Zitate und Sprüche von Willie Mays

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

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

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

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

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.

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.

You just can't beat the person who never gives up.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

San Francisco is a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty.

Anyone who doesn't have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.

Congratulations, San Francisco, you've ruined pizza. First the Hawaiians, and now you.

I hope I go to Heaven, and when I do, I'm going to do what every San Franciscan does when he gets there. He looks around and says, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.'

The biggest difference from Hawaii and Alabama would probably be there's no beaches. But other than that, the people are very nice.

How long does it take to get from Louisiana to Alabama?
One Mississippi.

Leroy Brown: "Joe! That's your grandniece, that's kin to you!"
Joe Simmons: "Grandniece? What the hell is a grandniece? I'm from Alabama. After daughter, it don't damn matter."

Alabamians don't tell you to wait before rushing a decision… they say "don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Alabama girls - the kind of girl you can take home to meet your mom, but can outdrink your dad.

Home is where the heart is and the heart is in Alabama.

The only traffic I had to deal with in Alabama was a tractor.

If you miss the playoffs in four out of the last five seasons, you're not going in the right direction.

You can't spell "elite" without E-L-I.

The G-MEN play best with their backs against the wall.

In Reese We Trust.

There's a lot of people who know how to do my job, but I can do a lot of things better and I will do things better, just like our coaches can do things better, and I believe they will do things better. Our players can do things better, and I believe they will do things better.

The G-Men won a couple of nail biters, including a victory over the Packers in London that was as shocking to me as it must have been to Aaron Rodgers. I had almost forgotten how good it feels to win.

Wellington Mara always said: "Once a Giant, always a Giant." For me, it's only a Giant.

New York! Home of the Mets, the Chrysler Building, those ladies from Sex and the City and now, the zombie apocalypse. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere - but first, you have to not get eaten.

Barney: "I am not a smoker. I only smoke in certain situations: Post-coital, when I'm with Germans, sometimes those two overlap, coital, birthdays, to annoy my mom, pre-coital, on a sailboat, the day the Mets are mathematically eliminated every year, and of course - wait for it - 'cause lord knows I have, pregnancy scares."
Ted: "Why are you smoking right now?"
Barney: "I'm always pre-coital, Ted."

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality - we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.