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I was a professional baseball player from the time I was drafted out of high school in 1981 until the time I retired in 2003.

I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.

I played softball. I was on an all-star team. I traveled with the team. I loved it.

I played ball for the Hollywood Blues of the Pacific Coast League, and I thought I was going to be a major leaguer. But I was the only one who seemed to think so.

I remember making the all-star team in Little League when I was around 11 years old. I was not a great athlete, but I loved it, so making starting second base in the all-star was great for me. I think someone must have been sick and they slotted me in.

I was a ballplayer, but only for a limited time. I grew up playing in Wisconsin. It's a very sports-centric part of the country that I grew up in and I played a lot of sports, but baseball first and foremost. I played through high school. I was a middle-infielder.

I won an MVP trophy with the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association. I didn't even start. I was a sub on this team. This was, like, an All-Star game where we had athletes from different teams, different mixtures. We had, like, the only black team in the league, basically. We had four players go to the All-Star game.

In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

I was in the big leagues my first year in pro ball - pretty fast. I really don't think I had an understanding of what it meant to be a pitcher at that level at that point.