“Catholicism ... tries to grab all the poker chips on the table, kick everybody out of the game, and then pretend they were never there until the game was effectively over. It's just a ridiculous, obvious revisionist history.”

“The two men maintain firm eye contact. A poker game, both of them bluffing. Or pretending to.”

“When you're a sportswriter, you learn how to use your imagination and to flex your literary muscle, because it's the same game played over and over again. There's nothing unique or marvelous. It's not an earthquake, or a weird mass murder. It's just the same old game played over and over, and you have to bring out the personalities. You have to drag them kicking and screaming out into the light of day, or you're not a good sportswriter.”

“It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Then it's fun and games you can't see anymore.”

“It's all fun and games until somebody dies.”

“Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple. Within the baselines anything can happen. Tides can reverse; oceans can open. That's why they say, "the game is never over until the last man is out." Colors can change, lives can alter, anything is possible in this gentle, flawless, loving game.”