Pete Rose Quotes

I'd be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball.

I get accused of talking about records. But it's the guys who interview me who ask about them.

Jay Z got Cano a big raise, but he got him an extra 30-day vacation
and it's called October,

Don Gullett's the only guy who can throw a baseball through a car wash and not get the ball wet.

If I had admitted my guilt, it would have been the same as putting my head on the chopping block - lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence ... right or wrong, the punishment didn't fit the crime, so I denied the crime.

Some of my biggest friends are big-time horse owners.

The only way I can't hit .300 is if there's something physically wrong with me.

Hitting. That's what I enjoy most. Realistically, it's probably the hardest thing to do in all of sport. Think about it. You've got a round ball, a round bat, and the object is to hit it square.

Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty year old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen year old. If you've got both, you can play baseball.

I can't remember, I wish I could remember the first time I bet on baseball.

If I had been busted for drugs instead of gambling, I'd still be managing the Reds and baseball would be paying for my rehab.

Sometimes, when you don't have spark, someone in the dugout has to create something.

I don't have the average thirty-eight year-old's body. I know my face looks old, but if you slid head first for sixteen years you'd be ugly too.

I bet on baseball in 1987 and 1988.

I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don't know any of them linked to steroids.

When you step into the batter's box, have nothing on your mind except baseball.

I don't go to bed every night worried about getting back into baseball.

I actually went to some Gamblers Anonymous classes, and I sat there for three or four of them, and I'm trying to figure out what I have in similarities with these other people, and I could never find anything. It just seems like it wasn't the right place for me.

In the old days, you know, they didn't have batting cages. And in most ball parks, they only had one runway to the dugout.

They haven't given too many gamblers a second chances in the world of baseball.

Of course, I believe that Mike Piazza is probably the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, only got over 50%. Johnny Bench is the best catcher in the history of baseball, but Piazza has all the record for catchers as far as offensively.

Creating success is tough. But keeping it is tougher. You have to keep producing, you can't ever stop.

When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up.

What's the game coming to? Evidently the guys making all these rules never played the game of baseball.

Every time I step up to the plate, I expect to get a hit. If I don't expect to get a hit, I have no right to step into the batter's box in the first place.

I still gamble, but it's all legal. I own horses, and I go to watch my horse. I don't go daily.

I like Barack Obama as a person. He's articulate, he knows sports, his brother-in-law's a coach. He always has the athletes to the White House. But I don't know about some of his policies and some of these people in Congress.

When people ask me, "Who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced?", I have to say that there has never been a pitcher who over-impressed me. That's not meant to be a bragging statement. It's just that I get up for good pitchers.

Your obligation as a base runner is to try and be safe within the rules. OK?

There is no doubt that because I am a switch hitter I have one of the best offensive advantages that a hitter can have.

Can you be a nicer gentleman, or a better man for your sport or your kids than Joe Paterno?

Umpires got power, man. You ever notice if you go to a ballpark and there's a close play on first base, they will not run the replay at the ballpark? I've seen umpires go underneath and call up and say if you run one more of those replays, we're gonna forfeit the game. That's how strong their union is.

I know everything about Ty Cobb except the size of his hat.

A lot of these catchers don't understand that they are blocking the plate and they don't have the ball. You're not allowed to block the plate without the ball.

The only book I ever read cover to cover was The Pete Rose Story. I read half of The Lou Gehrig Story and then made a book report on it for four straight years.

I met Gerald Ford. I met Richard Nixon. I met Jimmy Carter. I met Dwight Eisenhower when he was a general. George Bush senior. I haven't met Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, although I got a letter from him.

It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square.

Any time you've got big teams winning, you've got big stars.

I've got a 15-year old son and a 10-year old daughter, and if they were going to do one of the following things: be an alcoholic; be a drug offender; beat their wife or husband; or gamble. I hope they would gamble.

Sure I do, and if someone paid you six-thousand dollars a game, you'd have fun as well.

No player or manager has greater respect for the umpires than I do, and I have demonstrated that over the years.

