Willie Stargell Quotes


"To be successful, one must take chances."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Successful)

"To me, baseball has always been a reflection of life. Like life, it adjusts. It survives everything."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life, Baseball, Reflection)

"To middle-class parents, the project team may have seemed unfit for children, but it was exactly what I needed."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Children, May, Parents, Project)

"Unfortunately, inner feelings and potential are often stunted by our parents, relatives or peers."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Feelings, Parents, Potential, Relatives)

"Oakland revolved around Forbes Field. Nothing in the city could match that atmosphere."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Nothing)

"Vietnam helped me realize who the true heroes really are in this world. It's not the home-run hitters."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Home, Heroes, Vietnam, World)

"We devote our entire lives to becoming good ball players. We take batting practice until our hands bleed."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Practice)

"You only have a few years to play this game and you can't play it if you're all tied up in knots."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Play, Years)

"They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square."
- Willie Stargell
"We all wore a 21 patch that one season as a silent tribute to our deceased teammate Roberto."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Tribute)

"I found myself in a race with Mother Nature to play as much baseball as I could before she forced me to stop."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Nature, Mother, Baseball, Play, Race)

"I was the most powerful left-handed hitter in the Alameda area."
- Willie Stargell
"I was bred as an outcast, part Negro and part Seminole, in my early years raised as an Indian."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Years)

"I was always a self-proclaimed poor slider."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Poor, Self)

"I see a lot of people who love their jobs. I see some garbage collectors smiling as they go about their work."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Love, Work, People, Jobs)

"I owe a large part of my success to Joe Brown, who helped me both as a player and a person."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Success)

"I never search for a reason why - I have faith in the Lord's purpose."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Faith, Purpose, Reason)

"I never did allow anything to keep me from my kids. They're the most important part of my life."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life, Kids)

"I loved to hit with men on base and with the game on the line."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Men)

"Playing baseball was my dream, and no amount of money could sway my opinion."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Money, Dream, Baseball, Opinion)

"I gave out stars whenever an appropriate situation presented itself."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Stars)

"I'm a God-fearing man who worships with my heart and with my life."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life, Heart, God, Man)

"I flailed my arm in a throwing motion before I could even walk."
- Willie Stargell
"I eventually became proud of my strikeouts, because each one represented another learning experience."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Experience, Learning)

"I don't really feel that I deserve all my applause."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Applause)

"I always said that when it was time to retire, I would know it, and I would just tip my hat to the crowds."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Time, Crowds)

"Human beings are pampered by the Lord. Their real tests don't come until later in life."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life, Tests)

"Helping someone is what life is all about."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life)

"Baseball for me was instinctive, born within me, given to me as a gift from God."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: God, Baseball)

"A World Series trophy is a wonderful thing to behold."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: World)

"I love September, especially when we're in it."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Love)

"Love soothes wounds, while hatred and violence deepen them."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Love, Hatred, Violence, Wounds)

"The Giants were a good team, but our biggest enemy was said to be Candlestick Park."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Enemy, Giants)

"The bat is gone, but the smile remains."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Smile)

"That's where the future lies, in the youth of today."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Future, Lies, Today, Youth)

"Simple pleasures were all the pleasures that I knew as a child."
- Willie Stargell
"Reporters often forget that athletes are human beings."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Athletes, Forget)

"People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life, you can't think about a future without it, so you hang on as long as you can."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life, People, Baseball, Future)

"Never was I booed."
- Willie Stargell
"I wasn't out drinking and abusing my body. I simply loved to go out and dance."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Dance, Body, Drinking)

"My first job after my retirement from baseball was as a narrator for the Eastman Philharmonica."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Baseball, First, Job, Retirement)

"I would always reserve a special place in my heart for Pittsburgh."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Heart)

"Life is one big transition."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Life)

"Judgment traps you within the limitations of your comparisons. It inhibits freedom."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Comparisons, Freedom, Judgment, Limitations)

"It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Fun, Man)

"If a reporter doesn't like the person he's writing about, it shows up in his article."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Writing)

"I've witnessed thousands of superior athletes try to becomes hitters and fail at it."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Athletes)

"I've always been a slave to my heart."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Heart)

"I'm proud of the fact that I'm the only player to hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Fact)

"I'm always amazed when a pitcher becomes angry at a hitter for hitting a home run off him. When I strike out, I don't get angry at the pitcher, I get angry at myself. I would think that if a pitcher threw up a home run ball, he should be angry at himself."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Home)

"There's nothing I value more than the closeness of friends and family, a smile as I pass someone on the street."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Family, Friends, Nothing, Smile, Value)

"Never had I had so many friends and so much fun as I did in the projects."
- Willie Stargell
(Related: Friends, Fun, Projects)