- Brian McLennan: [addressing the camera] I'm Brian McLennan a newspaper man. I do a sports column for one of the New York papers. And a few months ago in Florida, I came up with this story I'm writing. It's a baseball story. And while it won't make anybody yell "Stop the Presses!" or "Tear out the front page!", it's got a little different slant. And that's what makes it important.
- Brian McLennan: [talking over archive footage] This is baseball. This is the way it is, when you reach the top. Fame and the headlines and the newsreel camera looking at you from every angle. This is the way it is in the big time, with your name on the lips and in the cheers from everyone in the box seats to the bleachers. This is baseball. The National Pastime. The game that has given us all the great names and all the great moments that fill memory and the record book with the achievement of things past. The game of Babe Ruth and of Lou Gehrig, of Ty Cobb and McGraw, and Christy Mathewson. And everyday the sports pages grab a new name and a new moment to go with all the rest. Somebody pitches a no hitter; somebody comes through in the clutch, somebody makes a great catch or a daring play or knocks in a wining run, and a new hero is born. Like at the Polo Grounds a couple of years ago, when a young man named Bobby Thomson, hit a ninth inning home run that won the pennant, and every fan in America, for the New York Giants. Yes, this is the way it is, at the top. The names and the faces at the end of the long way up. My story is about the way it is at the beginning. The names and the faces you've never heard of. The ones who give baseball its tomorrow. This is the story behind every Bobby Thomson, every ninth inning home run, every team like the Giants and every Polo Ground.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: My name is Lobert. You've never heard of me; but, your grandfather used to see me play third. Next time you write, ask him.
- Brian McLennan: [voiceover] Chuy Roman Santiago Aguilar - from Cuba. He can't speak much English; but, that's the beauty of baseball. If he can go to his right and hit the broad side of a barn, that'll do all his talking for him.
- Christy: Baseball is a business.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Well, the day you take those kids, that's the day you go *out* of business. We think we're giving them a future; but, its they who are giving *us* the future. And if those people can't see that; well, they're blinder than a bush league umpire. And they got no right to even be talking about baseball.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: This is the part I like best. Right this very minute. Just before we open the Cracker Jack box. Maybe there's a real diamond inside.
- Brian McLennan: [voiceover] When you're lookin' for ball players, you look for a lot of things. Can he run? Can he throw? Can he field? Can he hit? Most of all, has he got the spark? The spark that makes him give it everything he's got - four runs ahead or ten runs behind.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: What's your name?
- Adam Polachuk: Polachuk, Adam Polachuk.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Well, Adam Polachuk, we'll see if you're a third baseman. I happen to be partial to third base. I used to play that myself.
- Adam Polachuk: Oh, I know! Cincinnati, the Cubs, and then the Giants.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: You left out Pittsburgh.
- Christy: Well, doesn't everyone?
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Throw easy, run easy, swing easy. Or you'll be coming up with sore arms, twisted legs, and who knows what else.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: When the time comes, I'm ready for the front porch and the rockin' chair; only, the time hasn't come!
- Brian McLennan: [voiceover] They've come to play. Everything is baseball. When they're not playing it, they're talking it. And when they get tired of talking it, they dream it.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Come on, let him hit it!
- Bobby Bronson: Gosh, I'm trying to Mr. Lobert. Can I help it if I got too much stuff?
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Hold it a minute! What do you think this is? A tea party? None of that, "I'm sorry," stuff. Now, you're not in high school, now. This is the New York Giants! That goes for all of you! If you boot one, get hold of it again. Get on with the game. That's the important thing. Everybody boots one. The important thing is to get on with the game.
- Chuy Aguilar: Oh, good evening sir, madam, or small child. I am very pleasured to have the acquaintanceship of this meeting. Where are we going?
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: To bed.
- Chuy Aguilar: To the railroad station? To the bus station? To the opera? To the cinema? To the doctor? To the house of my Aunt? To a garden?
- Christy: Don't talk about baseball like it's something you read in the Want Ads. You love it. You want it to be your life. And you play it good enough so that my Uncle thinks maybe you're the guy who's gonna save him this whole camp. I don't know. Maybe you are running out on your father. But, that's not as bad as running out on yourself! You quit tonight, it'll follow you through every law book you ever open.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: It seems like every time I pick up a headline it's full of 18 year olds. They may be robbing a bank or fighting a war; but, one way or the other, they'll let you know they're around.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: I'm getting sick and tired of hearing them all the time rushed on with that hot rod, jukebox kind of talk.
- John B. 'Hans' Lobert: Eighteen is real important. *Real* important. When you're eighteen, you're tomorrow morning. You're the world giving yourself another chance.
- Bobby Bronson: I remember once they brought this fancy jukebox into the candy store around our way. Real fancy! You know, you shove it into it and a dame's voice asks you what you want to hear. You speak into a mouthpiece and you tell her. Well, anyway, the first night we're all hangin' around this jukebox and one of the guys puts in a quarter. A real quarter! For a minute, nothin' happens. Then, all of the sudden we hear this terrifically sexy dame's voice saying, What is it you request, please? So, we tell her. The next day, they come in and out goes the jukebox.