Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Came
Professional
Guy
Ball
Year
Quickly
Black
Balls
Years
Ten
Really
Guys
Playing
Barons
Sports
Birmingham

More quotes by Willie Mays

Image
I was very blessed with a good body. Never got hurt. Never was in the hospital. The only time I was in the hospital was when I would get exhausted a little bit, and go in for a check-up or something.
Willie Mays
Image
Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.
Willie Mays
Image
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
Image
I'm not the type of guy to go out and just say, 'Hey, I'm raising my fist to do this and do that.' I don't think I'm that type of guy. I wasn't a leader the way other people may have wanted me to be.
Willie Mays
Image
What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.
Willie Mays
Image
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
Image
I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.
Willie Mays
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.
Willie Mays
Image
I didn't teach you that. Catch the ball with your glove.
Willie Mays
Image
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.
Willie Mays
Image
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
Image
When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.
Willie Mays
Image
I don't rate them, I just hit them.
Willie Mays
Image
They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.
Willie Mays
Image
Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.
Willie Mays
Image
When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.
Willie Mays
Image
The catch off Bobby Morgan (a backhanded grab of the Brooklyn Dodger's line drive in September 1951 at Ebbets Field) in Brooklyn was the best catch I ever made. Jackie Robinson and (Giants manager) Leo Durocher were the first people I saw when I opened my eyes
Willie Mays
Image
I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.
Willie Mays