Nothing in baseball can bring me down to the level where I was growing up in Pine Bluff, crying and broke. This is fun for me. Whenever you see me slumping, nah, I don't get upset; I'm all right.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You can't get real happy or real depressed when you play baseball. Baseball is a great sport in that it offers a player a lot of opportunities for atonement.
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.
Sooner or later you learn that you belong in the big leagues, and that makes you calm down.
Pitching... sometimes I did so poorly, it brought me to tears.
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
It was so difficult for the fans to understand my problems with baseball.
When you're in a slump, you do something different, just to try it. I remember one time I was in a slump, and I borrowed one of Henry Aaron's bats and hit two homers. I used my own bats the next night. I just needed a change.
I'm a baseball freak.
I don't go to bed every night worried about getting back into baseball.
I'm so bad at baseball, I can't even hit now.