When people think of me, they think about me knocking catchers down and knocking second basemen down and yelling at pitchers. But when I took the spikes off after the game, I was a nice guy when I went home.

When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand.

When somebody wants to interview me, I've always got something to say.

Obama's a great speaker. Because of his speaking ability and his appearance, a lot of guys got on board. Being the first African American, a lot guys got on board.

Some players you pat their butts, some players you kick their butts, some players you leave alone.

I don't like to be compared to Joe Jackson. because Joe Jackson, I think, took money to throw World Series games. Well, I know I bet on my own team to win. There's pretty much a big difference there, but both of us were wrong.

If you screw up and do something, don't lie about it; come clean.

With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions.

I never gave up as a player, and I won't give up as someone who wants to go to the Hall of Fame, because it's the ultimate goal for a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player.

I look at the records, and you don't win the Cy Young seven times or the MVP without being a good player.

Once you accept defeat, it becomes ease to lose. If defeat comes, face it and take it, but don't accept it.

The greatest competitor was Bob Gibson. He worked so fast out there and he always had the hood up. He always wanted to close his own deal. He never talked to you because he was battling so hard. I sure as hell don't miss batting against him, but I miss him in the game.

I'm built like my dad. Stocky, strong.

Concentration is that ability to not think about anything.

You know, baseball's not stupid. Baseball does what the fans want, usually.

I always say, the only time you gotta worry about getting booed is when you're wearing a white uniform. And I've never been booed wearing a white uniform.

If you're not active - and I'm not active - and you don't watch what you eat, you can get big as a horse.

When guys do books or stories, all I like to see is the truth.

I would think if someone connected to steroids made the Hall of Fame, that would enhance my chances of making the Hall of Fame.

The thing I would like most to leave behind is to be remembered for trying hard.

Practice the game the way you're going to play the game. Practice hard and play hard. Run hard and above all else, hustle every moment you're on the field where you are practicing or playing in a game.

Willie Mays could throw better, and Hank Aaron could hit more home runs. But I've got enthusiasm. I've got desire. I've got hustle. Those are God-given talents, too.

The team that wins two-thirds of its one run games usually wins the pennant.

I'm not going to go back to gambling; I mean, it's as simple as that.

A team will take on its manager's personality. If it's a laid back manager, you'll have a laid back personality. The players will see that if it's OK for the Manager to be laid back, then you'll have a laid back team.

We were so poor when I was a kid that I had a sister who was stamped, 'Made In Japan.'

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life.

Baseball and the players association have rules. If you stay within the rules - which say that you can play while you're appealing - I don't see what anyone would be in arms about.

There's other ways to make your head and muscles bigger than just steroids.

Since 1869, baseball has been doing pretty well.

See the ball; hit the ball.

Baseball is a universal language. Catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball.

Pressure? Well it ain't hitting in forty-four straight games, because I done that and it was fun. The playoffs are pressure.

I'm not bad (his speed). I'm no Joe Morgan, but I'm pretty good for a white guy.

I came to Vegas because I work 20 days a month here; I couldn't live anywhere else.

You don't dominate any sport when you're over 40.

It's easy to practice something that you are good at, and that is what most people do. Wat's tough is to go ot and to work hard on the things that you don't do very well.

You know what God told the Cubs? Don't do anything until I come back.

Never bet on baseball.

I know about winning batting titles.

There is an old saying that money can't buy happiness. If it could, I would buy myself four hits every game.

I never picked up my phone and called a bookmaker and bet on a baseball game from the clubhouse. Never.

Hillary Clinton wrote a book. She got paid. I don't understand why I can't.

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.

Unfortunately, gambling and winning don't often go hand-in-hand.

The game of baseball is better when the Dodgers are playing well, just like when the Yankees are playing well, or the Cubs, the Phillies, the big-name teams.

I am grateful that I live in a nation where most believe that one's punishment should fit their wrongdoing and that ours is a nation that judges an individual by both what he has done and how he has changed.