Quotes

By “Smoky” Joe Wood

“Baseball is all I ever wanted. I could eat, sleep, and dream baseball.”

“I threw so hard I thought my arm would fly right off my body.”

“But wherever I was I played baseball. That’s all I lived for. When I sat up on the front seat of that covered wagon next to my father, I was wearing a baseball glove. That showed anybody who was interested where I wanted to go.”

“The smaller the town the more important the ball club was. But if you beat a bigger town they’d practically hand you the key to the city. And if you lost a game by making an error in the ninth or something like that, well, the best thing to do was just pack your grip and hit the road, because they’d never let you forget it.”

About “Smoky” Joe Wood

“Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen mister, no man alive can throw any harder than ‘Smoky’ Joe Wood.”
— Walter Johnson

“Although his candle was to burn out before too long, no Pitcher’s ever burned brighter than Smoky Joe Wood’s.”
— Henry Thomas, respected baseball historian

“Smoky Joe Wood. Was he ever something. I’ve seen a lot of great Pitching in my lifetime, but never anything to compare with him…I’ve never seen anything like Smoky Joe Wood.”
— Harry Hooper, HOF Right Fielder