Dave Winfield Quotes

To give you an idea what it feels like to be going in with some of the best baseball players of all-time, I mean it is fantastic. I have to say this about them, there are so many of these guys up here that were my role models, people I looked up to, people I wanted to be like.

There are a lot of people who influenced me, nurtured me, helped me along the way. But I can just recall looking back, the first time I got my baseball glove. Put it on the wrong hand, all those kind of things.

Now it's on to May, and you know about me and May.

The sooner I get into the Hall of Fame the better.

You know, many of you kids can't relate to what it takes to get to the top rung, the top of the heap, to have success. We're looking for things that come in a minute. It just doesn't happen.

You know, heroes are ordinary people that have achieved extraordinary things in life.

There is no way, believe me, despite my name being Winfield, and loving the game dearly. It wasn't in the cards. I didn't know what it was going to take to get here.

I am truly sorry that a fowl of Canada is no longer with us.

The Yankees won the pennant, we went on to the World Series, 41 years after that in the city of Toronto. The great city of Toronto, and all the provinces in Canada, everybody reached out and they were excited because we won the first World Series ever, across the border.

And I found out, the other part of it is that I found out and in my desire to life successfully, that baseball fit very well into my life. It's been a great teacher, trainer, mentor and you'll see what I mean in the next few minutes that I have to speak.

The people like the American Legion Post that gave us a chance to play. A place to play and a chance to play.

I went to jail. I looked like one of those savings-and-loan guys leaving the jail house.

I chose baseball because to me baseball is the best game of all.

I've experienced a lot of things in baseball, but I've never been traded during a strike. At least I know I'll be in a new uniform the next time I put one on.

All though I didn't meet him. His legend and his saga and his story is just that. Jackie Robinson, we all have to tip our hat to him. Because he made the game available to guys like me.

Tom Cruise only makes one or two film appearances a year. A baseball player can be the hero or the goat one-hundred and sixty-two times a year.

And then 45 years later, as I finished my career in the great city of Cleveland, that was another great way to end my career, going to the World Series.

I always enjoy watching Derek Jeter play because he is a model of consistency both in the field and at the plate. I finished my career with 3,110 hits, and I have only admiration and respect for Derek. I hope he pauses to admire the view and keeps going. Just one more achievement in an incredible career.

All good balls to hit are strikes, though not all strikes are good balls to hit.

Good hitters don't just go up and swing. They always have a plan. Call it an educated deduction. You visualize. You're like a good negotiator. You know what you have, you know what he has, then you try to work it out.

The only players that are having fun are those having a good year, feasting on pitching or blowing down hitters and garnering all the adulation that goes with it. But, if you're not hitting or not throwing well, or are injured, you better look for fun someplace else.