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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
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Willie Mays
Age: 93
Born: 1931
Born: May 6
Baseball Player
Jefferson County
Alabama
Willie Howard Mays Jr.
Willie Howard Mays
The Say Hey Kid
Play
Really
Good
Fortunate
Time
Anger
Life
Angry
Stay
Went
Sports
More quotes by Willie Mays
In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated.
Willie Mays
And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11. So I just picked baseball.
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
Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.
Willie Mays
I don't rate them, I just hit them.
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
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
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 would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.
Willie Mays
I don't know what Joe (DiMaggio) wanted (in regards to being called 'the greatest living ballplayer'), but I don't have a problem, if he wanted to do that. He was my hero. Joe was the best all-around player. Joe was the best. I only played against him once, in the '51 Series.
Willie Mays
Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.
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
Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.
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
What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.
Willie Mays
I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.
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
Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.
Willie Mays
I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.
Willie Mays
I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.
Willie Mays