Quote collection
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"I have a food show.It's not just baseball people. It's a mixture of baseball people, actors, musicians, chefs and whatnot. They bring out different dishes, and at the end of the show, I give the one I like the most the "Fielder's choice." It's good TV."
"I get to kind of pretend I'm going to play baseball. I get to work out and do all the stuff that was part of baseball. I just don't get to play."
"I'm just living a normal life - a regular life, as people would call it. I'm enjoying it."
"My main goal now is waking up healthy every day and going on with life."
"Once I started getting multiple days off in a row, it was a long year for me. That had never happened, and everybody knew I didn't like it."
"I was a guy who came to work every day. I was there. When my manager got to the field at 12, I felt like there was no reason for him to ever wonder if I was playing. For me, that's a big deal. I teach that to my kids."
"Obviously I wasn't playing well at the time. But as a player, you lie to yourself. You say, "There's nothing wrong. I'm just not on time [at the plate]." You make something else up because pain is not an option."
"Honestly, right now, I don't want to be around baseball. Not that I don't like it. But I'm having fun right here, hanging around my family and watching my kids' games."
"I guess you need days off, but I just didn't want them."
"I'd like to help out in any way I can, especially with the younger guys in the minor leagues. But as far as setting something up, we haven't really talked about it."
"It's easier for me to accept that I can't play anymore because I literally gave it all I got. That allows me to be a little bit more at peace."
"If I could even do that [playing] in a softball league, I would never miss anything about baseball."
"I miss the guys, and I miss playing baseball. Just being able to swing the bat, or run, or dive for a ball, or slide into second."
"I thought it might be a cool thing [food show] to do when I retired a few years later. Then retirement came slightly prematurely."
"I'm still working out. It keeps me feeling good about things."
"I saw [ that I and my father, Cecil end our careers with 319 home runs] after I retired. It was just weird. With all the games we played, neither one of us could hit one more home run? Obviously, it was supposed to go that way. It's a pretty cool thing, I guess."
"It was pretty hard to actually have to say the words with my teammates, my wife and my boys there. I realized it was going to happen before that day [I announce retirement], but to have to announce it and talk about in front of a lot of people was tougher than I expected. I'm glad that feeling has kind of gone away. That sadness hasn't lingered."
"I have nothing left to prove. I've already done enough to my neck."
"I miss playing baseball. Just being able to swing the bat, or run, or dive for a ball, or slide into second. If I could even do that in a softball league, I would never miss anything about baseball. I don't miss the crowds or the travel or even being in the big leagues. I just miss being able to take batting practice and being able to swing as hard as I can. That's all I miss."
"A lot of people probably say I'm stupid, and they're probably right, because there are people who take days off who are still in the league, and I'm not."