52 Quotes by Thomas Boswell

Almost without exception, they are men who dreamed of athletic heroism as children; becoming umpires was their compromise with their own lack of talent.

The naked pinch hitter takes only one thing to the plate: his raw, and somewhat irrational, confidence in himself. That this confidence is so unreasonable adds to its dignity.

Time begins on Opening Day . . . (when) we know that something fine, almost wonderful, is about to (happen).

The PGA Tour will wish it had an entrenched June date here rather than a tacky fling with FedEx in Memphis.

A Major golf tournament is 40,000 sadists watching 144 masochists.

If you can't beat Europe and you can't beat the Best-of-the-Rest, what's left? A mixed scramble against Tibet?

A narrative voice with conviction is often hard to find. But not in baseball. The minors teach two lost American arts: how to chew tobacco and how to tell a story.

Of the big four, the PGA is the most fair and the least fun. Basically, it's just the US Open set up by nice, rather than nasty, fellows.

As every golfer knows, no one ever lost his mind over one shot. It is rather the gradual process of shot after shot watching your score go to tatters - knowing that you have found a different way to bogey each hole.