I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.

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

I don't mean to be bashful, but I was

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.

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

When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.

When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.