You know, when I was a young boy I used to play baseball in my back yard or in the street with my brothers or the neighborhood kids. We used broken bats and plastic golf balls and played for hours and hours.

I never faced a pitcher with better stuff than Nolan Ryan.

I was also very lucky to be a teammate of two of the greatest players to have ever played the game. I learned very early on by playing for Frank Robinson and with Henry Aaron that even the greatest players in the game were just one of the guys.

You know over 20 years I played for a number of managers and dozens of coaches. I don't know any of them that I didn't learn something from to help make me a better player.

You know no one ever accomplishes something like this without a lot of help from good people along the way. And this is certainly true in my case, and I would like to thank some of those people.

My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.

And George Brett. I think most people know that George and I have become pretty good friends over the years.