It's kind of glorious to say, "Oh man, this guy had his career cut short." I'm not calling myself Sandy Koufax by any means. I'm not in that caliber at all, but sometimes it has to end different.
I stick to safe, controlled movement. If it's not safe, I just won't do it.
I definitely don't want to run any 5K races anytime soon. I can work out pretty hard as far as intensity. But as far as playing basketball or anything high impact, it's probably not smart for me to do.
I get to kind of pretend I'm going to play baseball. I get to work out and do all the stuff that was part of baseball. I just don't get to play.
I have a food show.It's not just baseball people. It's a mixture of baseball people, actors, musicians, chefs and whatnot. They bring out different dishes, and at the end of the show, I give the one I like the most the "Fielder's choice." It's good TV.
A friend of mine asked me a question at the end of 2015. We were going over my finances and setting things up for the future when she said, "What do you want to do when you retire?" I said, "I always wanted to do a food show."
My main goal now is waking up healthy every day and going on with life.
I've always said, "You make a lot of money in Major League Baseball, and it's all guaranteed, so what do you have to lose by going all out?" .
When I was playing, my wife and kids would go on the road with me, and we would go to different lunch spots that we saw on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."
There are maybe one or two hours a day when I think I can play, but I get over that real quick once I realize the risk and my wife tells me, "Just take a seat."
We took a family trip to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia over Christmas and New Year's. Three weeks was a long time, but it was cool, man. We were on the ocean, so that was kind of intense. After a couple of days you realize how far out you are.
I was a guy who came to work every day. I was there. When my manager got to the field at 12, I felt like there was no reason for him to ever wonder if I was playing. For me, that's a big deal. I teach that to my kids.
Miguel and Justin, the two biggest guys on the team, welcomed me right away and once the cool kids in school like you, it's easy to get along.
Him [my dad] bringing me to the clubhouse when I was young helped me out because I see what they do in baseball and what it's about. He pretty much told me all this stuff when I was younger. Now it's just a matter of doing it.
You've got to have some fun before games or you make the season too long. We don't start work until seven o'clock. If you're game-ready at three, it's not good for you. This is the only way I know how to do it.