I said I'm going to hit the next one right over the flagpole. God must have been with me.

I've never heard a crowd boo a homer, but I've heard plenty of boos after a strikeout.

What I am, what I have, what I am going to leave behind me - all this I owe to the game of baseball.

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

I copied (Shoeless Joe) Jackson's style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He's the guy who made me a hitter.

If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery. I have the same violent temper my father and older brother had. Both died of injuries from street fights in Baltimore, fights begun by flare-ups of their tempers.

Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.