During those moments on the pitching rubber, when you have every pitch at your command working to its highest potential, you are your own universe. For hours after the game, this sense of completeness lingers. Then you sink back to what we humorously refer to as reality. Your body aches and your muscles cry out. You feel your mortality. That can be a difficult thing to handle. I believe pitchers come in touch with death a lot sooner than other players. We are more aware of the subtle changes taking place in our body and are unable to overlook the tell-tale hints that we are not going to last on this planet forever. Every pitcher has to be a little bit in love with death. There's a subconscious fatalism there.
More Quotes from Bill Lee:
The only rule I got is if you slide, get up.Bill Lee
Alcohol is like anything else. It's only as bad as the person it's being poured into. If it's used to heighten an occasion, or to take an edge off stress, I don't see a problem. Trouble starts when you either lose control and let the bottle run you, or when you believe its promises of immortality. You realize that no matter how much you punish yourself, you always seem to wake up the next day. Pretty soon you're convinced that you will never die. When that happens I guess it is time to look for help before your life becomes one long, lost weekend.
Bill Lee
It's no wonder that our priorities got screwed up. Just because a person can throw a ball harder or hit it further than most ordinary human beings, he is placed on a pedestal at an early age. I don't think there is anything wrong with admiring an exceptionally skilled person, but the hero-worship we shower on athletes goes beyond that. This is a part of the tribal influence handed down by our ancestors. Man has always been lionized for his physical prowess. An Indian brave did not have to pass a math quiz in order to become a chief, he just had to tear the ass off some bear. And the twelve labours of Hercules did not include a Regents' exam. Society has tended to find its heroes in the most obvious arenas, and I don't regard that as a healthy thing. We should find our heroes in the bathroom mirror each and every morning.
Bill Lee
This is kind of the untold story, the story doesn't grab national headlines. But if you look at what's happening in community after community, you see that when the numbers in minority communities reach a certain point and when they start to be interested in voting and politics, there's often resistance - and that resistance takes forms that violate the law.
Bill Lee
When cerebral processes enter into sports, you start screwing up. It's like the Constitution, which says separate church and state. You have to separate mind and body.
Bill Lee
Our defense just has guys and coaches that have a lot of pride and heart. They take it serious when it comes to keeping teams out of the end zone. They bow up when they have to.
Bill Lee
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Based on Topics: Death & Dying Quotes, Love Quotes, Potential Quotes, Reality QuotesBased on Keywords: aches, completeness, fatalism, hints, humorously, lingers, tell-tale
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