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Did I think it was hypocritical that a professional league making hundreds of millions of dollars off beer sponsorships was telling me not to drink? Yes.

The owners said that they wanted the salary cap and refused to promise that they would abide by the rules of the just-expired contract after the season ended. Believing we had no choice, the players went on strike in August of 1994.

For years the league has thought I've been on drugs. I would have burned out a long time ago if that was true.

One of the difficulties of not knowing for so long whether we were doing a fifth season or not was that we weren't really allowed to go out shopping for work.

When we did that kind of stuff our only rule was... Well, we didn't have any rules, really, but my rule, because I was the drinker of the group, was not at any time of the day before the night we're working.

When we signed our deal in 1974, we'd already been together for six years. When they lowered the drinking age in Ontario in 1971 to 18 years, we went from playing two or three high schools in a month to playing clubs two or three times a week.

In the past, two colleagues died each season. It was generally accepted this could happen.

I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

There are only two seasons - winter and Baseball.

I just think overall a lot of it has to do with conditioning and players putting in the time and the effort in the off-season to keep themselves in condition for 12 months a year.