Babe Ruth Zitate

As quoted in Weird Ideas That Work : 11 1/2 practices for promoting, managing, and sustaining innovation (2001) by Robert I. Sutton, p. 95

As quoted in Go for the Gold: Thoughts on Achieving Your Personal Best (2001) by Ariel Books
Kontext: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn't stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

As quoted and paraphrased in "I Have Been a Babe and a Boob" by Joe Winkworth, in Collier's (October 31, 1925), p. 15
Kontext: "I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through." [Ruth] confesses he faces either oblivion or the hard task of complete reformation. [He] realizes that he must make good all over again. "I am going to do it," he said. "I was going to be the exception, the popular hero who could do as he pleased. But all those people were right. Babe and Boob—that was me all over. Now, though, I know that if I am to wind up sitting pretty on the world I've got to face the facts and admit I have been the sappiest of saps. All right, I admit it. I haven't any desire to kid myself."

From "'Keep Your Eye On the Ball'; No, Not Golf, It's Babe Ruth," http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1920/08/13/page/11/ by Ruth (as told to Pegler), in The Chicago Tribune (August 13, 1920), p. 11; reprinted as "How to Hit Home Runs," https://books.google.com/books?id=SAAlxi-0EZYC&pg=PA29&dq=%22I+always+swing%22+%22hit+or+miss+big%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZzNH7oM3QAhWJ4iYKHUCwC8wQ6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20always%20swing%22%20%22hit%20or%20miss%20big%22&f=false in Playing the Game: My Early Years in Baseball, p. 29
Kontext: 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.

As quoted in Go for the Gold: Thoughts on Achieving Your Personal Best (2001) by Ariel Books
Kontext: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn't stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

Speaking on January 7, 1930, when asked what made him think he was "worth more than the President of the United States," as quoted in "Yanks Refuse Ruth's Demand For $100,000; Star Asks That Figure On 3-Year Contract or $85,000 and No Exhibitions" http://www.mediafire.com/view/mbioqflkxsmp4cb/Vidmer%2C%20Richards.%20Yanks%20Refuse%20Ruth's%20Demand%20for%20a%20Hundred%20Thousand.%20The%20New%20York%20Herald%20Tribune.%20Wednesday%2C%20January%208%2C%201930..jpg by Richards Vidmer, in The New York Herald Tribune (January 8, 1930); also quoted in part—i.e. "The President gets a four-year contract; I'm only asking for three"—later that month in a syndicated story http://www.google.com/search?q=%22babe+ruth%22+%22four-year+contract+I%27m+only+asking%22++Claire+NEA&hl=en&gbv=2&oq=%22babe+ruth%22+%22four-year+contract+I%27m+only+asking%22++Claire+NEA&gs_l=heirloom-serp.12...14955.25097.0.27212.14.12.1.0.0.0.183.1124.3j6.9.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-serp..14.0.0.VHm9Bp_6pGo by NEA sportswriter Claire Burcky.
<blockquote><center>^✱Immediately following is the virtually ubiquitous but almost certainly apocryphal "I had a better year..." variation; in addition, see related contemporaneous quotes from Brian Bell, Herbert Hoover, Albert Keane, Reuters and Will Rogers in Quotes about Ruth.</center></blockquote>
Kontext: Say, if I hadn't been sick last summer, I'd have broken hell out of that home run record! Besides, the President gets a four-year contract. I'm only asking for three.✱</sup

Speaking with Hank Greenberg on Sunday, February 23, 1947; as quoted in "Tips From the Bambino..."
Kontext: I'm glad you finally signed up, Hank. A man's got to keep playing, if he's fit. Keep looking out for yourself. Keep your wind. That's everything. You'll like the National League, Hank. Especially the ballparks. I got a bum break when I went over there, but that was just accidental. You'll be okay. They'll curve-ball you a lot, and you'll find they think a one-run lead is something nice to sit back and rest on. But otherwise it's the same baseball we played. Don't give up until every base is uphill. I played just a little too long. About a week or so. I should have quit that day in Pittsburgh—I was with the Braves, you know—when I got three home runs and was gypped out of a fourth one by one of the Waners. That should have been curtains. But I had promised old man Fuchs that I'd hang around for his Memorial Day crowd. Too bad.

