Willie Mays was the best baseball player I ever saw. He could do anything.
If you're a photographer, they give you a camera. If you're a writer, they give you a typewriter. If you're an umpire, they give you an unseen object and they call it a strike zone, and nobody seems to agree with you no matter what you call.
I always tell my wife, 'If you're ever looking for something to put on my gravestone, put down, 'He was an honest man, and he never held a grudge.'
If you don't need umpires out there, and you can put robots out there, then why do we need ballplayers?
I know that there are no famous 'Doug Harvey plays.' And I'm proud of that.
I set out to be the best umpire of my time. But I don't know what it takes to be great.
I was a great base umpire, but I was the most mediocre plate umpire to ever come into the major leagues.
The integrity of the game is the umpires. Nobody else. The entire integrity of the game is the umpires.
When asked what he was fighting for, General Washington, in writing to General Thomas, said the object was 'neither glory nor extent of territory, but a defense of all that is dear and valuable in life.' He must have been an umpire. That's what umpiring is about.
I went into umpiring at age 16. I got into officiating because of the fact that I could not stand the referees that worked our basketball games.
I wrestled as a 90-pounder, and I wrestled in the 107-pound class in my first year. I had something inside of me. I could not stand not to compete. And I don't know why... I don't know what that's all about. But that's deep inside of Doug Harvey.
The one thing that all umpires have is pride, and if you don't have pride, you lose that edge.
Instant replay ought to be thrown out. Period. It's a game of imperfections. Why is that so bad for the game? Really, I think they are trying to make the game perfect. I'll tell you what: It will never, ever be perfect.
Error is part of the game. I never, ever second-guessed myself on a call and don't believe good umpires ever should.
Officiating is trying to do your absolute best with what you've got.
I'll say it again: you've got to put the argument back in the game. They're trying to make baseball mechanized, a machine. They're ruining baseball.
