I became an optimist when I discovered that I wasn't going to win any more games by being anything else.

Pitching keeps you in the games. Home runs win the game.

A manager's job is simple. For one hundred sixty-two games you try not to screw up all that smart stuff your organization did last December.

What else does a manager do but push buttons? He doesn't hit, he doesn't run, he doesn't throw, and he doesn't catch the ball. A manager has twenty-five players, or twenty-five buttons, and he selects which one he'll use, or push, that day. The manager who presses the right buttons most often is the one who wins the most games.

Nobody likes to hear it, because it's dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same - pitching.

Don't play for one run unless you know that run will win a ballgame.