You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
You start chasing a ball and your brain immediately commands your body to 'Run forward, bend, scoop up the ball, peg it to the infield,' then your body says, 'Who me?'
The phrase 'off with the crack of the bat', while romantic, is really meaningless, since the outfielder should be in motion long before he hears the sound of the ball meeting the bat.
I feel like I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my club, my manager, and my teammates.
I'm just a ballplayer with one ambition, and that is to give all I've got to help my ball club win. I've never played any other way.
If anyone wants to know why three kids in one family made it to the big leagues they just had to know how we helped each other and how much we practiced back then. We did it every minute we could.
I can remember a reporter asking me for a quote, and I didn't know what a quote was. I thought it was some kind of soft drink.
A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues.