I’d like to help educate kids about the Major Leagues – what to anticipate, what to expect, what they’ll need to do to prepare themselves.
At least two or three of the leagues in Europe over the last few months have said to us, ‘We hope you go to the Olympics,’ and I looked at them, and I said, ‘Why?’ and they go, ‘Because if you don’t send NHL players, we have to send our players, and that’s way too disruptive to our season.’
I have been playing soccer since I was about four years old. You always hope you can reach the top of the profession, that you can play in the big leagues and achieve all of the goals you hope to accomplish throughout your life.
Fundamentally, England, Spain and Germany were the relevant leagues I could see myself playing football in.
Every kid in America dreams of playing in the big leagues and they don’t, just because. It’s not because they blew out their knee. It’s just because they didn’t make it.
It’s definitely good to play out of my comfort zone, especially in the Sydney Premier League which is one of the toughest leagues in the world.
When I was growing up, there weren’t any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn’t have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.
Real are really powerful in attack, really strong in defence, and have a balanced midfield. There’s a reason they’ve won two Champions Leagues in a row.
Every footballer knows the Premier League is a great league. It’s very competitive, and it’s among the best leagues in the world.
The right wing has had a radio apparatus for years and years, so they’ve had minor leagues – they’ve had local rightwing guys who’ve become national rightwing guys, and who build slowly, and that’s how it goes. We haven’t had that. It isn’t like we have a farm team.
I keep a lot of things inside. I don’t like showing too much emotion. Early in the minor leagues, they wanted me to show more emotion, but it wasn’t me.
In the minor leagues, previous to 2008, I took a lot of pitches. I prided myself on on-base percentage. I made sure that I made the pitcher work.
Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship – and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that.
I will choose England before any other destination. My dream has always been to play in one of the top two leagues in the world. Newcastle is a good club, and St James’s Park is a monumental stadium where there is passionate fans.
Although I may not know a lot about football, I do know a lot about food! As a result, not many people ask me to join their fantasy leagues, but they will come to me for suggestions on what to serve for guests for a weekly Sunday get-together.
My two daughters were born in Madrid, I won three Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles as well.
I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I’d had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I’d already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.
The Premier League is one of the top leagues in the world and I’m a guy that likes to challenge myself, so just to be able to practice against those types of players and play against them every weekend is a dream come true.
Winning domestic tournaments like leagues, cups, and super cups adds to your standing in your country, but once you take a step forward in Europe and lift that European Cup, I think that prestige extends to the global stage.
I feel like a pioneer with the split-fingered fastball. I was the first one to really throw it pretty much 100 percent of the time. It was a pitch that I had to have. If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t have been in the big leagues.
I want to win a World Series. I’ve come in second, both in college and in the big leagues. I’m tired of it.
I need to eat a large meal before I play, and the one thing that was kind of consistent in every single clubhouse at least in the minors was a roast beef sandwich. So that kind of stuck there, and it just kind of stuck in the big leagues as well.
It’s one of my goals to play in the best leagues and against the best players.
There were a lot of players who worked just as hard as I did, and if you didn’t, you didn’t stay in the big leagues.
It’s one thing to make the big leagues, but it’s another thing to make it to an all-star game.
I know, playing in schoolyards, and summer leagues, that I can hit the three.
Asian players have more in common with the Bundesliga than with Italian or Spanish leagues because they are wedded to the team cause, are hard-working and disciplined.
If I don’t make the team out of spring training, I’ll keep a good attitude. I’ll just go polish up the parts of my game that made me not stay in the big leagues.
I think the four major leagues ought to set up a joint commission – say, of retired judges – to rule on athletes who are accused of doing bad things away from the game. Then each league would retain its independence in determining what penalties their players should get for infractions committed within the sport.
The sports world, the administrators and the leagues, they need to place a high premium on the health of America, the health of the world and certainly this country.
In 1916, Universal Studios released the first filmed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.’ Georges Melies made a film by that name in 1907, but, unlike his earlier adaptations of Verne, Melies’ version bears no resemblance to the book.
The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur, after having accomplished nearly ten thousand leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the earth. Where were we going now, and what was reserved for the future?
I’m a great bowler. I was in a couple of leagues as a kid.
The Cubs gave me a chance to play. They signed me as a free agent and brought me to the Major Leagues. The first day I walked into Wrigley Field was one of the best days of my life. And I owe them an awful lot.
I always go back to when I was a kid and thinking about playing in the big leagues, so now that I’ve played in a thousand games, it’s a cool accomplishment.
A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That’s why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues.
Your first responsibility is to the organization, to teach and prepare players to get to the big leagues and have them ready when they get there, but everyone in the minors wants to be in the majors.
I guess what really made me a Dodgers fan from the beginning was that the team had Jackie Robinson, the first ‘Negro’ in the major leagues.
I played right field in Minor Leagues a lot before I started playing centerfield.
Even in the minor leagues, I just said I’ll get my little bit of time in here and then get out of here. I was going to try, though. I wasn’t going to just give up. I was always going to try. I’m here. I figured I might as well try.
If you are used to going five innings and then go six or seven, you won’t have your good stuff. They need to start that from the minor leagues and give pitchers strong arms.
It’s good that we have good managers like Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger in this countr,y but I think we should be trying to send out some of our managers to other countries to help not just the development of themselves but the leagues over here. It can enhance their careers.
Even though my dad was a manager in the minor leagues, I still traveled around with him and saw it from the field out. Now, as an owner, you’re kind of looking from the whole baseball activity from outside in, from a fan’s perspective.
Serie A will always be one of the best leagues in the world. I hope to go back one day.
Just as I’m fortunate to pitch in the big leagues, I’m also fortunate for the time I get to spend outdoors.
I came into the game when I broke into the major leagues, the minimum salary was seven thousand dollars, and I’d have to go home in the wintertime and get a job.
I won some winners’ medals with Lancashire – a NatWest trophy and a couple of Sunday Leagues.
You can ask any young player in the lower leagues. They always dream of playing for England.
But I like Harry Kane’s robustness and where Harry Kane’s come from as well. He dropped down into the lower leagues and learnt his trade on loan.
My first year in the big leagues, I made $17,000. It was easy to go out and get another $17,000 relief pitcher. I never worried about innings or pitches. I just pitched.
There’s apparently soccer leagues that they’ve set up with young Indian girls.
The one thing I didn’t understand was the Minor Leagues, how that part of the business works. I’d see Todd Hollandsworth out there one game, and the next game he wouldn’t be there, and I didn’t understand.
It’s not like the NFL is going anywhere, it’s one of the best run leagues in the world.
The Spanish and German leagues are of a very high standard. Along with the Premier League, they are probably the best.
You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it.
I cannot consent to be led three or four hundred leagues out of my route, without its being by force of arms.
