When I won the Golden Gloves in 1960, that made me realize I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.

I’m really a normal football manager.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

Players today moan about the number of games, but when you’re young, you can’t play enough.

I’d just as soon play tennis with the net down.

Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.

A good boxing competition gives one the sight of fine men in their prime, trained to the ounce, showing the highest skill, pluck and endurance in carrying out their attack and defence under strict rules of fair play and good temper.

There are two bowlers who I think are very tough to play against – Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.

No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today!

In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

An agent won’t help you get drafted higher, won’t make you win more games, and won’t make you faster or stronger.

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

What the ISL has done is create the hype and buzz around football that it very badly needs.

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, ‚You’re better than the Cassius of old.‘

I was so used to going out and winning state championships and playing in the postseason.

Gains achieved at great cost against our enemy in Afghanistan are reversible.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

Victory is a fleeting thing in the gambling business. Today’s winners are tomorrow’s blinking toads, dumb beasts with no hope.

It obviously bothers people when Real Madrid win. It makes them jealous. There isn’t a level playing field.

Football is a sad game.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

I don’t really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don’t. I really don’t. Look, if you’re a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not a fan of us, you have a different opinion.

To win a national championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky.

I noticed that when I touched the ball on the field, you could hear this shrill noise in the crowd with all the birds screaming like at a Beatles concert.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

There’s a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball’s different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There’s a lot of great individual talent.

That’s what you live for as a sportsman. You have to put up a fight.

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.

As a kid, I used to see how Sachin Tendulkar used to win matches under pressure for India in Sharjah or other places. So I was always keen to repeat the same in similar situations. I don’t take pressure on myself when I am in the middle. I love pressure, and I always believe that pressure makes you more focused.

Baseball is a universe as large as life itself, and therefore all things in life, whether good or bad, whether tragic or comic, fall within its domain.

I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

I don’t think there is anything wrong in earning money from the sport you love. If you work hard and get benefits from it, there is no harm. The day you feel that you are not working hard and are only looking at the benefits, that’s where the problem is.

I guess for every driver the aim is to beat their teammate.

Ordinarily, players fine-tune their match-fitness during the pre-season.

I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

To share the dressing room of club and country with Bhai was an amazing experience. I learnt a lot from him and other senior players like Renedy Singh.

The joy of doing well as a batsman for your country is much more than that little joy of going for a party and enjoying music. It is a completely different high, and I get high by performances. That’s what I enjoy now.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

After the 12th class exam results, I got a call from Mohun Bagan. They saw me at Durand Cup when I was playing for City Club of Delhi. I thought they might want me for SAIL Academy. Never ever I thought Mohun Bagan is calling me for Mohun Bagan!

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

If it wasn’t for baseball, I’d be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.

In England, you have stadiums in the middle of the city.

I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‚em out, I pick the round.

Every season is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of games, goals, assists.

In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

Cleveland fans are awesome.

Most home teams have chapels, so when I’m on the road I’ll probably go to their services.

I love soccer, love tennis… Roger Federer has been a favourite for a long, long time. The kind of consistency he has shown, 16 Grand Slam titles… The way he handles himself in pressure situations is admirable… He is so calm… In soccer, I’m a huge fan of Barcelona… I like watching Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and David Villa.

I don’t know who I would have been if I never watched MotoGP.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

My goal is to be number one in MMA.

For victory in life, we’ve got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

I used to play a lot of different sports. Now when I look back, I understand that it really helped with my hand-eye coordination.

I have warned many times about the guaranteed dangers of betting with your heart instead of your head – big darkness, soon come – but every once in a while you get a fair chance to have it both ways, and the annual NCAA basketball Tournament is one of them.

Basketball is booming, and it’s not just an Under Armour standpoint: it’s about the game itself. Kids going out and playing and being inspired by what we do on the court.