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My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.

Scott Boras, I've known for a long time. We were both in the Cardinals organization. I'm a lot older than Scott. He's a very tough man, very tough agent.

I knew I'd never make it back to the major leagues as a player. Lee MacPhail came to me and asked if I wanted to manage the Yankees' Fort Lauderdale club. I thought about it for a day or two and decided to take the job. That was the turning point. I knew it was what I wanted to do.

When I was 15 years old, I used to actually dream I was pitching in Yankee Stadium. Bill Dickey was my catcher.

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

I managed Dal Maxvill, and he's now our general manager. I managed Bob Gibson. He's a broadcaster. Tim McCarver. Bill White. Nellie Briles. He used to be a broadcaster. I tried to count them up one time.

My career spanned the era when relievers started to become more important.

One-hundred years from now, nobody's going to remember that I played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays - nobody!

I went through baseball as 'a player to be named later.'

When I first came into the league, I was with Tim Dwight in San Diego, and a guy named Eric Parker, who really showed me the work ethic it takes to be an NFL receiver, and I've really tried to keep that with me.