As far as control and stuff is concerned, I never had any more in my life than for that All-Star game in 1934. |
Besides, there were 50,000 fans or more there, and they wanted to see the best you've got. There was an obligation to the people, as well as to ourselves, to go all out. |
But I never was a strikeout pitcher like Bob Feller or Dizzy Dean or Dazzy Vance. |
I slipped and the ball got away from me with nothing on it. Maybe it's lucky it hit Lou, instead of going over the plate. |
If I'm playing cards for pennies, I want to win. |
It was funny, when I thought of it afterward, how Ruth and Gehrig looked as they stood there. The Babe must have been waiting for me to get the ball up a little so he could get his bat under it. |
My style of pitching was to make the other team hit the ball, but on the ground. |
So up came Gehrig. He was a sharp hitter. You could double him, too, now and then, if the ball was hit hard and straight at an infielder. |
Striking out Ruth and Gehrig in succession was too big an order. |
The screwball's an unnatural pitch. Nature never intended a man to turn his hand like that throwing rocks at a bear. |
They talk about those All-Star Games being exhibition affairs, and maybe they are, but I've seen very few players in my life who didn't want to win, no matter whom they were playing or what for. |
Well, I could imagine how they felt with two on, nobody out and Ruth at bat. To strike him out was the last thought in my mind. |