I'd give a year of my life if I could hit a homerun on opening day of this great new park.

Reading isn't good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading.

Love the game of baseball and baseball will love you.

As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.

I learned early to drink beer, wine and whiskey. And I think I was about 5 when I first chewed tobacco.

Paris ain't much of a town.

All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.