Three thousand, it's just a number. It's just a game

My life was on the line here and my career and everything I worked for, it was hanging by a thread

It was a hard time. It was something I would love to erase from my memory.

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.

They try to say this era was a tainted era. But so many great players played in the last 15 to 20 years. This is going to be the best era in the history of the game in my opinion

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.