I didn't really hit him. If I had, he'd have stayed down.

I didn't mean to shoot him. I really didn't!

I'm afraid that someday I'll kill some pitcher. It is one thing I've always dreaded. My heart stood still in that game in Detroit when I almost got Ehmke with that drive through the box. I thought for a certainty that the ball would hit him before he got his hands up to protect himself. A couple of pitchers have asked me not to hit the ball back at them, and I always try not to. Why should I try to hurt any ball players? We are all out there trying to make a living, and no man worthwhile would deliberately try to injure another.

I didn't mean to hit the umpire with the dirt, but I did mean to hit that bastard in the stands.

I always swing at the ball with all my might. I hit or miss big and when I miss I know it long before the umpire calls a strike on me, for every muscle in my back, shoulders and arms is groaning, "You missed it." And be­lieve me, it is no fun to miss a ball that hard. Once I put myself out of the game for a few days by a miss like that.

I didn't punch you, by the way. (...) I didn't hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you. I was not punching you.

You all wrong. You try to hit home run every time but you no can do. No man can do. I wish you try to hit ball like you did when you joined team last July. Then you just try to meet ball because you want to make good showing after coming from minors. You swing easy and ball goes into centerfield seats. Next day, you swing easy again and ball goes over left field wall. Now you swing too hard. Try to hit home run every swing. You wrong. You have no timing, you miss ball. Please, for me, just try to meet ball when we open season. You have so much power, you just meet ball and whoosh—it goes over fence. Stu, with my brains, if I have your power, I make $200,000 in baseball.

Last year when I hurt my shoulder, I couldn't hit high pitches, but they kept throwing me low and away, and I could hit that pitch without much pain. "Look, he gets three hits, but he says he's in pain," they say, but they don't know that I can't go for the high pitch, and I'm not about to tell them!

I go up to hit. I hear people say I swing at bad pitches. If I can hit it, it is not a bad pitch.

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!

You know, yourself—. The only way you could hit him was to poke the ball. I used to wait for his curve. Used to kid him by standing up straight with the bat leaning against my hip.

There wasn't any pitcher I felt I couldn't get a hit off.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.