Steve Rushin Quotes

Powerful Steve Rushin for Daily Growth

About Steve Rushin

Steven L. Rushin, born on June 15, 1968, is an American humorist, essayist, and sports journalist renowned for his witty and insightful work. Growing up in Highland Park, Illinois, Rushin developed a keen interest in sports, which would later become the primary focus of his writing career. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor's degree in English. Rushin started his professional journey as a sportswriter at Sports Illustrated in 1993, where he worked for ten years, contributing articles and humor pieces. His work was characterized by its unique blend of sports commentary and literary style, earning him a dedicated readership and several accolades, including the National Magazine Award for columns and essays in 2001. In 2004, Rushin left Sports Illustrated to focus on his freelance writing career and the publication of his first book, "The Fake Book: A Brief History with Hopeful Prospects." This humorous collection of essays explores various aspects of American culture through the lens of sports. Rushin's second book, "Against the Night: An American Man, in the Dark," published in 2011, is a deeply personal account of his struggle with insomnia and the nocturnal world he discovers during his sleepless nights. This work showcases Rushin's ability to find humor and insight in the most unexpected places. Today, Steve Rushin continues to write for various publications and has contributed to several anthologies. His unique voice and perspective on sports and life have made him a beloved figure in American literature and journalism.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

This quote underscores the unique nature of baseball compared to many other sports, where consistency and high success rates are often valued more. In baseball, players are expected to be successful only about one-third of the time, yet still regarded as good performers. It suggests that in baseball, there's room for error, resilience, and a focus on individual plays rather than overall performance, making it an intriguing and challenging field of endeavor.


"The game of baseball has long been an American pastime and a cultural cornerstone, but to many young boys, it is simply a magical playground for dreams."

This quote highlights the unique role that baseball plays in American culture, particularly in shaping the dreams and aspirations of young boys. Baseball transcends its status as a sport and becomes an imaginative realm where these boys can envision their hopes and ambitions. It symbolizes not just a game, but a magical landscape for nurturing dreams.


"Baseball is a slow-motion sport, the perfect canvas for the abstract expressionist."

Steve Rushin's quote highlights the artistic beauty inherent in baseball, suggesting that its leisurely pace allows for a more detailed examination of the game's nuances, much like an abstract expressionist painter might explore emotions or concepts through their work. In essence, just as an abstract expressionist finds depth and meaning in non-representational art, a baseball fan can appreciate the subtle complexities and underlying themes within the sport.


"In baseball, as in life, the most important thing often occurs at the margins."

This quote emphasizes that significant moments or developments, both in baseball and life, can happen at the periphery – the "margins" – rather than the center stage. The implication is to pay attention not just to the obvious or primary aspects, but also to the less conspicuous elements around them, as they may hold great value or impact.


"Baseball is a game of failure, and in this game, the man who knows it's impossible to make a fool of himself every day never plays."

This quote emphasizes that baseball, like many sports, inherently involves a high degree of failure due to its rules and structure. The "man who knows it's impossible to make a fool of himself every day" is someone who is too cautious or fearful to take risks, thus avoiding the possibility of failure. However, true players understand that failure is an inevitable part of the game, and it is through those failures that they grow and improve. In essence, Rushin suggests that embracing the possibility of failure is crucial for success in baseball, as it encourages a mindset conducive to learning, perseverance, and ultimately, mastery of the game.


On its surface, the HBO documentary series 'Hard Knocks,' about the New York Jets' training camp, resembles another HBO series, 'The Sopranos.' Both star the stout patriarch of a New Jersey 'family' preoccupied with food, intimidation, and florid profanity.

- Steve Rushin

Preoccupied, Resembles, Sopranos

In 2007, Prince performed at the halftime of the Super Bowl. The stage in Miami was wreathed in purple light, and it poured during his performance, so that he played 'Purple Rain' in a purple rain.

- Steve Rushin

Rain, Bowl, Super Bowl, Poured

The only thing wider than my family's mean streak is my family's cheap streak.

- Steve Rushin

Mean, The Only Thing, Wider, Streak

Everything gleamed or glinted on TV in the '70s, from the 'flavor crystals' in Folgers coffee to the yellow dentures dipped in Polident and instantly restored to pristine, piano-key whiteness.

- Steve Rushin

Yellow, TV, Whiteness, Crystals

A great presidential address - Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Truman's Farewell Address, Kennedy's Inaugural Address - has the power to inspire.

- Steve Rushin

Address, Gettysburg, Lincoln, Truman

In the Gospels, we are reminded, 'The very hairs of your head are all numbered.' And your numbered hairs, like your numbered days, recede daily.

- Steve Rushin

Like, Very, Numbered, Recede

What's the best baseball name of all time? Is it Champ Summers? Clyde Kluttz? Razor Shines? Scipio Spinks? Sibby Sisti? Creepy Crespi? Before you answer, consider that Coco Crisp is not even the game's top Coco, an honor retired by Coco Laboy.

- Steve Rushin

Game, Before, Shines, Razor

When people ask if Marquette University is in Michigan, and I tell them my alma mater is in Milwaukee, they sometimes say, 'What's the difference?'

- Steve Rushin

Michigan, Tell, University, Milwaukee

'Hard Knocks' seems to have done for the self-serious NFL what the witch did for Rapunzel: persuaded it, somehow, to let its hair down.

- Steve Rushin

Done, Knocks, Persuaded, Witch

The most enduring Top 10 ever written wasn't written at all, but chiseled onto stone tablets and conveyed down Mount Sinai by Moses, who introduced to the world not just a set of Biblical precepts but also a new format for starting arguments: the list of 10 things.

