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

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.

It's like obituaries, when you die they finally give you good reviews.

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.

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

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

It would have been a helluva lot more fun if I had never hit those 61 homeruns... all it brought me was headaches.