Once people couldn't trust the college game, some checked out the pro game, but that was in big trouble, too. We had no clock and a lot of faults. People looked at the slow pace and at big guys like George Mikan and said pro basketball was just for overgrown pituitary cases. Baseball and football were numbers one and two and pro basketball wasn't even in the same universe.
New York is great, but the New England fans are probably the most knowledgeable and ardent fans, and not just in baseball, but all sports. But Red Sox Nation is Red Sox Nation.
The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward.
The first thing to know about playing baseball in Michigan is, Michigan's really cold.
Defense usually doesn't make many headlines, but it goes a long way towards winning baseball games. There are a number of ways to make an impact during the course of a game, and playing solid, sound defense is one of them.
My real-life athletic career was not very much. I played Little League baseball.
People say baseball players should go out and have fun. No way. To me, baseball is pressure, I always feel it. This is work. The fun is afterwards, when you shake hands.
Most movies suck, even the independent ones. Hollywood is like baseball: Hit three good ones out of 10 and you're a Hall of Famer.
I did a lot of bad stuff from the age of 18 to 21. Those are days when everyone is usually in college doing a lot of stupid things. But since I was playing baseball, I was in the spotlight. I take full responsibility for doing things that I shouldn't have been doing. And I appreciate the second chance that the Twins are giving me.
Basketball has always been a sport I loved and grew up playing. For me, it was one of those things that... I guess baseball was just in my genes a little bit. I have a lot of cousins that played baseball. Basketball is not an easy sport - you definitely got to be gifted to play that game. I felt like I was pretty good at it, but my ability was better in baseball.
I'm a baseball freak.
And because I have a four-year-old son I have become a great baseball pitcher. And, you know, juggler.
Saying that men talk about baseball in order to avoid talking about their feelings is the same as saying that women talk about their feelings in order to avoid talking about baseball.
Baseball is the reason I have my apartment, baseball is the reason I'm on the cover of video game. Baseball is what I do.
I'm very modest. I know that baseball is a very humbling game.
There's a lot more to playing in the big leagues in New York than just the baseball part.
The brilliant thing about baseball is you're never really out of it - things can turn around in this game so quickly.
A lot of baseball players think baseball is cool, and the audience that we have think it's cool. It might not hit every audience, but I don't think there's a single sport that's going to hit every audience.
My goal on Earth is not to win a World Series or be the best baseball player who ever lived. That simply is not up to me because I have to wait and see if it is part of the Lord's plan. My goal is to follow the Lord and what he wants me to do so that someday I may enter His kingdom and receive everlasting life.
You know what I love best about baseball? The pine tar, the resin, the grass, the dirt - and that's just in the hot-dogs.
Because I was a chemistry student and was never supposed to be a musician, I always felt like I was an outsider looking at music going "Why is this interesting to me? Why should I be doing this?" and I never felt like I was a natural musician. It came into my life, kind of, as a conceptual problem and I think all my pieces are, in a way, looking at some issue and sometimes veering toward an inside baseball model of classical music.
Ive got a fantasy-baseball team with my brother. But I have to admit, he does all the work.
This is the place to be. Baseball town. The intimacy of Fenway, the toughness of it. I like that. I'm used to it. I need it. If I went somewhere else, it might have been a bit of a letdown. I like the edge.
It really gets into your system. All baseball players have this internal clock around February when it starts to kick in and the juices start to flow. I think underestimated how much I was going to miss it.
I've experienced a lot of things in baseball, but I've never been traded during a strike. At least I know I'll be in a new uniform the next time I put one on.
