When I'm healthy, I can still pitch. I know I can still pitch at that level and get the results that I want.

Maybe I've lost a little, but I think everyone does over time. People have been writing that I'm getting old every year, and eventually they're going to be right. There's nobody in this game that's doing the same things they once did in the peak years of their career.

It's hard to mix with a crowd when you're walking down the hallway and everybody else is a foot shorter. I remember hanging out with my friends, like at the mall, and thinking people were staring at me and talking about me. It made me turn inside myself. I became more shy and quiet.

Any time I've taken the mound, it's always been the old Samson-and-Goliath story written about me.

People who say they're not nervous - I would be kind of curious to see how successful you are at what you do and how long you've done it. And what is success in your eyes? Have you separated yourself from everyone else in that craft? Or have you settled amongst the pack?

I learned a lot from not having success, and realizing when you do have success, how hard it is to maintain it, and what you have to do to maintain it.

The word 'potential' used to hang over me like a cloud.