As a ballplayer, you just want to feel respected. I like the way Washington presented the team to me and I feel good about what was being said.

I might be shy, but in the field, where I have to do my work, I do it. I let my bat speak for myself.

I don't think about how many people are watching me. I'm just happy to play baseball for myself.

As a ballplayer, you just want to feel respected. I like the way Washington presented the team to me and I feel good about what was being said.

I don't have to get a pitch down the middle. If I like the pitch-even if it's 15 inches off the plate, and that's the pitch I wanted-I'm swinging.

When we are youths in the Dominican, we pick up bats and balls because baseball is part of what we grow up with. The fun feeling you get playing keeps your head up when you encounter difficult times.

I think it looked like I was a little more aggressive than I was, ... I swing at bad pitches anyway, but I was swinging at even more bad pitches and missing. It looked worse. But I was thinking about [the milestone], no doubt about it.