As a civilian not playing sport, to get that sense of real belonging and feeling how you are progressing through the day is what I loved and miss.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My entire life has been an attempt to get back to the kind of feelings you have on a field. The sense of brotherhood, the esprit de corps, the focus - there being no past or future, just the ball. As trite as it sounds, I was happiest playing ball.
It's important to just kind of get away from your sport until you miss it. It's about taking time to enjoy other aspects of life or learn new things. It helps rejuvenate.
Even now I want to keep my amateur spirit, to spend my time, to be in the sport with all my heart.
'm so fortunate to have done what I love to do for so long, but the day I retired was one of the best days of my life. Not because I was happy to get away from the sport, but because it was clear in my mind that I had done all I possibly could, and that it was time to go.
I've been involved in sport right through my life.
I used to play football all the time. In the U.S., people don't play football, so I had to learn basketball. Looking back, that's what I like about my life - doing new things, having a new perspective.
But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.
Sport is my passion but I have a way to go.
It's a wonderful feeling to be a bridge to the past and to unite generations. The sport of baseball does that, and I am just a part of it.
I'm very lucky to live my life through a sport that I love. I'm in a very privileged position that my work is my hobby.