2. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.”
3. “You can wake up every day and make today better than the last.”
4. “The only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.”
5. “Listen, if you start worrying about the people in the stands, before too long, you’re up in the stands with them.”
6. “If you love your job, you haven’t worked a day in your life.”
7. “Everybody wants to win, but everybody doesn’t win.”
8. “Guys ask me, don’t I get burned out? How can you get burned out doing something you love? I ask you, have you ever gotten tired of kissing a pretty girl?”
9. “Nothing succeeds like failure.”
10. “Everybody makes mistakes, that’s why they put erasers on pencils.”
11. “We’re all put here for a reason. And one little movement changes your way of life.”
12. “I’m telling you, I don’t like cheaters.”
13. “You have got to love what you’re doing. No matter what it is.”
14. “Whatever you undertake in life, if you don’t love it, and you don’t enjoy it, you are making a big mistake.”
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15. “You have got to love what you are doing. You have to appreciate what you are getting, and you have to do it to the best of your ability.”
16. “If you’d see my schedule, you’d know I have no time to slow down.”
17. “You give , you’ll get it back. You give love, you’ll get it back.”
18. “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”
19. “No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.”
20. “Nobody has to tell he is a good singer and nobody has to tell me that I am a good manager.”
21. “Always give an autograph when somebody asks you.”
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22. “‘Pressure’ is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.”
23. “I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.”
24. “There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.”
25. “Sometimes, you get too hopped up, too excited, and it works against you.”
26. “Sometimes you’ve just got to let an umpire know that you’re not satisfied with his decision. That they’ve missed the play in your opinion. Not that it’s going to do you any good, but you’ve got to let them know.”
27. “When I die, I’m going to the big Dodger in the sky.”
28. “The only Angels in Los Angeles are in Heaven, and they’re looking down on the Dodgers.”
29. “If you don’t love the Dodgers, there’s a good chance you may not get into Heaven.”
30. “I firmly believe that there is a God. I firmly believe that there is a Heaven. And I firmly believe that if you go there, it’s gonna be great.”
31. “My God, look at the words people use today. They use profanity like it’s nothing. Christ almighty.”
32. “No, we don’t cheat. And even if we did, I’d never tell you.”
33. “When we win, I’m so happy, I eat a lot. When we lose, I’m so depressed, I eat a lot. When we’re rained out, I’m so disappointed, I eat a lot.”
34. “I still remember the entire Boy Scout motto. I don’t remember the serial number of my gun in the army. I don’t remember the number of my locker in school. But I remember that Boy Scout code.”
35. “Never argue with people who buy ink by the gallon.”
36. “I’ve got a portrait in the Smithsonian. Whoever thought that would happen?”
37. “The only way I’d worry about the weather is if it snows on our side of the field and not theirs.”
38. “I was glad to see Italy win. All the guys on the team were Italians.”
39. “I was told to stay away from pasta and bread for two weeks. Not eating pasta? That’ll kill me. Anything else, but why pasta?”
40. “My wife tells me one day, ‘I think you love baseball more than me.’ I say, ‘Well, I guess that’s true, but hey, I love you more than football and hockey.’”
41. “I walk into the clubhouse today and it’s like walking into the Mayo Clinic. We have four doctors, three therapists, and five trainers. Back when I broke in, we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and by the seventh inning he’d already drunk it.”
42. “The gym teacher’s name was Mr. Caruso. Mr. Caruso did not speak English. He spoke ‘Gym.’ One day, I was playing basketball and Mr. Caruso told me I would have to get an athletic supporter. He didn’t express himself exactly that way, though. He said, ‘Hey, you, one day you’re gonna go up for a rebound and the family jewels aren’t gonna go with ya.’ I had no idea what he was talking about. Next day I showed up for practice without my watch and my mezuzah. He said, ‘Did ya take care of the family jewels?’ I said, ‘I left ’em in my locker.’ Took us a half hour to revive Mr. Caruso.”
43. “I can’t remember the first game but I know you were assigned to different teams, the red team, the yellow team, the blue team, all different colors. There were 26 different colors. Also, if you had a sore arm, you wore a gray cap. If you had a bad leg, you wore white socks. This way, if you’re hitting the ball and you didn’t hustle, they would know it’s because you had a bad leg.”
44. “The average age of our bench is deceased.”
45. “All last year we tried to teach him—Fernando Valenzuela—English, and the only word he learned was million.”
46. “He—Darryl Strawberry—is not a dog; a dog is loyal and runs after balls.”
47. “Sports has kept me on the straight and narrow path.”
48. “Baseball is like driving, it’s the one who gets home safely that counts.”
49. “My theory of hitting was just to watch the ball as it came in and hit it.”
50. “I love doubleheaders. That way I get to keep my uniform on longer.”
51. “Say ‘Dodgers’ and people know you’re talking about baseball. Say ‘Braves’ and they ask, ‘What reservation?’ Say ‘Reds’ and they think of communism. Say ‘Padres’ and they look around for a priest.”
52. “I bleed Dodger blue!”
53. “The saddest day of the year is the day baseball season ends.”
54. “Think about each pitch like you think about women, then select one which is particularly appealing.”
55. “It’s still the best game in town because you don’t have to be big to play, and everybody plays. Even your probably played baseball.”
