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I'm not sure Mark McGwire was a Hall of Famer to begin with.

I think that was one thing I definitely brought to the table, my aggressiveness and my style of play, and I think that's one of the reasons why the fans here really appreciated the way that I went out and played, just because I think they kind of liked that.

It's better to have done because then you know what the player is going through and you understand the pressure, but then on the other hand I know a lot of people that were good players but not good coaches, and vice versa.

As a coach, one thing that used to frustrate me was one player would make a bad decision, and that's all you would read about in the papers all over the country. We have so many athletes do so many wonderful things for other people, and you never read about it.

Knowing his coach likes him is more important to a player than anything else. To me, it was important to be able to chew out a player for screwing up and for him to accept it because he knew I liked him anyway.

At Tiger Stadium, the dugouts are so low that you walk in and hit your head on the ceiling. People would say, 'Don't feel bad. Ty Cobb did the same thing.'

My Hall of Fame speech was about respect for the game.

I thought I saw him for what he was-or what I thought he was. And he was talented, no doubt about that. But, he thought his talent was based on misery and that if he became happy it would just go. He believed that.

I have to be able to be honest and be credible, and I think I can say, 'This guy did not have his best game today' rather than, 'He is awful and I cannot believe he did that.'

He was a top man and a good professional. He was one of those who you know will never play a trick and you can ask him to do anything for you and he will. An unassuming man and a great loss to us all.