The Best Shoeless Joe Jackson Quotes

Shoeless: Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?
Ray: Yeah.
Shoeless: I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!

Shoeless: [as "Moonlight" Graham walks off the field for the last time] Hey, rookie! You were good.

Shoeless: What's with the lights?
Ray: Oh, all the stadiums have them now. Even Wrigley Field.
Shoeless: Makes it harder to see the ball.
Ray: Yeah, well, the owners found that more people can attend night games.
Shoeless: [Shakes his head] Owners.

Ray: I did it all. I listened to the voices, I did what they told me, and not once did I ask what's in it for me.
Shoeless: What are you saying, Ray?
Ray: I'm saying, what's in it for me?

Ray: I bet it's good to be playing again, huh?
Shoeless: Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.

Ray: Don't we need a catcher?
Shoeless: Not if you get it near the plate we don't.

Ray: What are you grinning at, you ghost?
Shoeless: If you build it...
[nods toward John Kinsella]
Shoeless: ... HE will come.

Ray: Where'd they come from?
Shoeless: Where did WE come from? You wouldn't believe how many guys wanted to play here. We had to beat 'em off with a stick.
Archie: Hey, that's Smokey Joe Wood. And Mel Ott. And Gil Hodges!
Shoeless: Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!

[on who the Voice meant by "Ease his pain."]
Ray: It was you...
Shoeless: No, Ray. It was YOU.

Shoeless: The first two were high and tight, so where do you think the next one's gonna be?
Archie: Well, either low and away, or in my ear.
Shoeless: He's not gonna wanna load the bases, so look low and away.
Archie: Right.
Shoeless: But watch out for in your ear.