The other deals with my life and my livelihood and my family and all that I stand for.

I respect the Hall of Fame, and if they think that I'm worthy enough, I would be very honored. And if they don't, I gave it all that I had to this game.

My dad was the force behind me early on. He was just infatuated with baseball. He was the one that basically taught me how to play the game. He gave a lot of his time working out with me, practicing and taking me to a lot of different games. It was hard work between both of us.

Well, you know, I left Cuba as a kid when I was 6 years old back in 1971.

Hard work is the main thing-hard work and dedication. And I think a great part of it is goal setting. You set your goals to a point where they're attainable, but far enough away that you have to really go get them. And every year I push my goals a little bit farther away, and every year I work a little bit harder to get them. Every goal that I've set, I've been able to achieve. That's been very fulfilling.

But I think mainly, you know, just up in the East Coast, it's where it all originated. You know, Philadelphia. It goes back to the beginning. So, you know, fans have a lot of history, and they love their teams up here.

There's a lot of history in Boston and a lot of history, obviously, in New York with all the championships.