Quote

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

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
People
Leader
Wasn
Guy
May
Fist
Wanted
Fists
Way
Raising
Think
Hey
Thinking
Type

More quotes by Willie Mays

Image
I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.
Willie Mays
Image
Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.
Willie Mays
Image
If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.
Willie Mays
Image
It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.
Willie Mays
Image
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
Image
I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act
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
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'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
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 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
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
Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.
Willie Mays
Image
Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.
Willie Mays
Image
Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.
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
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
Image
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.
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