"Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'"

"When I hit a home run I usually didn't care where it went. So long as it was a home run was all that mattered."

"I don't care who you are, you hear those boos."

"Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was."

"Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part."

"Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball."

"Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been."

"A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide."

"If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."

"I could never be a manager. All I have is natural ability."

"I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about."

"Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century."

"I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love."

"It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life."

"To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer."

"After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases."