Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

The line frames failure as iterative progress: each strikeout is not merely a setback but part of the statistical and psychological path toward eventual success. In baseball terms, it reflects the reality that even elite sluggers make many outs; in broader terms, it recasts mistakes as information and persistence as a strategy. The quote’s appeal lies in its stoic optimism—absorbing short-term losses without abandoning the long-term aim. It is often used as motivational advice about resilience, though its popularity also shows how sports aphorisms can be detached from precise historical utterance and function as cultural shorthand for perseverance.