And then 45 years later, as I finished my career in the great city of Cleveland, that was another great way to end my career, going to the World Series.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
By far, the best moment of my big league career was when I caught the last out at the World Series.
I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.
Going through college a Red Sox fan and knowing the history behind everything that was going on back in the '80s and finally getting a chance to win a World Series for this great city and bringing it back after 86 years, it was truly special, and it's one of the highlights that I'll remember for a long time.
My career spanned the era when relievers started to become more important.
It was all I lived for, to play baseball.
I have been blessed to win a number of awards and be involved in numerous historical baseball moments over my 20-year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
I want to finish my career in Cleveland. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues.
I always thought that there was going to be life after baseball, and so I designed that in my life I would have other interests after baseball that I would be able to step into. And I didn't realize the grip that baseball had on me and on my family.
My baseball career was a long, long initiation into a single secret: At the heart of all things is love.
I had an opportunity with Baltimore to make it to the World Series, and that didn't happen.