"Chapter XIV," Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball (1928), p. 199; reprinted as "Babe Ruth's Own Story — Chapter XIV (Continued)," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AmIbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9EoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4927%2C1635850&dq=after-all-pick-out-good-one-sock The Pittsburgh Press (February 4, 1929), p. 17
Kontext: After all, there's only one answer to be made to the young fellow who is asking constantly for advice as to how to hit. The answer is: "Pick out a good one and sock it!" I've talked to a lot of pretty good hitters in the past ten years and I've watched them work. Go over the list from top to bottom—Hornsby, Goslin, Heilmann, Gehrig, Traynor, Cobb, Judge, Bottomley, Roush—there's not a "guess" hitter in the lot. They all tell you the same thing "I never think about whether it's a curve or a fast one that's coming. I simply get set—and if the ball looks good, I sock it."

Farewell Address (1947)
Kontext: Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad. You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you've been a boy, and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in our national pastime.

On Shoeless Joe Jackson, as quoted in "The Sportlight" http://www.mediafire.com/view/mazvkq3hy6g68vp/Rice%2C%20Grantland.%20The%20Sportlight.%20The%20Daily%20Boston%20Globe.%20December%2016%2C%201932..jpg by Grantland Rice, in The Daily Boston Globe (December 16, 1932), p. 40
Kontext: I decided to pick out the greatest hitter to watch and study, and Jackson was good enough for me. I liked the way he kept his right foot forward, being a left-handed hitter, and his left foot back. That gave him more body and shoulder power than the average hitter has.

In "Bat It Outǃ" https://books.google.com/books?id=IEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=%22you+just+can%27t+beat+the+person+who+never+gives+up%22+rotarian&source=bl&ots=AH8Z2KbO5c&sig=jxgpb2trmAXRSvZi1xmAmDc3e68&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuo4XD6Z7dAhURZd8KHfOkBokQ6AEwB3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22you%20just%20can't%20beat%20the%20person%20who%20never%20gives%20up%22%20rotarian&f=false by George Herman ('Babe') Ruth, in The Rotarian (July 14, 1940), pp. 12-14
Kontext: One more point: A good player never stops until he's actually out, running as hard for first base on the almost-certain-to-be-caught fly or grounder as he would if he were sprinting the 100-yard dash. If Henry Ford hadn't kept going in the early days despite ridicule, we would never have seen the Ford car. It's been much the same with almost every great man you could name. He kept plugging when everybody said his chances of making first base were nil. You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

As quoted and paraphrased in "I Have Been a Babe and a Boob" by Joe Winkworth, in Collier's (October 31, 1925), p. 15
Kontext: "I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through." [Ruth] confesses he faces either oblivion or the hard task of complete reformation. [He] realizes that he must make good all over again. "I am going to do it," he said. "I was going to be the exception, the popular hero who could do as he pleased. But all those people were right. Babe and Boob—that was me all over. Now, though, I know that if I am to wind up sitting pretty on the world I've got to face the facts and admit I have been the sappiest of saps. All right, I admit it. I haven't any desire to kid myself."

Advice to Red Grange as quoted in The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone (1998) by Curt Johnson and R. Craig Sautter, p. 159; Unsourced variant: Don't ever forget two things I'm going to tell you. One, don't believe everything that's written about you. Two, don't pick up too many checks.
Kontext: Keed, I'll give you a little bit of advice. Don't believe anything they write about you, good or bad. Two, get the dough while the getting is good, but don't break your heart trying to get it. And don't pick up too many checks!

In The Babe Ruth Story (1948) by R̩uth, with Bob Considine, p. 234

As quoted in Baseball as I Have Known It (1977) by Fred Lieb, p. 154
Kontext: If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery. I have the same violent temper my father and older brother had. Both died of injuries from street fights in Baltimore, fights begun by flare-ups of their tempers.

On Shoeless Joe Jackson, as quoted in Joe Jackson: A Biography (2004) by Kelly Boyer Sagert

Responding to NL pitchers' stated intention—as relayed by Rice—to "bear down on" Ruth in 1935; as quoted in "'Never Happier in My Life' Ruth Tells Grantland Rice..."

Oft-cited but likely apocryphal variation on Ruth's defense of his Hoover-exceeding salary demands (structurally similar, albeit in bolder, considerably more streamlined fashion, to the contemporaneously reported Ruth quote of January 7, 1930—see above); as quoted in Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/12/28/better-year/#return-note-10331-1 (1947) by Tom Meany, p. 139, and reproduced shortly thereafter in several book reviews, most notably an informal review http://www.mediafire.com/view/720jdsq5hh19ar1/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Something%20About%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20December%2016%2C%201947.jpg by New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, who would go on to resurrect the quote, with slightly altered wordings, in at least four subsequent columns, including one in August 1948 http://www.mediafire.com/view/yz5mp5zi41v3xln/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Still%20More%20on%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20August%2019%2C%201948.jpg and in April 1951 http://www.mediafire.com/view/h3p6wvqdso308pk/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Carry%20a%20Bat%20Who%2C%20a%20Ball%20Player%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20April%2015%2C%201951.%20Section%20VI%2C%20Page%2017..jpg.
Unsourced variants: Hey, I had a better year than he did.
Why not, I had a better year than he did.
I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.

The earliest quotes similar to this are presented as unattributed folk wisdom, such as this example from 1959:
As Brother Allen of Newsweek indicated, it has been fun, but don't try to rest on your laurels. Always remember, “YESTERDAY’S HOME-RUN DOESN’T COUNT IN TODAY’S GAME,” and today’s game is well under way.
The quote does not begin to be attributed to Babe Ruth until the 1980s, nearly 30 years after its first appearance.
Disputed
Quelle: F. N. Abbott, "On Your Marks", in [The Palm, vol lxxix, no. 1 (February 1959), Harry L., Bird (ed.), 1959, Champaign, IL, Alpha Tau Omega, 17, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuc.1744313v0079?urlappend=%3Bseq=19]
Quelle: https://books.google.com/books?id=cQsKAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Yesterday%27s+home+runs%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Ruth

In "Wherein Babe Tells of Some Longish Swats" http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1920/08/15/page/18/article/wherein-babe-tells-of-some-longish-swats by Ruth (as told to Pegler), in The Chicago Tribune (August 15, 1920); reprinted as "The Longest Hit in Baseball" https://books.google.com/books?id=SAAlxi-0EZYC&pg=PA39&dq=%22There+is+one+hit+of+mine%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjngMzRjbnQAhXDYyYKHe-JCCMQ6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q=%22There%20is%20one%20hit%20of%20mine%22&f=false2 in Playing the Game: My Early Years in Baseball, p. 39

In "Babe Ruth Says: I Would Like to Better Mark"

Opening paragraph from The Babe Ruth Story (1948) by Ruth and Bob Considine; reproduced in "Sports of the Times: The Babe's Own Story" by Arthur Daley, in The New York Times (April 26, 1948), p. 30

As quoted in "The Sportlight: Learning From Others" by Grantland Rice, in The New York Tribune (March 15, 1923), p. 14

"Chapter III," Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball (1928), pp. 32-33; reprinted as "Babe Ruth's Own Story — Chapter III: Pitching the Keynote of Defense; The Pitcher's Job; Why Young Hurlers Fail," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r0sbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6011%2C3899916 in The Pittsburgh Press (December 23, 1928), p. 52

About Ty Cobb, a notoriously vicious player. Quoted in The Sporting News (12 July 1950); as actually published in The Sporting News, "prick" was replaced by "[censored]" — elsewhere, including Field of Screams: The Dark Underside of America's National Pastime (1994) the quote has appeared as "Ty Cobb is a prick." or sometimes "Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit."

As quoted in "'Never Happier in My Life' Ruth Tells Grantland Rice..."

Revisiting the May 1922 dirt-throwing, fan-chasing incident, in The Babe Ruth Story; reproduced in "Babe Ruth Quotes" http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quoruth.shtml at Baseball Almanac

Responding to a reporter asking whether or not he believed that other players merited salaries comparable to his own (i.e. $52,000 a year, as per Ruth's newly signed 1922 contract), as quoted in "Have to Get More of 'Em,' Says Babe Ruth When He Hears of the Income Tax," in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (March 10, 1922)

Addressing Pittsburgh Pirates' right fielder Paul Waner between innings at Forbes Field on Thursday, May 23, 1935, just moments after having his extra base bid foiled by Waner's spectacular catch (and just 2 days before hitting the final three home runs of his major league career, including the first ever to clear Forbes Field's RF roof); as quoted in "Mirrors of Sport: The Babe" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UYhRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IGkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1757%2C1439317&dq=after-victimized-awful-guy-such-big-thief by Havey Boyle, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 24, 1935), p. 18