “Walt Whitman once said, ‘I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.’ You could look it up.” — Bill Durham
- “OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called ‘two in a row.’ And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a ‘winning streak’... It has happened before!” — Major League II

Section 8 of 9:

Baseball Quotes from Authors & Journalists

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Drop a jewel of wisdom from your favorite baseball author or journalist. Since baseball is known as “America’s Pastime,” authors, historians, and sports commentators have written about its historical significance for centuries. Here are some quotes from notable authors that highlight the cultural impact and unifying force of baseball:
- “The first books I was interested in were all about baseball.” — Charles Kuralt, American journalist
- “Statistics are to baseball what a flaky crust is to Mom's apple pie.” — Harry Reasoner, American journalist
- “Baseball is a drama with an endless run and an ever-changing cast.” — Joe Garagiola, Baseball Is A Funny Game
- “Baseball is a universal language. Catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball.” — Pete Rose, My Prison Without Bars
- “Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.” — H.L. Mencken, American journalist
- “Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.” — George Will, Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball
- “Writing is frustration—it's daily frustration, not to mention humiliation. It's just like baseball: you fail two-thirds of the time.” — Philip Roth, American novelist
- “Donning a glove for a backyard toss, or watching a ball game, or just reflecting upon our baseball days, we are players again, forever young.” — John Thorn, American sports historian
- “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” — Jacques Barzun, God's Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love Spiced with a Few Harsh Words
- “Baseball is an American icon. It is the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle, 'In God We Trust,' Mount Rushmore, ice cream, apple pie, hot dogs, and rally monkeys. Baseball is America.” — Victor Baltov, Jr., Baseball Is America
- “Baseball is not a conventional industry. It belongs neither to the players nor management, but to all of us. It is our national pastime, our national symbol, and our national treasure.” — John Thorn, Baseball: Our Game

Section 9 of 9:

Baseball Quotes for Kids

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Encourage Little Leaguers to have fun and maintain a positive attitude. Baseball is a humbling sport that can help you teach important life lessons. If you know a young player, share any of the following quotes to remind them that it doesn’t matter how big they are, but how big they play:
- “You should seek approval from yourself.” — Ichiro Suzuki
- “When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game.” — Joe DiMaggio
- “Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?” — Bob Uecker
- “You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.” — Cal Ripken, Jr.
- “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” — Yogi Berra
- “The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers.” — Earl Weaver
- “Having fun is definitely how you're going to keep yourself loose and be at your best.” — Mookie Betts
- “Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.” — Yogi Berra
- “I hope students can find one thing to pursue their whole life, be it a sport or studying something.” — Shohei Ohtani
- “Baseball is about talent, hard work, and strategy. But at the deepest level, it's about love, integrity, and respect.” — Pat Gillick
- “A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument. It is repetition, and more repetition, then a little more after that.” — Reggie Jackson
- “The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.” — Hank Aaron
- “You don't criticize or critique your teammates if they're having a hard time. You try to encourage them just like you hope that they'll encourage you.” — Mookie Betts
- “When you sign your name on the dotted line, it's more than just playing baseball. You have a responsibility to make good decisions and show people how things are supposed to be done.” — Tony Gwynn
- “My message to a lot of guys is, if you like school and you like education, baseball is gonna be there, and you can get some of the same great competition in college that you do in the low minor leagues.” — Barry Larkin
- “Honestly, as a baseball player, there's such a satisfaction in going out and trying to accomplish something with a group of guys that become your friends over the course of the year or multiple years. Whether that goal is reached or not, by the end of it, there's satisfaction in knowing that you really put everything into it.” — Buster Posey

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The 150 Best Baseball Quotes from Players, Movies & More

Top-Tier Baseball Quotes

Steps

Inspirational Baseball Quotes

Motivational Baseball Quotes

Short Baseball Quotes

Funny Baseball Quotes

Baseball Quotes from Players

Baseball Quotes from Managers & Umpires

Baseball Quotes from Movies

Baseball Quotes from Authors & Journalists

Baseball Quotes for Kids

Expert Q&A

Video

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