I kept thinking, 'this must be the coolest job - I'd like to be a professional baseball player.' They were getting paid to play a game, and what a cool lifestyle that was.

As long as I can compete, I won't quit. Reaching three-thousand is not the finish line as long as I can contribute.

I take pride in the fact that you are able to make some good contributions to the sport at certain times.

In the end of the day, I feel pretty good about the contributions you can make.

You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.

When things happen to you in the worst way, you live with it, you go over it, you think, 'What else could I have done?

I'd like to be remembered. I'd like to think that someday two guys will be talking in a bar and one of them will say something like, 'Yeah, he's a good shortstop, but he's not as good as ole Ripken was.'