We're (Juan Gonzalez) like brothers. I'm sure he was very happy to see me get it done, and it's not very long from his day, so hopefully I'll see that and we'll be on the same team.

But as far as I'm concerned, I can still play defense.

I wish that they had the freedoms like the Japanese and the Koreans and the Mexicans and everybody else that has that freedom to come over here and play the game, because I know Cuba has a very strong baseball history.

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.

We're (Juan Gonzalez) like brothers. I'm sure he was very happy to see me get it done, and it's not very long from his day, so hopefully I'll see that and we'll be on the same team.

Yeah, I'm going to go back (after hitting his 500th home run, but commenting on reaching the 3,000 hit plateau) to my Punch-and-Judy days, hit the ball the other way, start bunting the ball a little bit.

You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it