Pitcher Quotes - page 6
'Satchel' Paige, pitcher for the Bismark, N.D., team which is in the tournament, is one of the greatest flingers, Wagner thinks. Wagner has seen him play. "The only trouble they will have about Paige is getting a catcher to hold him. Boy-that fellow has a speed ball that goes in there like a bullet. I've seen it go right through a catcher and into the stands. It takes a great backstop to stand up to his fastball. Quite often, Paige has that trouble-a catcher who just can't hold him. Then he has to ease down and when he eases down you can beat him. That colored boy is tall, slender and has good shoulders and arms. He looks like 'Dizzy' Dean and pitches much like him."
Satchel Paige
When Clemente was out there in right field, there was nothing more a pitcher could want. I figured if the ball was hit to right and stayed in the ballpark, I had a chance. Some way, if it was humanly possible, he would get there. If they had a rally going, I knew he might make an impossible catch and double off a runner and the rally would die. With him, it was like having four outfielders. I hope somebody has the film of a catch he made a few years ago in Houston. He was playing in right center and Bob Watson hit one down the line. Robby went into the wall- not just running but leaping into it-and made a catch that saved the game.
Roberto Clemente
I think the way Clemente played – running out every hit and running recklessly into the wall – he realized he needed some time off and he took it. So many times I saw him catch balls that went into the gap and he'd personally keep the other guy from getting that extra base. For a pitcher, that was something that was really appreciated. An average outfielder many times will give up the extra base. Often that's the difference between winning and losing. At Forbes Field, we had one of the toughest right fields to play in baseball. Clemente could play the ball off that cement wall. Clemente would cut off the ball before it could get to the wall; he'd keep it from being a triple – he'd hold it to a single.”.
Roberto Clemente
We talked about pitchers a lot. He'd want to know what I did against a certain pitcher. He had his own ideas, of course, and liked to use reverse psychology. He would take about five bats to the on-deck circle and sometimes changed bats. He would make the pitcher think he was going to use a heavier bat to punch the ball to the opposite field or something. Then he'd take a big cut.
Roberto Clemente
I'd put him in the top five I've ever seen. Mays, Aaron, Clemente. That's pretty good company. He was a disciplined hitter, not just a wild swinger. He could hit a lot of pitches. I remember one time at Forbes Field, a pitcher dusted him with an inside fastball. Clemente got up and hit the next pitch over the wall. That's 440 feet at Forbes Field.
Roberto Clemente
I remember one time we pitched out on him and he hit a homer, right into the right-field corner. Billy McCool was our pitcher. Roberto just reached out and belted the homer. He could do everything on the field. If he didn't kill you with his bat, arm or glove, he'd do it on the basepaths, taking the extra base. And he always seemed to rise to the occasion.
Roberto Clemente
A reliever strikes out Mays, McCovey, Howard, and Clemente tonight. Believe it or not, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Frank Howard, Roberto Clemente play in the same game-and get struck out-on the first annual "All-Star Celebrity Softball" special. The reliever is Eddie Feigner, known as "King of Softball" after 22 years as pitcher in the sport throughout the United States and Canada.
Roberto Clemente
I was responsible only for Joe Jackson. I positively can't say that I recall anything out of the way in the Series. I mean, anything that might have turned the tide. There was just one thing that doesn't seem quite right, now that I think back over it. Cicotte seemed to let up on a pitch to Pat Duncan, and Pat hit it over my head. Duncan didn't have enough power to hit the ball that far, particularly if Cicotte had been bearing down. Williams was a great control pitcher and they made a lot of fuss over him walking a few men. Swede Risberg missed the bag on a double-play ball at second and they made a lot out of that. But those are things that might happen to anybody. You just can't say out and out that that was shady baseball.
Shoeless Joe Jackson
