I looked up to my father when I was 7 and 8. I believed it was my calling to be in the big leagues. I'd been raised by a family that always told me I could do anything I wanted.

I was this 5-7 pudgy kid in high school... I wasn't a popular kid. I was an outcast.

I think I'm aware of what goes on in my mind more than some guys, and for that reason I fight more battles.

I just write mechanical things.

I view my pitching on how confident I was out there, period. And if I lose that confidence, I can become a prisoner of my own mind.

There's a part of me that wants to go streak and run outside and jump around and go swim in the ocean and do everything. The other part of me wants to bear down and repeat this kind of performance next year and in the years to come.

When someone becomes successful or rich and famous, people perceive that person as being different. But I'm the same guy I've always been.