Stand on the Bench, Achilles Quotes

“Sports, after all, are in competition with religion for any given fan’s devotion. And baseball has a devoted following, like a flock of worshipers, each with their own gods and idols.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“We were all the lesser soldiers in this greater competi- tion, a war called baseball that had begun just as our coun- try’s division had ended.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“Hope is funny like that, for it has the power to deceive a man’s measure of himself, and it serves no purpose but foolish seduction into aspiration, confidence, and optimism. All very misfortunate things indeed.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“The bases were like the seasons—fall, winter, spring, and, at last, summer. And home plate was like that from which man begins, and if he’s fortunate enough, eventually returns.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“Now we have no gods, none but one. And yet, are there not baseball gods, deities of fortune and fame who might guide us through our travails? And if there are, I curse them.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“We were like warriors of chance, drawn into the trajectory of a mean god whose spirit was unpredictable.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“If a sport could ever be art, baseball would be it.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“What’s in a glove? And for that matter, where might a glove have been, or gone, and to what future did all these worn-out pieces of leather, stitched together with the precision of shotgun blast, have awaiting them?”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“Could a thing like baseball ever be forgotten? Many thought it a highly improbable suggestion.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles

“His separation from us was rendered moot the moment we all laced up our shoes and ran out onto the field. Here we could be one and yet stay individuals. Baseball is American like that.”
― Chris Baldwin, Stand on the Bench, Achilles