The Baseball 100 Quotes

“But Jackie Robinson was a man of faith. I do not just mean faith in God, though he was indeed a religious man. He also had extraordinary faith in himself and his destiny. He believed deeply that he was the one meant to cross baseball's color line. He believed deeply that God would not have led him down this path only to fail.
That faith filled him with something more powerful that confidence.
He knew that we would succeed because to do anything less would be unthinkable.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“Yount and Winfield became the only pair of future Hall of Famers ever taken back-to-back in the first round of the MLB draft.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“Fathers and sons… it’s a complicated business, a swirl of love and longing and friction and admiration and regret.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“We decided to give him this base,” Cool Papa proudly said to the crowd, “because even if we hadn’t, he was going to take it anyway.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“Pujols was a 13th-round selection by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1999 draft. Thirteenth-round draft picks rarely make it—I do not say this lightly. Since the first year of the draft, only 13 percent of all 13th-round picks have made it to the big leagues at all, and less than 8 percent have posted even one win above replacement.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“No, the Dodgers took Piazza in the 62nd round as a personal favor to help him find a Division I college baseball program. See, out of high school, Piazza (with the help of Lasorda) signed with the University of Miami, but he was entirely overmatched there. He got nine plate appearances and one hit. Seeing his future, he quit school.”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“And that’s when manager Eddie Sawyer called for Roberts to pitch relief and the Dodgers’ manager Charlie Dressen called in Don Newcombe to match up. Talk about a different time: Roberts and Newcombe had pitched the day before. They were on zero days rest”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100

“Mussina was a brilliant high school pitcher in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, one town over from Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series. Milwaukee special assistant Doug Melvin was an Orioles scout then, and he saw Moose pitch and was blown away. Melvin said Mussina was an 18-year-old who pitched like he was 28. Moose had an advanced way of thinking about pitching. He saw it as a puzzle; Mussina has always been a puzzle guy, you know, crossword puzzles and such. He tried to think of the optimal way to keep hitters off-balance, to make them uncomfortable. With his pitching stuff and his keen mind, nobody in high school could touch him”
― Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100