When I first got to the majors in 2004, female fans held up signs asking me to marry them. Those girls today were what, 13, 14? I'm 23, but that's a little young even for me.

As soon as baseball becomes a job, as soon as I stop caring, as soon as the smile goes away, I'll hang up my spikes and do something else.

Baseball is the reason I have my apartment, baseball is the reason I'm on the cover of video game. Baseball is what I do.

Sure, finishing last has negative connotations. But finishing second-to-last or last is still losing.

There's a lot more to playing in the big leagues in New York than just the baseball part.

An excess of development can undermine the most ephemeral but distinctive tool a writer possesses: authorial voice. A writer's voice is as individual and marked as a thumbprint, and is a playwright's truest imprimatur. It is as innate as breathing, and can be as unique as any genetic code. By its very singular nature, it is seldom born in the act of collaboration. True authorial voice always pre-dates the first rehearsal of a text. And it is - and will always be - an author's most distinguishing and valuable feature.

I don't care how much I'm talked about or hyped. It's still up to me to go out and perform.