1. There's only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.



2. A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.'

3. All managers are losers, they are the most expendable pieces of furniture on the face of the Earth.

4. Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel, not just to be as good as someone else but to be better than someone else. This is the nature of man and the name of the game.

5. Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.

6. Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is!

7. By the time you know what to do, you're too old to do it.

8. God gets you to the plate, but once your there your on your own.

9. Hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders.

10. Hitting is the most important part of the game. It is where the big money is, where much of the status is, and the fan interest.

11. I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400.

12. I've found that you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit.

13. If I was being paid $30,000 a year, the very least I could do was hit .400.

14. If there was ever a man born to be a hitter it was me.

15. If you don't think too good, don't think too much.

16. There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.

17. You have to hit the fastball to play in the big leagues.

Whether you knew him as The Kid, the Splendid Splinter or Teddy Ballgame, you knew him as a witty, outspoken and unique individual -- but most of all you knew him as a great ballplayer. Let's commemorate the birth of this baseball great with these 17 Ted Williams quotes.