Major League Baseball (MLB) Teams

"Baseball stayed the same. Three outs an inning, nine innings and the game's over. I remember Alleycat Johnson, a guy who was my teammate in the minor leagues, telling me, 'You know, Mahk, when you're on that mound, you're a master, a scientist. But when you walk off it, you're crazy; no one knows what you'll do. You've got a million-dollar arm and a 10-cent mind.' He was right. I've never found another place as comfortable as a mound. Never."

"I'm in love with my land. I got it all from playing ball. It gives me prestige. Someone says, 'What you got?' I say, 'One hundred and twenty-one acres of nice land.' "

"It's either this (baseball), "or working at the gas station back home."

"That ball has a hit in it, so I want to get back in the ball bag and goof around with the other balls in there. Maybe it'll learn some sense and come out as a pop-up next time."

"Get a few beers in him and you can still get him going. He'll wrestle with the pigs and cows when they won't go where he wants them to. He'll go to a few ball games in Boston a year and yell at the ump just like any fan. Last July 4 he started a Roman candle-throwing battle with a friend. Deep down, I think he's been completely lost without baseball. A lot of people wouldn't know it, because he's got something to say to almost everyone. Ann is very good for him—she's giving his life some direction." - Wayne Hey

"He'd call me and tell me reporters were calling his hotel room at midnight the night before he had to pitch, that people were banging on his hotel door all day. 'They're driving me nuts,' he'd say. 'Why?' I'd say. 'Because you're a star and that's what happens.' He didn't understand. He was completely out of his league. All he wanted to do was drink beer and listen to rock music and have fun." - Stephen Pinkus

"He'd say anything on the air. He'd yell, 'That pitch was a hooo-rah!' and the guy on the air with him would say, 'Huh?' He'd be talking when it was time to cut to a commercial, and the director would be tapping him on the shoulder, and Mark wouldn't understand what he wanted. But I love the guy. He's flat-out genuine." - Bill Freehan

"He's so young and eager, but we wanted to bring him back slowly, so that the first time he started, he'd be ready to go nine." - Ralph Houk

"I remember begging my father to take me to see Fidrych pitch. There was a big crowd that day in Cleveland -- well, 37,405, which passed for a big crowd in Cleveland back then -- and the only two things I really remember is that we had to park what seemed like miles away from the stadium and I got to see Fidrych get on his hands and knees and manicure the pitching mound. As it turned out, he did not pitch well that day -- the aging Boog Powell got him for three hits -- but I left the stadium feeling like I had seen a star." - Joe Posnanski

"Never in my 37 years of baseball have I seen a player like him, and never will I again. My gosh, I don't know why we don't see more people like Mark Fidrych. He was what he was. All natural. So hyper, so uninhibited. A minute after he came into my office he'd have one cheek of his butt on the corner of my desk. Before you knew it, he'd be lying on my desk, his head resting in one hand, the other hand gesturing in the air." - Jim Campbell

"The best young pitcher I've ever had in my career." - Ralph Houk