Quote

There's something magical about a home run. It almost violates the space of the stadium. It's a game of the imagination in some ways. Baseball.

I loved the opportunity to play for the Yankees, too.

No one hit home runs the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings, then take off for the stands.

We all pulled together at the right time, unfortunately, we were down 3-0 to the Yankees when we decided to do it, but we did it. And we shocked the world.

I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

So to get to play for the Yankees was really exciting. Really exciting.

Everybody says we hated the Yankees. We didn't hate the Yankees. We just hated the way they beat us.

When you're in the middle of a pennant race, you can't go up there thinking about home runs.

The Yankees won the pennant, we went on to the World Series, 41 years after that in the city of Toronto. The great city of Toronto, and all the provinces in Canada, everybody reached out and they were excited because we won the first World Series ever, across the border.

When McGwire started the home run mania, attendance came back. The owners understood that the sudden spike in homers wasn't accidental. All baseball knew it. But baseball is run on money, and home runs meant money. Baseball turned a blind eye.