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I was small but slow as a college tackle.

Because I was small, I was getting the hell kicked out of me playing football.

I did play two years of high school football and was very short and uncoordinated but the second year I was very tall and skinny and very uncoordinated.

I was very, very large as a kid and never athletic, and my home life was a little upside down and I never felt comfortable.

As an athlete, I used my speed, agility and quickness to go out and play against the big guys.

When I was younger I was always big; I was a fat boy at school. I had an early growth spurt, and when I went to secondary school I was tall enough to be a policeman.

I had only played five games in my senior year in high school. I was not large enough. Hell, when I graduated, I was about five foot four and weighed 120 pounds. I didn't go with the Dodgers until spring training of 1940 and I weighed all of 155 pounds soaking wet.

I was always a mean and lean athlete - not tall - not large.