I played for 18 years, but the only thing that meant anything to me was the World Series.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Well, I wanted to play twenty years in the major leagues. I never made it twenty though. I played nineteen.
I can honestly say it took two full years for me to get over the fact that I was no longer a baseball player.
I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues.
I wanted to play baseball ever since I was 5 years old.
It was all I lived for, to play baseball.
Up until the time I was 14 years old, I was sure that I was going to be a big-league baseball player. But that dream came to a rude awakening when I got cut from my high school baseball team.
For my children, they spent 15 to 20 years of their life in baseball. And Ruth and I spent so many years of our married life that that was our life. We knew nothing else.
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.
Ever since I was young, I played sports.
I wasn't ever good enough to be on the baseball team and that sort of stuff.