In New York, after that famous home run, they expected me to be up there every year. That homer raised me to a high level, with the top guys in the game.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'd give a year of my life if I could hit a homerun on opening day of this great new park.
I had some friends here from North Carolina who'd never seen a homer, so I gave them a couple.
My major league debut came at old Busch Stadium on Grand Avenue in St. Louis against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.
You know, when you can play with the greatest players of that particular era, you look forward to going to the ballpark. I mean, you thought it was great to be there in the clubhouse. You thought it was great to be on the field.
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 always tried to be Mark McGwire and hit homers like he did. I was kind of following his race, too, when he was trying to break the record.
They could never beat me in Springfield. I loved that old ballpark. If I could have pitched there all my career, I'd be a 300-game winner.
It seemed like I always did some great hitting in Brooklyn. The field there was close to the stands. Every time I started walking to the plate, I could hear the fans say, 'Here comes that man again. Here comes that man.'
I grew up on Avenue C, and Tompkins Square Park was my park. That was where I played ball every day. I lived in that park.
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