Quote

When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o'clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.

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
Place
Playing
Two
Game
Redwood
Used
Sports
Redwoods
Kind
Called
Birmingham
Make
Pleasure
Clock
Games
Field
Enjoy
Paid
Money
Fields

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I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.
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Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.
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They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.
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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.
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That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.
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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.
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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.
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In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated.
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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.
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I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did.
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I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.
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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.
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Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.
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What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.
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I don't mean to be bashful, but I was
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Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.
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Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.
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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.
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What's tough is being good every day.
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