Mickey Mantle quotes

Mickey Mantle was an American professional baseball player, widely regarded as one of the greatest switch-hitters in Major League Baseball history. His legendary career with the New York Yankees was marked by powerful hitting and numerous accolades, including three MVP awards. He became an enduring icon of American sports and inspired generations of baseball fans. Here are 34 of his quotes:

He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie.

Mickey Mantle

If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

Mickey Mantle

The only thing I can do is play baseball. I have to play ball. It's the only thing I know.

Mickey Mantle

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.

Mickey Mantle

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.

Mickey Mantle

Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time.'

Mickey Mantle

You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.

Mickey Mantle

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

Mickey Mantle

I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.

Mickey Mantle

Roger Maris was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was.

Mickey Mantle

It was all I lived for, to play baseball.

Mickey Mantle

When I hit a home run I usually didn't care where it went. So long as it was a home run was all that mattered.

Mickey Mantle

Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball.

Mickey Mantle

I don't care who you are, you hear those boos.

Mickey Mantle

Well, baseball was my whole life. Nothing's ever been as fun as baseball.

Mickey Mantle

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.

Mickey Mantle

I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.

Mickey Mantle

As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best ball player of my era. He is to baseball of the last fifteen years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He's never received the credit he's due.

Mickey Mantle

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.

Mickey Mantle

Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.

Mickey Mantle

The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game.

Mickey Mantle

I'd never show up a pitcher by standing in the batters box and watching how far the ball goes like a lot of players do now. But it made me feel good to know I could hit a ball longer than anyone else. It tickled the hell out of me. It was like playing in a golf tournament and hearing all the ohhs and ahhs when you hit a good drive. I mean, every time I swung at it I was trying to hit it longer than the time before. I'm sure that was why I struck out so much, but I'd get a kick out of it. Poor Casey would get so mad. He'd say, "Hey butcher boy, just make contact."

Mickey Mantle