Hank Aaron Baseball Quotations

You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.

It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.

I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.

The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one. You stand up there alone, and if you make a mistake, it's your mistake. If you hit a home run, it's your home run.

The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.

The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.

I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.

I think of this award as being what we call 'The Year of the Complete Ballplayer,' ... The player that has done the most not only for his team, but has done most to help his team win baseball games. Not only for home runs, runs batted in and batting average, but also in the clubhouse.

Discover Greatness: An Illustrated History of Negro Leagues Baseball,

I've tried a lot of things in the off-season, but the only thing I really know is baseball.

I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and running 99 yards for a touchdown.

I was being thrown to the wolves. Even though I did something great, nobody wanted to be a part of it. I was so isolated. I couldn't share it. For many years, even after Jackie Robinson, baseball was so segregated, really. You just didn't expect us to have a chance to do anything. Baseball was meant for the lily-white.

In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about (Stan) Musial, (Ted) Williams and (Jackie) Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time.

Looking at the ball going over the fence isn't going to help.

Baseball needs me because it needs somebody to stir the pot, and I need it because it's my life. It's the means I have to make a little difference in the world.

Baseball is a lot like the ivy-covered wall of Wrigley Field--it gives off a great appearance, but when you run into it, you discover the bricks underneath. At times, it seems that we're dealing with a group of men who aren't much different than others we've all run into over the years, except they wear neckties instead of robes and hoods.

I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week.

I came to the Braves on business, and I intended to see that business was good as long as I could.

The first thing baseball wants to do is make you a superstar and then say that you owe baseball something. I don't owe baseball anything. Baseball owes me.

I would like people not to think in terms of the 755 home runs I hit but think in terms of what I've accomplished off the field and some of the things I stood for.

Whatever we do, make sure we clean up baseball.

There is no logical reason why girls shouldn't play baseball. It's not all that tough.

I'm sure glad this isn't my home ball park.