Enjoy your sweat because hard work doesn't guarantee success, but without it you don't have a chance.Collection: Success
I've always said I'm a teacher at heart.Collection: Teacher
I'm very thankful to the Yankees and to Major League Baseball for allowing me to play this game.Collection: Thankful
It's a game that just takes so much out of you. Every aspect of your life has to be very narrow, very focused. Everything else has to go away. And because of that, I think it's obviously not healthy. The last thing I'm looking for is sympathy.Collection: Sympathy
Winners live in the present tense. People who come up short are consumed with future or past. I want to be living in the now.Collection: Future
I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position.
This is how I define grace: you're on the main stage, and it looks like it has been rehearsed 100 times, everything goes so smoothly. That's where I get my confidence and success, from knowing that I have an edge because I know I'm prepared.
I have a big scar in my thigh from a dog bite by my German shepherd. His name was Ripper. He was trying to get in a fight with another dog, and I tried to break it up, and he got me pretty good.
Like everyone else, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. The only way I know how to handle them is to learn from them and move forward.
I just hope that as I get older, I calm down and enjoy the moment, enjoy the great gifts that God has given me.
It's tougher when you're established. Before, I'd see 13, 14, 15 pitches that I could drive in a game. Now, I see one, two or three, so I have to be better.
I love the challenge of the game. I love the work. My goal right now is to have a season next year that will make people forget about this one. I'll use things like this for motivation. I'm pumped. I'm hungry.
I went over a year without playing baseball. At 39, not playing for a year, a year and a half, there were a lot of nights I was saying, 'This is going to be tough.'
I had a very complex childhood, and when I met my wife, because she has a master's in psychology, she promoted me into getting help. It really has helped. I'm not healed yet, but I'm working on some issues I had as a child.
My girls are great at making fun of Dad. They're never impressed with anything I do. I love that. I hope that never changes.
My daughters think I am a terrible cook, but I try really hard. I would really like to be a better cook.
When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me, and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day.
You get to a point where you get tired of being stupid and selfish and not being honest with yourself.
When I entered the pros, I was a young kid in the major leagues. I was 18 years old, right out of high school. I thought I knew everything, and I clearly didn't.
I will say this: when you take any substance, especially in baseball, it's half mental and half physical. If you take this glass of water and you say, 'I'm going to be a better baseball player,' then you probably will be.
No athlete ever ends his or her career the way you want to. We all want to play forever. But it doesn't work that way. Accepting the end gracefully is part of being a professional athlete.
I would like to help out in financial literacy for the Hispanic community and the athletic community.
My father played baseball. That's what I know to do. That's my gift. God has given me the greatest gift. And that's what I love to do.
There's absolutely no comparisons to me or anyone else to Willie Mays. Willie Mays, he's the greatest baseball player of all time.