Once I got a bit older, and we could see there could be a future in football, it was everyone’s blessing to chase that dream. And it did me a lot of good: It put me through college, it gave me an education, it got me a little taste of pro ball and a lot of good memories. I don’t regret any of it.
I love hitting the ball, controlling the ball. And yeah, even the roar of the crowd. I enjoy the roar of the crowd probably less than some players and more than some. But I’m not out here to be a celebrity.
The tennis ball doesn’t know how old I am. The ball doesn’t know if I’m a man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers.
I had a ball doing Harry Potter.
It’s so much nicer to be able to do your job with someone who’s helping you, and you’re helping them. Then, it becomes a tennis match where you’re hitting the ball back and forth, and you’re a team.
I do like to play and pass the ball. But first and foremost I see myself as a defender: blocking, tackling, heading.
Opportunities are running out, and this is the do-or-die situation when the ball is in your hands, and you can either help your team to victory or not. And so I want to be in those situations. I think about them, and almost look forward to them.
Sometimes, the people who are helping you can drop the ball.
If overconfidence can cause the Roman Empire to fall, I ought to be able to get a ground ball.
‘Elusive’ is the word that immediately springs to mind when I think about Messi’s style of play. You think you have an eye on him and then – blink – he has gone, only to reappear somewhere else in space, with the ball.
You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.
And of course in America you’ve got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.
I was very happy and honored to create the Professor Garfield Foundation with Ball State to make reading fun.
I generally mark my ball with a quarter, but sometimes I’ll use a Canadian one-dollar coin. I have a bunch from when I played on the Canadian Tour. I’m not superstitious.
It is my position to get on the ball as much as I can and I just try to find the game as much as I can as well.
Almost any game with any ball is a good game.
In the U.S. system, too often the best player on an under-17 team will be treated like a ‘star’ – not having to work for the ball, being the focus of the offense at all times, etc. – at a time when they should be having to fight tooth and nail for their spot.
Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.
I learned mime back when I was in college, at Ball State University, Indiana. That woke up my body from the neck down and made me realize that acting and communication – portraying a story, event, or emotion – is a full-body experience.
I still have a problem with nuns. I follow them around like a kitten with a ball of yarn. After a while, all my characters become very close friends.
I love Messi with the ball at his feet: he scores goals and does all the rest, too. But Cristiano’s numbers can’t be ignored. It’s a cruel comparison. Both of them deserve respect.
I’m not in the business of reading tea leaves. I don’t have a crystal ball.
You’ve got a little round ball and a little round bat and anything can happen.
I usually have a few coins in my pocket when I’m playing, but the one I use to mark my ball on the green is a special silver coin that my wife designed for me. It has our wedding date inscribed on it.
From a spinner’s perspective, in India it was never easy for me to judge where to stand: how far forward, how far back, because on Indian wickets the ball does not carry as much as abroad. That is true of slip fielding in general. I wouldn’t say only for spinner – even for a fast bowler, that holds true.
Joe Torre would tell you to make sure you can hit the ball on the outside part of the plate.
I had a role in ‘DodgeBall,’ where I played a pirate who played dodge ball. I’d say 80 to 90 percent of my lines were ‘Garrr’ or ‘Arghh.’ And it was all about what the quality of your ‘Grr-arr’ was.
My first ball I ever got from a Big League player I actually got to purchase in Dodger Stadium in a silent auction, was Reggie Jackson.
You feel very romantic when you’re in a ball gown. Everyone should wear one once in a while.
Quite honestly, cricket is same at all levels. It’s a game of bat and ball.
For me, fielding is everything – it is a passion that comes from within. You can get a bad ball while you bat, and your bowling may not always be up there, but you are completely in control of how well you field.
I signed schoolboy forms for Watford when I was 12, but then my parents got divorced, and I never kicked a ball for three years. I rebelled, I left home, but getting back into football sorted me out. It was the second chance I needed.
Donning a glove for a backyard toss, or watching a ball game, or just reflecting upon our baseball days, we are players again, forever young.
My mother is from another time – the funniest person to her is Lucille Ball; that’s what she loves. A lot of times she tells me she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I know if I wasn’t her son and she was flipping through the TV and saw me, she would just keep going.
This is a crazy game we play. You’re going to have those times you can’t get out, and those times where you can do everything right, and the ball does not fall.
Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes – you have options, but you always take the right one.
Big waves are a whole different ball game. You’re riding a wave with an immense amount of speed and power, generally over 10 meters. On the face of the wave, obviously life and death thoughts start to happen.
Building a mechanical device for its appearance is like putting lace on a bowling ball.
The first time I was onstage, I felt like the audience was breathing with me. I don’t know if I was good or not; I just knew I was having a ball, and for the first time, I felt I belonged somewhere.
As long as I play ball, I can get any woman I want.
It’s not easy to act, but to direct to act. It goes form one place to the next. It’s not heading for the punchline, and also it’s not about scoring goals. It’s about passing the ball, and the goals will come by themselves.
I’ve always liked a guy who can really power the ball in the 2-hole.
Too many kids today are playing major league ball and don’t belong there.
Jorginho is not a physical player, he is a technical player, but the most important quality is that he is very quick in the mind. He has the ability to move the ball very quickIy.
I think my friend Tom Hanks knows me. He understands me very well. He’s always had a sort of parental feeling toward me. He knows I’m a big mush ball, which is just part of my personality.
To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world.
I think the hardest to replace has been Johnny Collins. He was great to play with. You could always rely on him to be available for a short pass, allowing you time to clear a ball. He would never give the ball away.
I was watching Monster’s Ball, which is a fabulous movie. It’s just a little gem: beautifully shot, and shot in a way I never would have done. It made me feel very old, really, because it wasn’t eccentric for its own sake, it was just very original.
A woman may not hit a ball stronger than a man, but it is different. I prize that difference.
Predicting what content is going to fly is like looking into a crystal ball. I try not to say, ‘Yeah, ‘Bridesmaids’ opened the door to make more movies about women.’ I mean, did it? I don’t know; where are they?
Isolation basketball will always be part of the game. But the system has to be predicated on ball movement and, more importantly, player movement.
Yeah I am superstitious. I use certain divot tools or ball markers and will change from time to time depending on how I’m playing.
I hit a ball for a living, but I have that passion to keep learning.
I was a baseball player. I played in high school and a little bit in college. I was a catcher. I don’t know if I could have played any other position. As a catcher, you’re always on the ball.
It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‘I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.’ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.
So along with that is spending a lot of time with the ball. For me it was, I loved to juggle the ball in my front yard, and I always challenged myself – how many juggles can I get today? I think for players to get better, it’s just about spending the time.
It’s really nice to pass the ball when you’re in an ensemble cast.
Life’s like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you wake up and find out it’s the ninth inning.
My mother gave me a ball, and from then on, there was only football in my life.
