Jim Crow was king . . . and I heard a game in which Jackie Robinson was playing, and I felt pride in being alive. The baseball held was my fantasy of what life offered.”
“Competition is what keeps me playing the psychological warfare of matching skill against skill and wit against wit.”
“I thought I wasn’t ready…When they kept me with the Cubs in 1962, I asked myself why they kept me. What am I doing here? I realize I had the wrong attitude…It was both a blessing and a curse. I was learning with the best—but I was competing with the best. I didn’t think I belonged. I let it hold me back.”
“When I was a kid, I used to imagine animals running under my bed. I told my dad, and he solved the problem quickly. He cut the legs off the bed.”
“You can’t be afraid to make errors! You can’t be afraid to be naked before the crowd, because no one can ever master the game of baseball, or conquer it. You can only challenge it.”
“If you’re successful in what you do over a period of time, you’ll start approaching records, but that’s not what you’re playing for. You’re playing to challenge and be challenged.”
“If you’re successful in what you do over a period of time, you’ll start approaching records, but that’s not what you’re playing for. You’re playing to challenge and be challenged.”
“I don’t think about goals and records. Competition is what keeps me playing…”
“I was probably as big a fan of the event as anyone else there. After all, I’d never seen anybody get three thousand hits either.”
— Lou on his 3,000th hit
”Baserunning arrogance is just like pitching arrogance or hitting arrogance. You are a force, and you have to instill that you are a force to the opposition. You have to have utter confidence.”
“Your bat is your life. It’s your weapon. You don’t want to go into battle with anything that feels less than perfect.”
“Everybody in the park knows he’s going to run and he makes it anyway.”
— Larry Bowa on Lou