Some people are saying it's a slap in the face for me to go to a competitor, but it also was a slap in my face that they would go out and trade for Matt Williams, especially when my situation was unsure.

There were a lot of times in the Cleveland and Chicago organizations when I did something, they wanted to make sure the camera was there. I really didn't want that. This isn't something my parents told me to do. Or something my family told me to do. Or do things for publicity. I do this on my own. I do this from my heart.

I have high expectations for myself. I'm not out there playing the game just to be playing it. I want to win a championship.

I mean, people think I'm too intense for baseball. I've always excelled to be the best, no matter what, but it's like people think something is wrong with that.

What we should have done is kept the same team that played in the '95 World Series. Those trades (Eddie Murray & Carlos Baerga) caused a lot of chaos in the organization. I didn't feel like we were moving in the right direction.

I look back over my career and I almost pissed it away. I got a second chance and I've made the most of my opportunity. I play every game like it's the last game of my career.

We need to start acting like a team, focus on winning and not worry about all of the other stuff that goes on. We lost our focus last year. We worried about who was being hired, who was being fired. That's got to change. We don't need any more finger pointing. We need to act like a team.