Chicks who dig home runs aren't the ones who appeal to me. I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I'd rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.
If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying.
Personally, I don't like the term 'success.' It's too arbitrary and too relative a thing. It's usually someone else's definition, not yours.
I've always prided myself in not reveling in past accomplishments and focusing on future achievement, instead. That's been my career motto.
August in Kansas City is hotter than two rats f**king in a sock.
I'm not a big guy and hopefully kids could look at me and see that I'm not muscular and not physically imposing, that I'm just a regular guy. So if somebody with a regular body can get into the record books, kids can look at that. That would make me happy.
I had a dream. And I made that dream come true.
If I'm in a slump, I ask myself for advice.
You should seek approval from yourself.
People striving for approval from others become phony.
I want to be the first player to show what Japanese batters can do in the major league.
In baseball, even the best hitters fail seven of ten times, and of those seven failures there are different reasons why. Some are personal failures, others are losses to the pitcher. You just get beat. In those personal failures, I felt I could have done better.
I think if you look at the friends, the kinds of relationships I have, I am not the kind of guy who has many shallow relationships. I think you could say I am the kind of guy who has a few relationships, but those are very deep.
The Japanese have a strong tendency to suppress their own feelings. That's the Japanese character. They kill their own emotions.
I'm told I either look bigger than I do on television or that I look smaller than I look on television. No one seems to think I look the same size.
I've made far too many mistakes. That's the way I feel.
As professionals we have a responsibility of providing a good show for the fans. Getting hits and home runs is what they want to see.
The more that Japanese players go to the big leagues to play and succeed, the more that will serve to inspire young kids in Japan to want to become baseball players when they grow up.
I love baseball, but being here (in the United States), I've been able to play golf every day. I can't play in Japan because every course has caddies, and the caddies all want autographs and don't want to let me golf.
When people get placed upon a pedestal - when they start chasing after that person on the pedestal - they become mannequin-like.
I didn't know I hit that way (.625 with runners in scoring position). Maybe not knowing is my secret. If I chased numbers, maybe I wouldn't have as good results.
I played on the 2001 team, the team that won the most games in the history of Major League Baseball and also I played on one of the worst teams of Major League Baseball.
I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.
Some people enjoy taking a light stroll in the morning and that gives them relief and that sort of feeling. That is what I gain by practicing, by swinging the bat.
I'm anxious to face them (major league pitchers) all, but in reality I'm looking forward most to (Boston's) Pedro Martinez. He was with the major league team that came to Japan in 1996, just before he became a superstar. I'm anxious to see how much he's improved. And I'm anxious to see how much I've improved against him.
