What I do is see the ball, hit the ball.

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.

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.

What I do is see the ball, hit the ball.

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.

I'm not as good as I want to be.