I never wanted all this hoopla. All I wanted was to be a good ball player and hit twenty-five or thirty homers, drive in a hundred runs, hit .280 and help my club win pennants. I just wanted to be one of the guys, an average player having a good season.

Don't quote me on this, but if they ever manage to ban beer advertising in baseball you can kiss the national pastime goodbye.

As a ballplayer, I would be delighted to do it again. As an individual, I doubt if I could possibly go through it again.

I don't want to be Babe Ruth. He was a great ballplayer. I'm not trying to replace him. The record is there and damn right I want to break it, but that isn't replacing Babe Ruth.

I think the most privacy I had was when the game was going on.

Maybe I'm not a great man but I damn well want to break the record.

Now they talk on the radio about the record set by (Babe) Ruth, and (Joe) DiMaggio and Henry Aaron. But they rarely mention mine. Do you know what I have to show for the sixty-one home runs? Nothing, exactly nothing.