- Steve Rushin

Down, Moses, Precepts, Conveyed

Outside Buckingham Palace, the Royal Standard flies only when the reigning monarch is in residence. Sadly, there's no similar flag outside The Woods Jupiter, which Tiger opened in the summer of 2015, spending a reported $8 million to make an upscale sports bar-and-restaurant in his image.

- Steve Rushin

Flag, Flies, Standard, Royal

The Metrodome was built for football. Fans seated down the third-base line at a baseball game faced centerfield, so that they had to turn and look over their right shoulders to see home plate.

- Steve Rushin

Game, Shoulders, Line, Seated

I'm a recovering jersey wearer who can't bear to get rid of the blaze-orange Knicks warmup top that makes me look like James Carville on a highway repair crew.

- Steve Rushin

Repair, Like, Recovering, Knicks

I turned 7 in 1973 and remember Bobby Riggs arriving at the Astrodome on a chariot pulled by showgirls before his 'battle of the sexes' tennis match against Billie Jean King.

- Steve Rushin

King, Before, Turned, Jean

Broadcasters calling a big game are often reminded to let the action breathe. A great moment of a televised game doesn't need any narration, which is why the announcers - the good ones, anyway - shut up at the celebration and let the pictures do the talking.

- Steve Rushin

Game, Big, Shut, Broadcasters

I remember seeing Letterman do stand-up on 'The Tonight Show.' Or, it's probably more accurate to say, I remember hearing him do stand-up, because the Carson show existed mainly as sound leaking under my bedroom door at night. I'd hear Johnny telling jokes and my dad laughing at them.

- Steve Rushin

Door, Tonight, Telling, Johnny

As a kid, I didn't know that 'All in the Family' was satirizing male chauvinism or that Bobby Riggs was a self-promoting put-on. Many of us didn't get the irony and went on making fun of women and girls who wanted to play sports, especially the same sports that men and boys traditionally played.

- Steve Rushin

Play, Kid, Irony, Women And Girls

I can't putt. The reasons are infinite. When lining up a putt, I can't remember if the ball always breaks to the ocean or to the valley or away from Pinnacle Peak. And because I took up the game in Minnesota, in what is often called Middle America, I also grew up asking, 'To which ocean does it break?'

- Steve Rushin

Game, Away, Reasons, Putt

In 1984, as a college freshman, I spent a fall weekend at a friend's house in suburban Chicago. His father worked for Beatrice Foods, a sponsor of the Chicago Marathon, and we watched that race from the finish line as a Welshman named Steve Jones set a new world marathon record. I was bewitched by the race and, especially, the clock.

- Steve Rushin

College, Sponsor, Named, New World

There is something inherently foolish in soldiering on when there is no hope of payoff.

- Steve Rushin

No Hope, Payoff, Inherently, Foolish

I had almost nothing published until I had something published in 'Sports Illustrated.' I started there as a fact-checker two weeks after I got out of college and was there for almost 20 years.

- Steve Rushin

Sports, College, Weeks, Two Weeks

It's one thing to wear jerseys at games, which fans have been doing in great numbers for 30 years, dressing as if they might be summoned from the stands on a moment's notice to pinch-run. But those same jerseys are now omnipresent on airplanes, in restaurants, in doctor's waiting rooms.

- Steve Rushin

Doing, Been, Rooms, Omnipresent

In 1972, there was still a New York City law prohibiting women there from 'furnishing refreshments to the audience or spectators at any place of public amusement.' That's right: Until the law was repealed in 1977, it was technically illegal for women to work as popcorn vendors in Madison Square Garden.

- Steve Rushin

City, Popcorn, Furnishing, Spectators

I'd watch the news with my dad, and he'd quietly mock the anchors. An anchorman might say, 'Police are searching for...' and my dad would say in the anchorman's voice, 'the man who gave me this haircut.' This was in the real Ron Burgundy '70s. And I would laugh and start doing it myself.

- Steve Rushin

Voice, Doing, Dad, Haircut

Humans had run barefoot for millennia, and some still preferred doing so in the modern Stone Age of the mid-20th century, when the handful of people running for exercise often wore whatever they happened to have on at the moment of inspiration.

- Steve Rushin

Exercise, Doing, Some, Millennia

When should a man stop wearing sports jerseys? When the buttons of his White Sox top finally pop, like rivets on a distressed ocean liner? When the pinstripes of his Yankees shirt have grown wider at the midsection than at the top, as the longitudinal lines on a globe?

- Steve Rushin

Pop, Wider, His, Distressed

All kingdoms look small through an airplane window - little dominions built on quicksand. But looking up from the ground, where most of us stand, they're rather impressive.

- Steve Rushin

Small, Through, Built, Kingdoms

After the abrupt death of my mother, Jane, on Sept. 5, 1991, of a disease called amyloidosis, my dad took up golf at 57. He and my mother had always played tennis - a couples' game of mixed doubles and tennis bracelets and Love-Love. But in mourning, Dad turned Job-like to golf, a game of frustration and golf widows and solitary hours on the range.

- Steve Rushin

Death, Game, Turned, Doubles

As a kid, I always had my nose buried in the side of a cereal box.

- Steve Rushin

Nose, Always, Side, Cereal

In golf, a wedge issue means just that: You can't hit your sand wedge, or your lob wedge needs to be regrooved. In politics, a wedge issue is more serious still: It's one that splits the electorate, dividing voters along ideological fault lines.

- Steve Rushin

Politics, Splits, Dividing, Electorate

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.