Athlete Quotes

If you're going to win games, you're going to have to come up with the big hits. That's the bottom line.

You gotta have fun. Regardless of how you look at it, we're playing a game. It's a business, it's our job, but I don't think you can do well unless you're having fun.

My office is at Yankee stadium. Yes, dreams do come true.

If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.

It's never over. You don't want to be in the position to be down four runs in the ninth inning, but it's not over until the last out.

There may be people who have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do - and I believe that.

The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the other end in an awful hurry.

When the time comes for your brain to process the information, the second word comes up faster than the first one. So when it's in your head, all of a sudden, it comes out backwards and you think of the word backwards.

We put so much pressure on kids to excel in school at such a young age.

Waving the flag at the 1976 Olympics wasn't my idea. It was too much apple pie and ice cream. Not that I don't love my country, but I felt it was my victory up there, I put all the time into it.

The truth is everybody does it from time to time. People dial telephone numbers and they get a wrong number only to find that they've read the last two digits backwards. Everybody does it, but dyslexics have this tendency to a higher degree.

Our mission for younger people is to do our best to make exercise cool, hip - the thing to do.

Nobody has milked one performance better than me - and I'm damned proud of it.

If you're going to dedicate every second to winning the decathlon, what are you doing wasting your time in bed?

If you are dyslexic, your eyes work fine, your brain works fine, but there is a little short circuit in the wire that goes between the eye and the brain. Reading is not a fluid process.

If you are a kid, reading is really important stuff.

If I wasn't dyslexic, I probably wouldn't have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily... and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work.

I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. Back then they didn't even know what dyslexia was.

I thought everybody else was doing much better than I was.

I still have nightmares about taking tests.

I spent twelve years training for a career that was over in a week. Joe Namath spent one week training for a career that lasted twelve years.

Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day.

It caused more problems as a young kid, because the simple process of perceiving words on a piece of paper was hard for me. Many people think dyslexic people see things backwards. They don't see things backwards.

I didn't only have a perceptual problem, I was also so nervous and so upset. The process just didn't work. I lost enthusiasm for school and I flunked second grade. The teachers said I was lazy.

First of all, I try to be a positive role model.

The biggest problem with dyslexic kids is not the perceptual problem, it is their perception of themselves. That was my biggest problem.

I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.

If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach.

I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win - if you don't, you won't.

Mental attitude and concentration are the keys to pitching.