Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.

I haven't missed a game in two-and-a-half years. I go to the park as sick as a dog and, when I see my uniform hanging there, I get well right now. Then I see some of you guys (media) and I get sick again.

Once you accept defeat, it becomes ease to lose. If defeat comes, face it and take it, but don't accept it.

I'd be willing to bet you, if I were a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball.

I think that the most important thing to me is fans. Without the viewers, without the fans, we have nothing. So I think the fans are awfully important.

Singles hitters drive Fords. Home-run hitters drive Cadillacs.