I remember playing on pretty much an all-minority youth team and going to some of the tournaments north of Cincinnati and not being able to stay with host families where all the other teams were staying with host families.
I've always said when I broke in I was an average player. I had an average arm, average speed and definitely an average bat. I am still average in all of those.
We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us—anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.
My sons remember me most as a Cardinal. My one son is 26 years old, and I don't think he's ever seen me without a beard. It's not as black as it used to be, but it's still there.
My first year in the big leagues, I made $17,000. It was easy to go out and get another $17,000 relief pitcher. I never worried about innings or pitches. I just pitched.
To be a small town kid from Hialeah, Fla., pitching in Miami and representing Team U.S.A., that says it all. It's a kid's dream. Don't pinch me. I don't want to wake up.
Well, I know that I'll never forget that, but also I won't forget the hundreds of people who sent me letters, telegrams, and postcards during that World Series. There wasn't a single nasty message. Everybody tried to say something nice.
It was much more fun playing with him than against him. If you wanted one pitcher to start the seventh game of the World Series, which he did in 1945, you'd pick Hal Newhouser.
I am sure it will be mentioned and debated but from my standpoint I know who is in the Hall of Fame. A lot of them don't belong in the Hall of Fame. If someone wants to debate me, check the stats.
The rage was in me, and if it wasn't for the rage, then I wouldn't know how to be calm. They feed off of each other. Just like when Malcolm X fed off Martin Luther King. They needed each other.
I had no interest in steroids. I didn't need them, and I didn't want them. I never wanted them. From the get-go, I've frequently mouthed off about their negative impact on the game.
In L.A., wives can fly on the plane; with the Yankees, they can't. With other teams, the wives always have functions to bring them together. Not here. You don't know what half the wives look like.
It must be nice for today's hitters when you don't have to worry about being thrown at. It's a whole different deal. When I played, getting knocked down was an accepted part of the game.
Your body is not made to throw like we throw. That's why you see softball pitchers pitching two or three games a day. It's a natural movement in softball. In baseball it's not a natural movement.
You had to pitch in and out. The zone didn't belong to the hitters; it belonged to the pitchers. Today, if you pitch too far inside, the umpire would stop you right there. I don't think it's fair.
There is only one Mariano Rivera. There won't be another person who will come along and do what he did. No one does it like him. It was an honor to catch him and play alongside him for as long as I did.
It's tough to strike out. Believe me. I hate striking out. It's no fun. It's embarrassing. But there really isn't anything I can do. It's just a part of my game.
First of all, you want umpires to call what they see. In the case of fair or foul, the smartest thing is to call the ball fair. Because if it's called foul and ruled fair, where do we put the runners?
If a club is winning, you never pay attention to a guy who's 0-for-10. If a club is losing, all of a sudden you'll find that he's the main reason why you're losing, which is absurd for me.
It's nice to have writers write nice things about you and guys on radio and TV say nice things about you, but the guy who's in the locker next to you is the one you play the game for.
We charted individual pitches by hand, so I had that data from game to game, but from year to year, I didn't really have that data, because a lot of times it was discarded.
