Some kids dream of joining the circus, others of becoming a major league baseball player. I have been doubly blessed. As a member of the New York Yankees, I have gotten to do both.

I started putting words together, making rhymes and being witty with the wordplay. I can play a little bit of guitar, and that's something I'm going to dedicate more time to doing.

I'd have probably gone to Michigan. Only because one of my friends, Vada Murray, who passed away, went to Michigan and as a freshman and sophomore he was my big brother at Moeller.

I just loved to play. I liked to study the other ballplayers. I could talk about it for ages, because I played professional ball for 20 years, and I was still learning when I quit.

You can't be afraid to make errors! You can't be afraid to be naked before the crowd, because no one can ever master the game of baseball, or conquer it. You can only challenge it.

I have a relationship with Christ. It allows me to handle situations better. It allows me to treat people better and it allows me to have a better mental attitude towards baseball.

If I can be a good person and help a few non-believers or even help people that are believers but need a little help along the way, I think that's a job that I take very seriously.

I don't think people understand what microfracture surgery is. It's pretty serious. A lot of basketball players get it in their knees, and if they do bounce back, it takes a while.

Having a pitch clock, if you have ball-strike implications, that's messing with the fabric of the game. There's no clock in baseball, and there's no clock in baseball for a reason.

I played for Almendares in Cuba. Guess who was trying out for the team? Castro. Fidel Castro, as a pitcher. He could throw pretty hard, but he was wild. He didn't have any control.

(Doc) Cramer told me I was hitting too much off the front foot and that I wasn't using the right kind of bat. I had been using a long, skinny stick and Cramer got me a thicker one.

Sixty years is cause enough to sing In celebration of a gentle life! To the mother and the wife, Taking pleasure in what love might bring, Yearning for what's worth the treasuring.

Whoever said "It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game" is full of it! Winning makes all the difference in the world. Winning is fun. Losing is not. Losing sucks.

I bet on the game of baseball and I bet on my team, even the mistakes I made, I have to take a different look at someone betting against their own team... that's throwing the game.

Baseball and the players association have rules. If you stay within the rules - which say that you can play while you're appealing - I don't see what anyone would be in arms about.

That's when I use the word frustrating, when your body breaks down or your body doesn't do the things I'm asking it to do at my age, because I'm trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Ron Howard is the family patriarch. When he gave orders, directions, or suggestions to family members, they were not to be questioned. It was considered wrong to disagree with him.

I came up under the wing of Larry Bowa, and one thing I did not do was ever take a day off from taking pregame groundballs or batting practice. Then the games were just having fun.

I came to photography with the desire to conquer this machine, the camera, and make it my slave. Instead, I have now a respect for it and all machines as expanders of my awareness.

The last thing you want to do is go down in the history of All-Star game competition as the only injury (his nose was broken by Roberto Hernandez) sustained during the team picture.

I don't care how you get the outs. It doesn't matter to me how bad it looks, how good it looks, how many strikeouts you have. None of that stuff matters as long as you get the outs.

You have to go understand that life and baseball is littered with all kinds of obstacles and problems along the way. You have to learn how to overcome them to be successful in life.

I have the greatest job in the world. Only one person can have it. You have shortstops on other teams - I'm not knocking other teams - but there's only one shortstop on the Yankees.

One of the best things about being a Yankee is that you have guys like Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson wandering around the locker room offering you advice.

My idea of a 'super bowl' is when the catcher is standing in front of the plate with the ball, waiting for me as I round third...and I make him drop it. That's a quality Super Bowl.

I have gone from a player who thought he would spend his whole career with one organization to a player who's been with three organizations in a week. It's like rotisserie baseball.

If there's a man on second, I'm trying to get him in with a base hit. The doubles and homers will come. Sooner or later they'll go out naturally. I'm just trying not to do too much.

We're (Juan Gonzalez) like brothers. I'm sure he was very happy to see me get it done, and it's not very long from his day, so hopefully I'll see that and we'll be on the same team.

Being optimistic is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. Makes it easier when the tough times arrive. You have to change the way you think in order to change the way you feel.

I love both sports, but the deciding factor was, being a left-handed pitcher, I had a huge advantage in baseball because of that, and I didn't have that type of advantage in hockey.

I'm a great believer in the character of the club. To me, character has a lot to do with how you compete. That creates urgency and toughness. That elevates the talent that you have.

It's a good feeling to see the kids try to make it, try to get to the big leagues. Everyone here has an opportunity to achieve his dream. I was lucky I was able to achieve my dream.

I was very, very shocked about Cooperstown. I thought my chances were fairly good, but I tried to stay low key about it, not too high and not too low. That was the way I played, too.

I love the game very much, but when you were a certain type of player for a few years, being a front-end starter, that's the way I still think I can pitch. But the body tells you no.

Mike Matheny, Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile... before he died. Those guys took me under their wing and taught me the way to play the game the right way.

One game, one pitch can change everything for a hitter. The way I like to approach it is that every at-bat is its own unique opportunity to go out there and do something really good.

I had a .200 lifetime batting average in the major leagues, which tied me with another sports great averaging 200 or better for a ten-year period: Don Carter, one of our top bowlers.

Disadvantaged kids many times don't have the support network that we all have. I know how important my parents were in my life and many of these kids don't have that support network.

In all of my movies I've tried to address the need for man - not just Cubans - to have a dream and to fight for that dream, even when he doesn't achieve it. It's a form of happiness.

Losing streaks are funny. If you lose at the beginning, you got off to a bad start. If you lose in the middle of the season, you're in a slump. If you lose at the end, you're choking

Losing streaks are funny. If you lose at the beginning you got off to a bad start. If you lose in the middle of the season, you're in a slump. If you lose at the end, you're choking.

Why would you give me so much money and not try to win? What on earth is the point of that? They have to be serious about winning going forward. There's no other logical explanation.

People judge too much by results. I'm just the opposite. I care about more than results. I'd rather make a good pitch and give up a bloop single than make a bad pitch and get an out.

It takes a lot of dedication to quit smoking, and whether you give up for good on your first try or have to give it a couple of tries - just keep swinging at it and you will succeed.

I'm not the No. 1 starter. I'm not the guy that's going to carry the staff for four months out of the season, but I can contribute in a lot of ways. And to me I'm very proud of that.

When I came home, my kids wouldn't know if I went 0-for-4 or 4-for-4. I do not like to lose at anything, but I wouldn't be angry all day... Once I left the stadium, it was over with.

In 1960 when Pittsburgh beat us in the World Series, we outscored them 55-27. It was the only time I think the better team lost. I was so disappointed I cried on the plane ride home.

People say Yogi (Berra) is a strange guy, and I've heard Yogi say some funny things. But he has a beautiful wife, he's rich, and he's famous. I don't see anything strange about that.

I love this game. I love to have fun. You're playing a sport that you've loved since you were a kid, you get paid for it, and even if you're 0-for-20 or 0-for-30, you still have fun.

As I was in the air, the ball took a bad hop and caromed behind me, but I was able to catch it with my bare hand. I hit the ground, bounced back up, and threw Burroughs out at first.

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