When I was in Seattle, I listened to Carlos Guillen and other older players.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My all-time favorite rock and roll players were Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry and Franny Beecher, and I listened to the country playing of Merle Travis.
I grew up listening to Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, guys with blues backgrounds.
When I was a young kid I loved Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett and Jackie Vernon.
Because of the changes in the Padres team I played with last year, I felt like a veteran recently when I worked out with Jason Kendall and he told me he's liked listening to my records since he was a kid!
I could remember thinking when I met him, 'Wow, that's Andy Sanders from Houston. He's really good.' And he tells me he said, 'Wow, that's Jimmy Walker. He hits it really far.'
I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.
I had listened to Joe Turner. When they'd book Joe there, I'd play the blues behind him.
I was born and raised in the Bronx and my grandfather and my brother Garry were huge Yankees fans. One of my first memories is of them listening to a game on the radio and screaming at the radio. My brother would cry when they lost, and when I was really little, I didn't know why he was crying.
Mike Matheny, Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile... before he died. Those guys took me under their wing and taught me the way to play the game the right way.
I remember listening to Cube's music when I was like 14 years old, my friends listening to it up in Toronto.