56. “Baseball is played by all countries now, and softball, too.”
57. “The best possible thing in baseball is winning The World Series. The second best thing is losing The World Series.”
58. “I’ve always called L.A the world capital of sport.”
59. “They could never beat me in Springfield. I loved that old ballpark. If I could have pitched there all my career, I’d be a 300-game winner.”
60. “When you say you’re a padre, people ask when did you become a parent. When you say you’re a cardinal, they tell you to work hard because the next step is pope. But when you say you’re a Dodger, everybody knows you’re in the Major Leagues.”
61. “I don’t want guys who try, I want guys who do! I could go out and get a bunch of truck drivers to play for us who’ll try. I don’t want guys who try, I want guys who do!”
62. “Chan Ho had a great career and was the exemplification of class, dignity, and character.”
63. “Ernie Banks was a great great player and when he no longer could play, he became a great ambassador for the game. He represented the game with the highest of class and dignity. Everybody loved Ernie Banks. He enjoyed baseball, life, and people. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. We have truly lost a baseball giant.”
64. “I motivate players through communication, being honest with them, having them respect and appreciate your ability and your help.”
65. “Everything I have, I owe to baseball and the Dodgers.”
66. “When you’re not playing up to your capability, you gotta try everything, to motivate, to get them going. All of them have to be on the same end of the rope to pull together. It’s playing for the name on the front of the shirt, not the back. Individualism gets you trophies and plaques. Play for the front, that wins championships. I try to remind them of that.”
67. “Nobody thought we could win the division! Nobody thought we could beat the mighty Mets! Nobody thought we could beat the team that won 104 games! But we believed it!”
68. “You can have the best team in baseball, and if nobody goes through the turnstiles, you’ve got to shut the doors down.”
69. “I am so happy and proud to learn of Hideo Nomo’s election to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He was quite a pitcher and competitor, but he is also a very special and caring person.”
70. “I’ve been able to dine with presidents, with leaders of corporations, traveled for 14 years with Michael Milken, who has taught me so much about life. Hanging around with them, it’s nothing I could have believed in grade school. I could be with all of them? Milton Berle, Don Rickles, Dean Martin—this former third-string pitcher from the Norristown High baseball team and the son of an Italian immigrant? I really am in awe when I think that has happened to me. What a life.”
71. “One time, I was doing a speech to a group of kids, and just before I get there, I see this little kid crying. I found out they just lost a game, and he was the losing pitcher. I went over there, put my arm around him, and said, ‘What are you crying for? When major-league players lose, they don’t cry.’”
72. “When I was interviewed after I got hired to replace Walter Alston, a future Hall of Famer, I was asked, ‘Don’t you feel pressure on you?’ I said, ‘Want to know something? I’m worried about the guy who’s going to have to replace me.’”
73. “There are parents out there screaming as if their kid is going to be in the big leagues someday. C’mon. I chew them out if I see that. Maybe they’ve got their own idea how to do things, but it’s wrong. Just be with the kids. Let ’em make errors. Give them all a chance. It’s not about winning. It’s spirit, togetherness.”
74. “Talking about your troubles is no good. Eighty percent of your friends don’t care and the rest are glad.”
75. “I’ve had heroes in my life: Joe DiMaggio, .”
76. “I didn’t even graduate from high school. I’ve never told anybody that before. I got my degree later when I was in the army.”
77. “People felt sorry for me that I don’t get a medal. I said, ‘Hey, I got my medal when I saw them put the medal around our players.’ I said, ‘I got my medal when they raised that American flag, and I got my medal when they played our national anthem.’ You know, I cried. I cried because I know that I had done something for my country.”
78. “I do not care whether you’re a Democrat or you’re a Republican or an independent. We must pull for the people who are wearing the uniform of the armed forces. These people weren’t drafted. They enlisted because they believed.”
79. “My goal is to live to be 100.”
80. “Caltech honored me—they named an asteroid after me. There’s only two of them up there with names. One of them is Walter Cronkite. The other is Tommy Lasorda.”
81. “You get an opportunity to do something for your country, you better get out and do it.”
82. “The worst team in baseball’s history won only 55 games. The best team ever won 110 out of 160, so you’re virtually guaranteed to win one-third of the time and lose one-third of the time. The difference is the one-third in the middle. You don’t know what bucket the game you’re playing falls into, so if you’re smart, you’ll fight like everything for all of them.”
83. “Grownups have to say ‘please,’ too.”
84. “When I was 15 years old, I used to actually dream I was pitching in Yankee Stadium. Bill Dickey was my catcher.”
85. “People say you can’t go out and eat with your players. I say, ‘Why not?’”
86. “I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple-A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that’s the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years.”
87. “When I took the job as the manager of the Olympic team, I didn’t take it because I was a Dodger. I did it because I was an American, and I wanted to bring that gold medal where it belongs in baseball, the United States. And that’s exactly what our team did.”
88. “I was fortunate enough to coach the U.S. Olympic team in Australia.”
89. “It is a great honor to be inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame. When you honor me with this distinction, you really honor the players who put me there. All of the honors I received became a reality only through the contributions of my players. In addition to myself, you also honor my family and the Dodger organization. I accept this recognition with pride and gratitude.”