When people think of me, they think about me knocking catchers down and knocking second basemen down and yelling at pitchers. But when I took the spikes off after the game, I was a nice guy when I went home.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Every day I went to the ballpark in Yankee Stadium as well as on the road people were on my back. The last six years in the American League were mental hell for me. I was drained of all my desire to play baseball.
I'm flattered that so many baseball people think I'm a Hall of Famer. But what's hard to believe is how one-hundred and fifty plus people have changed their minds about me since I became eligible, because I haven't had a base hit since then.
People think of me as a nice person because, I think, I have grown into a nice person.
When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch.
As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.
I always had the attitude that I wanted to throw a no-hitter every game.
I thought I was a pretty good shortstop, but I also wanted to play in the major leagues.
Baseball hasn't forgotten me. I go to a lot of old-timers games and I haven't lost a thing. I sit in the bullpen and let people throw things at me. Just like old times.
Hitters never showed me up, as hard as I threw. And I was pretty mean out on the mound.
I like my friends to be the hitters. The pitchers, they all have the same brain as I do. The hitters see the game from a different perspective.