It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course.

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.

The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.

I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.

On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.

Maybe the day will come when I can sit back and be content....But until that day comes, I intend to stay in the batter's box - I don't let the big guys push me out of there anymore - and keep hammering away.

You visualize [pitches]. You see it in your head; you think it...I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started getting ready for ever game the moment I woke up.