Sports Wisdom and Quotes That I've Found Helpful...

[billyjack]

Sports wisdom and quotes that i think are pretty accurate... a lot of these i originally got from my father and uncles and cousins and brother over 40+ years ago... and they usually still hold true... please share your own favorite quotes and wisdom... I'll add more to the list too as i think of them.

1. Luck is the residue of design.

2. Defense wins championships... and specific to baseball, pitching and defense wins championships.

3. In gambling, bet on probabilities, not possibilities.

4. In football, never take points off the board (if you nail a FG, but get 1st down on a penalty, keep the 3 points).

5. Teams need to learn how to win close games.

6. "You are what your record says you are." [Bill Parcells]

7. It's amazing how better i got at managing once i got better players. [attributed to Casey Stengel, comparing his bad years managing the Braves and/or Dodgers, with his legendary years with the Yankees.]

8. "The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores." [Al McGuire]

9. Making a ridiculously dumb decision, and justifying it by saying "let's do this... what do we have to lose? things can't get any worse!"... that quote is really really dumb... things can always get worse.

10. Never fight anyone who is shorter than you, nor mentally unstable, or both. [one of my uncles told me this a long time ago]

11. In hockey, 100% of the shots you don't take, don't go in (esp on a power play when the offense passes around the perimeter without taking a shot for the first 90 seconds). [thx to adoraz below, who attributed it to Wayne Gretzky, and who fixed the quote as "you miss 100% of thevshots you don't take".

12. If you've won a lot of close games, it's often because of good coaching and preparedness and leadership.

13. "Go home with the guy who brung ya..." [my brother used to say this and told me it was an old sports quote. The time i first heard him say this was while we were watching an NFL playoff game in 1983... Detroit at San Francisco... the Lions were down 1 or 2 points, under 30 seconds probably, and they had the ball near the SF 31-yard line... they had time for one more play to get closer for a FG attempt... i said they should throw (QB was Eric Hipple)... my brother said they should hand off to Billy Sims... "Sims carried the team all year and got them this far... they've got to "go home with the guy who brung them"... as it happened, Detroit gave it to Sims, who gained around 7 yards, setting up a nice 41 yd FG attempt... but Eddie Murray went wide right.

14. Don't let their best player beat you.

15. Don't put the winning run on 1st base via an intentional walk.

16. "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you". [great quote from Satchel Paige].

[stever20]

#2 on your list definitely gets challenged now in days....

#11- I use that in basketball all the time....

[Xudash]

Woody Hayes: "there are three things that can happen with a pass, and two of them are bad."

[MUBoxer]

Can't figure out who number 10 is attributed to but if it was true I would've been much better when I moved up to the middleweight division when I was still boxing.

Also a good one:

"Everybody has plans until they get hit." -I've found this quote to be true in every sport

[gtmoBlue]

My favs...

@OmahaEliteAAU: " I refuse to lower my expectations for those who will not elevate their own."

I am an optimist. @gtmoBlue.
Long version - "I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else." - Winston Churchill

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Churchill

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Top tier teams rarely have true "down" years and find a way to stay relevant every year." - Adoraz

"When in doubt, Be Bold!" - James Harvey

"The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else." - John Madden

You know, there's a rule in sports, "Don't do anything great if you can't handle the congratulations." - John Madden

"Take the high road. There's less traffic." - anonymous

[adoraz]

My favs...

@OmahaEliteAAU: " I refuse to lower my expectations for those who will not elevate their own."

I am an optimist. @gtmoBlue.
Long version - I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. - Winston Churchill

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Churchill

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Top tier teams rarely have true "down" years and find a way to stay relevant every year." - Adoraz

Honored to be on the same list as Churchill and Gandhi.

I always like the Wayne Gretzky quote "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

I actually thought MJ said that, but researched and saw apparently he didn't.

[gtmoBlue]

Adoraz...It's just a GREAT quote. My fav part is the "find a way" part. Finding a way to be relevant, to be competitive, to win the contest, to win the season, etc. Just a great quote.

[Savannah Jay]

John Wooden: If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

I'm a Cubs fan, so Joe Maddon: Try not to suck.

And finally, a quote that came second hand. When I was at CU, my roommate and I drove our girlfriends to Miami Beach for spring break our senior year (26 hour drive, straight thru, FYI). We had an apartment for the week in a complex that had permanent residents. One of them was an older guy who sat on the veranda every day and enjoyed "one or two fingers" of scotch. When he was younger living in NY, he ran into the Babe in a bar and wanted to give him a hard time. So he said, "Babe, I love watching you play baseball. Do you want to know why?" And the Babe said, "Why do you like watching me play, kid?" And he responded, "I love watching you play because I love watching you strike out." So the Babe responded, "Well kid, just keep watching me play, then, because I know that's going to keep happening."

[billyjack]

Can't figure out who number 10 is attributed to but if it was true I would've been much better when I moved up to the middleweight division when I was still boxing.

Also a good one:

"Everybody has plans until they get hit." -I've found this quote to be true in every sport

Great quote you posted: "Everybody has plans until they get hit." Totally the case.

Number 10 was from my uncle.

I updated the original list to show where i heard them or note who said them.

[billyjack]

John Wooden: If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

I'm a Cubs fan, so Joe Maddon: Try not to suck.

And finally, a quote that came second hand. When I was at CU, my roommate and I drove our girlfriends to Miami Beach for spring break our senior year (26 hour drive, straight thru, FYI). We had an apartment for the week in a complex that had permanent residents. One of them was an older guy who sat on the veranda every day and enjoyed "one or two fingers" of scotch. When he was younger living in NY, he ran into the Babe in a bar and wanted to give him a hard time. So he said, "Babe, I love watching you play baseball. Do you want to know why?" And the Babe said, "Why do you like watching me play, kid?" And he responded, "I love watching you play because I love watching you strike out." So the Babe responded, "Well kid, just keep watching me play, then, because I know that's going to keep happening."

Great story with Babe.
The Ruth quote i like is when he signed a huge contract and someone asked if it was fair that he'd be making morecthan the President (Hoover), and he said "Why not? I had a better year than he did..."

Maddon i thought was hilarious when he was with Tampa, and they beat Boston in a must-win Game 3, and he said that his team "remained solvent".