And then came the nineties, when management, suddenly frightened that they had ceded control to the players, sought to restore baseball's profitability by 'running the game like a business.'
One of the first lessons he or she learns is that in baseball anything, absolutely anything, can happen. Just two days ago as I write this, something happened that had never happened in baseball before.
In over 160 years of recorded baseball history, no team had ever won a championship this way.
Yes, we've seen it all before. And yes, those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. But no, the sky is not falling - baseball is such a great game that neither the owners nor the players can kill it. After some necessary carnage, market forces will prevail.
There are no war stories. I ended up a bombardier, but I never got overseas. And it wasn't because I was playing baseball either. It was just a series of things that went on.
Baseball must be a great game to survive the fools who run it.
I played baseball because I could make more money doing that than I could doing anything else.
What you have to remember is that baseball isn't a week or a month but a season - and a season is a long time.
If you don't like the way the Atlanta Braves are playing then you don't like baseball.
When I was real young I wanted to play baseball. I really loved playing center field, but that was never anything I was really ever that good at. I played up until I was in ninth grade.
The more that Japanese players go to the big leagues to play and succeed, the more that will serve to inspire young kids in Japan to want to become baseball players when they grow up.
I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.
I am a hero worshiper. I love the number one tennis player. I love the number one baseball player. I want to see those records broken.
There are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain.
Now there's three things you can do in a baseball game: You can win or you can lose or it can rain.