My father cared a lot about me, but he never gave me the satisfaction of really knowing it. Hitting .390 wasn't enough for him. Nothing seemed to be. He was not trying to be mean. He was just seeing to it that I never got self-satisfied, that I worked hard to get the most out of what I had.
I'm a ballplayer. I know how hard the game is... and anybody that makes it in the Hall of Fame, I support. They become a member of our special fraternity.
I am not too serious about anything. I believe you have to enjoy yourself to get the most out of your ability. I can take the criticism with the accolades. Neither affects me.
There's nothing like Opening Day. There's nothing like the start of a new season. I started playing baseball when I was seven years old and quit playing when I was 40, so it's kind of in my blood.
Not many people get to the major leagues and succeed right away. There are some struggles. Everyone seems to struggle.
I could have played another year, but I would have been playing for the money, and baseball deserves better than that.
Every time I sit with our general manager at a baseball game, and there's number-cruncher and statistician guy - I'm sitting around - they start talking about stuff, and I say, 'What's that? I've never heard of that one before.'
If there was no intentional walks, the guy would just walk him anyway, unintentionally intentionally walk him. You see a lot more of that than what meets the eye.
I never lifted a weight in my life. Why am I going to do steroids? That's not going to do me any good. We didn't have any weights in our clubhouse. We had one exercise bike and that was for the guy who tweaked his hamstring. And that thing didn't even work half the time.
Do I want someone to get more hits than me? No. Do I want someone to hit more home runs than me? No. Do I want someone to have more RBI than me? No. I get a kick out of seeing the all-time leaders and my name's on top of every one, with the exception of strikeouts. I get a kick out of that.