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.

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.

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

I tried to use batting gloves at the beginning of every spring training up until 1999. It just didn't feel good.

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