Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and men together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life.
Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person, stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere you like except in the umpire's eye or on the ball.
Now, you tell me, if I have a day off during the baseball season, where do you think I'll spend it? The ballpark. I still love it. Always have, always will.
It's tempting, because as one senator said to me, 'We know if we invite baseball down, we'll draw a crowd'.
If the human body recognized agony and frustration, people would never run marathons, have babies, or play baseball.
And I'd be lying if I told you that as a black man in baseball I hadn't gone through worse times than my teammates.
I was playing baseball, and I tripped over first base - I'm very clumsy - and I fell and broke my wrist. That was pretty painful.
Baseball can be slow in many ways. The action starts with when the pitcher delivers the ball. But the action really starts when the crack of the bat happens.
Awards mean a lot, but they don't say it all. The people in baseball mean more to me than statistics.
I'm no different than others with cancer. I just happen to play professional baseball. I'm part of those statistics that cancer has touched as well.
There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That's baseball.
The public wouldn't like the perfect umpire in every game. It would kill off baseball's greatest alibi - 'We was robbed.'
I'm a guy who just wanted to see his name in the lineup everyday. To me, baseball was a passion to the point of obsession.
I played baseball as a left-handed first baseman, though never as well as I did quarterbacking.
I've always been like that. I was a tomboy when I was a kid, so I was always playing baseball and basketball and football and stuff as a kid with the boys.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
The game is just, everybody talks about baseball, but I really think football probably has a little bit more American feeling than anything.
The fact is, when I was 15 and a sophomore at high school, I played on the varsity baseball team for the college.
In regards to steroids, I think we're all to blame, all of baseball. I never realized how far-reaching this problem has been.
When I came into baseball, I had one goal for my career - the Hall of Fame.
I kind of grew up with high goals for myself; I intended to play pro baseball. Growing up in Texas, Hollywood isn't much of a reality.
