Elijah Dukes Quotes (7 Quotes)

I learned that you can be a good ballplayer but if the spot is occupied and everybody comes out and does their job, you can't take it unless stuff happens. You just have to keep working hard and hopefully something happens and I get my chance and I make the best of it again.

I took advantage of it. I expected to come here and show what I could do. I just have to keep working hard. If something happens, and I get my chance, I make the best of it again. They told me I have to work on the mental part of the game.

That's real important, because I need to get my body going to get ready to play every day. I'd rather go down to the Minor Leagues and play than sit on the bench any day.

I mean it's just like all the hard work is starting to pay off now. I'm taking pitches and I'm looking good. It's like I've been here before. ... Patience at the plate makes a good hitter. Everybody can't be a Vladimir Guerrero where you can just hit any ball out of the ballpark. You've got to go in there and hit the pitcher's mistakes.

My first three years, I'm swinging at anything regardless of where it's at -- inside, outside, it didn't matter. So yeah, it's pretty tough to lay off some of the stuff.

See, the thing is, I'm not only training for the Devil Rays, I'm training for the other teams, too. That's one of the things that keeps me going strong, by knowing that you can get picked up by any team at any time. That's kind of one of the things I'm looking at. You've got some guys in front of you, you just play hard and somebody else might pick you up and make some moves and get you in there.

You watch the ball out of their hand and you pretty much tell whether it's going to be a good pitch or not. When it comes out of the hand, you can pretty much tell where it's going to be ... what type of pitch it's going to be. I normally try to lay off some pitches my mind is saying not to swing at.