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I love conversations, about anything.
I love Chicago. I love Wrigley Field.
When a guy 275 pounds snaps, look out.
You know, for me, you don't chase wins.
I like to hit with men in scoring position.
I can play with pain. It doesn't bother me.
The object is to win as many games possible.
Often, bumpy roads lead to beautiful places.
I've seen teammates who wanted to choke each other.
In the heat of the moment things get blown out of hand.
Yeah, I grew a goatee, and the next year, everybody had them.
My dad was big about talking about baseball and Latin players.
It's all about communication, culture and competing every day.
I utilize my coaches. I value their opinions on a lot of things.
I've done everything I could as a bench coach. I'm ready to manage.
My kids would watch from the window and wave to me during batting practice.
You have to stay in the moment. Stay focused. Know what you're going to do.
I had some pretty good teachers. I learned how to play the game the right way.
It would be tremendous… I'd love to be part of winning a championship in Chicago.
I was thinking it would be nice if I woke up and could play like Roberto Clemente.
The one thing I've known and I've learned from the best managers, it's to stay positive.
I'm never going to criticize any umpires or anything, because they're a big part of the game.
It wasn't until Joe Maddon called me in 2006 when I thought about pursuing a coaching career.
Everyone keeps telling me how young I am, but if the right opportunity comes up, I'm ready to manage.
When you go up there in the batter's box, you're engaged to hit. It's the same thing with baserunning.
I interviewed quite a few times and finally got a job with the Nationals. And I greatly appreciate it.
You have to take care of the seconds. The minutes, the hours, and the days will take care of themselves.
Building relationships. Communicating. Trust. Those are three things I've kind of instilled myself with.
Umpires are supposed to be non-confrontational - they're supposed to uphold the peace on the baseball field.
I've had many managers, and learned a lot from them, the good ones always stayed even-keeled, never rode the waves.
Through process and preparation and going through all of the interviews, I've learned a lot about myself and my skills.
In my career, I finished in second place six times. I played on teams that were in it to the very end. It's frustrating.
Every year that I have under my belt, I'm a lot more confident and a lot more prepared for the challenges of being a manager.
My job is to be the bench coach with the Rays and help this team succeed. If another opportunity arises, I'd welcome the opportunity.
In my first press conference I said, 'I'm here to win.' If you don't think that way, or any player thinks that way, why are you playing the game?
I realized that I still had a lot to offer the game. My knowledge could maybe help younger guys. I enjoyed being around the clubhouse, on the field.
I never took things for granted. I always told myself to keep working hard, come to the ballpark ready to play, and one day I'll get a chance to play.
I don't care what a guy can't do. Tell me what a guy can do and let's make the best of that. If we can do that, all the perceived things he can't do seem to go away.
Let them know that we care, even when they have a bad game and not a good game, let them know that we always care about them. You'll get the most out of every player.
The one thing I always hear from the players is they say, 'You never change… no matter what happens, you have conversations with us, you are always positive.' They appreciate that.
There's a lot of good Latin personnel out in baseball, coaching, in the front office, and it's nice to be recognized. But I really believe I'm here because of my merit, not because of any race or anything like that.
When I was with the Giants, I played for Dusty Baker, and I love Dusty to death. I think he's a great manager and great person, but he platooned me. His reasoning was to get everybody in the lineup. It wasn't that I couldn't play every day.
When you feel like you're going to have a low-scoring game, why not have one of your better hitters have a chance? All of a sudden you're in the ninth inning and you have one of your best hitters on deck that doesn't get up. I always think about that.
I've been around baseball for a really long time. I didn't know I could want to be here any more than I do, have any more love or passion for this. But being away, even for just a week, that was the worst. I didn't know what was going on. I never want to do that again.
Early in my career when I was with Montreal, we had a lot of good outfielders like Otis Nixon, myself, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker. We all did the platooning thing, although each one of us could have played every day. We got everybody in the lineup, and everybody got to play.
I can remember having meetings with my coaches when things were going bad. I told them, 'Hey, we've got to be positive. This is the time we need to step up. You've got to make sure they know everything is going to be okay. Keep teaching. Once they see you are down, you lose them and that can't happen.'
The biggest thing I tell the boys is control the heartbeat. It's hard to do, but we've gotta be able to control the heartbeat in big moments because it goes really quick. So just stay in that moment and focus on the moment, don't get ahead of yourselves, and just play the game that we've been playing all year.