"I'm here to support the commissioner and tougher drug penalties."

"Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit."

"I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face."

"I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them."

"I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice."

"The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting."

"I think it's very much a distraction to the ball club, and that is a cancer, you just get done playing the best team in baseball, the team has been playing very well, despite everything ... it's just a distraction, and it is a cancer,"

"Discover Greatness: An Illustrated History of Negro Leagues Baseball,"

"I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it."

"That's going to be left up to the commissioner and the rules committee."

"That's going to be left up to the commissioner and the rules committee. They would probably have to go back and look at some of those things that happened."

"My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."

"The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them."

"I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it."

"It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course."

"You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail."

"It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course."

"On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again."

"I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him."

"Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution."

"I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat."