Our Favorites from Ted Williams

1.) There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.

2.) There's only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.

3.) You have to hit the fastball to play in the big leagues.

4.) If you don't think too good, don't think too much.                  

   If there was ever a man born to be a hitter it was me.

6.) Hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders.

 

7.) Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is!

8.) A kid copies what is good. I remember the first time I saw Lefty O'Doul, and he was as far away as those palms. And I saw the guy come to bat in batting practice. I was looking through a knothole, and I said, 'Geez, does that guy look good!' And it was Lefty O'Doul, one of the greatest hitters ever.

9.) A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.

10.) Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel, not just to be as good as someone else but to be better than someone else. This is the nature of man and the name of the game.

11.) Think. Don't just swing. Think about the pitcher, what he threw you last time up, his best pitch, who's up next. Think!

12.) The batter has three strike zones: his own, the opposing pitcher's, and the umpire's. The umpire's zone is defined by the rule book, but it's also more importantly defined by the way the umpire works. A good umpire is consistent so you can learn his strike zone. The batter has a strike zone in which he considers the pitch the right one to hit. The pitchers have zones where they are most effective. Once you know the pitcher and his zone you can get set for a particular pitch.

14.) I think without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball. A .300 hitter, that rarest of breeds these days, goes through life with the certainty that he will fail at his job seven out of ten times.

15.) I knew what was going on at that plate. It used to kill me to strike out, but when I struck out I knew what it was that got me and what I was going to try to do about it.

16.) Get a good Pitch to Hit!