Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Mickey Mantle, fully Mickey Charles Mantle

American Professional Baseball Player

"A body came flying out and landed at my feet. At first I thought it was Billy so I picked him up. But when I saw it wasn't I dropped him back down."

"A lot of people wrote that Roger (Maris) and I didn't like each other and that we didn't get along. Nothing could be further from the truth."

"After they remodeled Yankee Stadium I didn't feel that the ghosts were there anymore. It just wasn't the same."

"As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due."

"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."

"All I had was natural ability."

"At my best I was as good as anyone."

"After a play in the field Casey would turn (to the players on the bench) and say 'What did he do wrong?' or 'You're better than that guy.' Either way, he'd keep them from getting stale."

"Because the players knew that if Billy asked them to jump off a roof, he'd jump off with them."

"As far as he knew, I was dying."

"All the ballparks and the big crowds have a certain mystique. You feel attached, permanently wedded to the sounds that ring out, to the fans chanting your name, even when there are only four or five thousand in the stands on a Wednesday afternoon."

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

"Billy (Martin) was a great one for jokes. He liked to play a joke more than anyone I ever knew."

"Before you go, would you sign that case of balls for me?"

"Billy (Martin) wasn't afraid of anything."

"Don't do as I did. I'm living proof of how not to live."

"Casey didn't easily forgive a guy who got doubled up on a hit-and-run play. He didn't see any reason why the runner couldn't take a quick glance back toward the plate to make sure the ball was hit safely."

"Casey wanted us to stay loose. That didn't mean clowning around. He just meant we should be confident and relaxed. We shouldn't feel that one strikeout was going to end the season for us."

"Billy copied Casey to a 'T.'"

"Bravery is a complicated thing to describe. You can't say it's three feet long and two feet wide and that it weighs four hundred pounds or that it's colored bright blue or that it sounds like a piano or that it smells like roses. It's a quality, not a thing."

"Butcher boy, damn it, butcher boy."

"During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball."

"Every time I see his name (Dean Chance) on a lineup card, I feel like throwing up."

"He can run, steal bases, throw, hit for average, and hit with power like I've never seen. Just don't put him at shortstop."

"He foresaw the platooning that managers like Casey Stengel used years before it happened. He told me I had to be a switch-hitter if I was going to play."

"He said to play louder. He can't hear you."

"He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie."

"Hey man! Get away from me!"

"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."

"Hey Mantle, you win. You're the worst."

"He who have the fastest cart never have to play a bad lie."

"Hey Yog, what time is it? You mean right now?"

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

"His fielding leaves you wondering. Then he steps up to hit and all doubts start to fade."

"I can't play anymore. I can't hit the ball when I need to. I can't steal second when I need to. I can't go from first to third when I need to. I can't score from second when I need to. I have to quit."

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

"I don't care what the situation was, how high the stakes were - the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on every pitch, it never bothered Whitey. He pitched his game. Cool. Craft. Nerves of steel."

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

"I don't know why Roger (Maris) isn't in the hall of fame. To me, he was as good as there ever was."

"I expected him to say, 'Hang in there' or something like that. It took me an hour to talk him into giving me another chance!"

"I don't know why, but for some reason I seem to be more popular now than when I was playing."

"I had it all and blew it."

"I leaned on him for support when I got out of the cab, and he just crumpled to the ground. That's how we found out."

"I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you he'd come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, 'Do you want me to sign it?'"

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

"I never got to see the '27 Yankees. Everyone says that was the greatest team ever. But I think it would've been a great series if we'd have had the chance to play them."

"I never saw him fight. I never saw Billy fight."

"I played seven years without ever hitting the ball."

"I think the best all-round baseball player ever was Joe DiMaggio."

"I never understood how someone who was dying could say he was the luckiest man in the world, but now I understand."