Willie Mays Quotes

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Willie Mays

Profession : Athlete

Birth : May 6, 1931

In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.

Willie Mays

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.

Willie Mays

I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did.

Willie Mays

The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.

Willie Mays

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

Willie Mays

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.

Willie Mays

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

Willie Mays

At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.

Willie Mays

I don't mean to be bashful, but I was.

Willie Mays

I didn't say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing.

Willie Mays

When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.

Willie Mays

I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.

Willie Mays

I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em.

Willie Mays

I'm a very lucky guy. I had so many people help me over the years that I never had many problems. If I had a problem, I could sit down with someone and they would explain the problem to me, and the problem become like a baseball game.

Willie Mays

Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.

Willie Mays

Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.

Willie Mays

When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.

Willie Mays

In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.

Willie Mays

If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.

Willie Mays

I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life.

Willie Mays