I'm half-Italian and my name is Portuguese. Michael Young is half-Mexican. There are players from the United States that have heritage elsewhere and it's a great thing to have a world cup to celebrate the whole world. It shows the world that baseball is important and how great the game is.

I went to college for a reason, and that was to skip the minor leagues. I spent a year in the minors and got my at-bats in, and then I felt like I was ready for the big leagues.

I would tell everyone to go to college, no matter what. It gives you time to grow up.

I'm so excited about the new [Yankee] stadium!

One thing that I've realized is that you're never going to be 100 percent successful. You're always going to be let down. When you have God in your life and you follow Christ, you're never going to be let down. Every time that you fail, He's there to pick you right back up. Every time you think the world's going to end because you had a couple of bad games, God's there to remind you that's not what it's all about.

There are always things to improve on. I want to improve on my defense, and you can never be a perfect hitter. I want to focus on just playing more and being able to improve on all parts of my game.

I love being a Yankee, and it's hard not to. It's a special place to play.