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.

I know the Chicago media will write a lot of bad things, but they'll write a lot of good things too. I can live with that. In Cleveland, all I got was negative press.

In the past I've tended to overreact. I was sure I'd be a superstar by the time I was twenty-one. Baseball messed up my plan of life. When I fail I get upset. Sometimes I get upset too quickly, without thinking of consequences.

There were so many Cuban-Americans upset that we were going to Cuba and I was curious to see why they were so angry, and anti-Castro. I found out as soon as we got there. The people were treated terrible. The conditions were terrible. I can see why people risk their lives and limbs to get out. (Fidel Castro) lives like a king and won't help anybody, and has everybody scared to death. Nobody lives a normal life. It was still a good experience, but I thought we should just play that one game.

I would rather have come to Baltimore than the Yankees. You look at their situation, they're the kingpin and you want to be that underdog that knocks them off the top. That's pretty much the situation I've been in my whole career. It just makes for a better season when you knock the big guys off the top.

People tried to test me (in 1999) and I came up with some pretty good throws. Everybody on the team calls me 'Bazooka' now. That's kind of like a nickname I gave myself.

I'm pretty much right on schedule. Start off slow, finish up strong. I don't know why everyone panics. I've been doing this for ten years now. Why change?