I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.

"And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11". So I just picked baseball."

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.

When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o'clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.

I was very blessed with a good body. Never got hurt. Never was in the hospital. The only time I was in the hospital was when I would get exhausted a little bit, and go in for a check-up or something.

I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.