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I was a big baseball player, and my passion in life, in third grade, was collecting baseball cards. That was my childhood thing.

As a youngster, I played in Little League, Pony League, and all sorts of amateur baseball programs growing up.

I'm a big baseball fan, and I love the Cards.

I played Little League in junior high and high school.

I knew how to read box scores and who the baseball heroes were before I had ever seen or even heard much of a game.

Did I collect baseball cards? I've got 10 books full of plastic in my mother's house. All the Upper Decks, the Fleers, the Fleer Ultras. My grandfather brought me to the trade shows. I collected Marvel cards, too.

I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues.

I used to collect hockey cards. It was like Vegas at my school. You'd go to school with your box of cards, and at recess and lunchtime there were all these games we'd play.

I enjoyed hitting in the Major Leagues more than in the Minor Leagues. I didn't want to tell anybody it was easier, because I didn't want to sound cocky. But Major League pitchers had better control, and most of them were around the plate.

When I was 16 years old, my brother Frank said, 'You'd better become a catcher, because you're too big and fat to do anything else.' Well, I took his advice. It was a quick way to get to the big leagues, and I've never regretted it.