If you could equate the amount of time and effort put in mentally and physically into succeeding on the baseball field and measured it by the dirt on your uniform, mine would have been black.
~Mike Schmidt
Quote of the day
Archived Innings
Exploring baseball's past and present
I remember when Schmidt starting coming around Wrigley Field for the first time. Cubs fans knew right away that this guy was the real deal.
What I love about this quote is its similarity to the original martial arts belt system. In their early days, a new martial artist was given a white belt, which we continue to recognize as a beginning practitioner. It was considered bad luck to ever wash the belt, so over time, it would accumulate dirt, sweat, blood, and so on, and this is why a brown belt became regarded as an advanced student, and a black belt is a master.