I think Nick Markakis is a perennial All-Star, and nobody knows about him. I think people are learning about how good he is.

The last thing you want to do is go down in the history of All-Star game competition as the only injury (his nose was broken by Roberto Hernandez) sustained during the team picture.

Sometimes I think sportsmanship is a little bit forgotten in place of the individual attention.

Disadvantaged kids many times don't have the support network that we all have. I know how important my parents were in my life and many of these kids don't have that support network.

What keeps me going? I guess it's just a desire to keep trying to contribute and do things in life.

I haven't given it (achieving 3,000 hits) much thought. I was taught a certain approach, how to come to the ballpark. I try not to do too much thinking about things like that. In this society we measure success in different ways. Three thousand (hits) represents success over a career, not a season. It'll be nice to get to that point.

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?