Growing up, it was mainly just players I followed more than teams, with the exception of the Mariners. I never really had time to follow a team throughout a season.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I played softball. I was on an all-star team. I traveled with the team. I loved it.
I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that's the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years.
I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues.
It was part of my recruiting to go to Cal because they knew I loved to play baseball. I don't know if I was good enough to make the team, but I worked out with the guys, and it was a lot of fun.
I don't follow sports that much now, but I was a Phoenix Suns fanatic in the early '90s.
I enjoyed being involved in team sports and making close friendships.
I've played for teams that were family-oriented organizations. They made you feel like family. The Yankees are strictly a business. Baseball is your life and everything else is secondary.
I was always interested in baseball. In fact, in my younger years, I played it in an amateur way. But up to the time when I became identified with the Yankees, I was a strong National League rooter.
As a youngster, I played in Little League, Pony League, and all sorts of amateur baseball programs growing up.
I never did have a team that I watched in my younger days.