We need money. We need hits. Hits bring money, money bring power, power bring fame, fame change the game.
There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.
Preparation is very important. The pitcher is going to do his job and prepare for you, so you as a hitter must do the same. I always watch videotape of pitchers before the game and even sometimes during.
Ted Williams is one of the best hitters ever to play the game, and I didn't get a chance to see him play, so all I could do was read books and look at pictures.
I think there's a growing number of pitchers who want to have a plan going into a game about how they're going to go after that lineup. I'd say 75 percent want to have an idea, and they plan their attack. I know that 75 percent of hitters do not have that same type of plan against a pitcher.
It must be nice for today's hitters when you don't have to worry about being thrown at. It's a whole different deal. When I played, getting knocked down was an accepted part of the game.
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.
Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted.
You want to be the team that is on the field when the last out is made on the winning side. That's obviously the holy grail in the game that I play, and that's what every player strives for.
There's a lot of art and comics and movies being paid homage to by game designers.
I always say that I think my job is behind home plate, call a good game, play some good defense, and also, I know I was not a power hitter.
There's something magical about a home run. It almost violates the space of the stadium. It's a game of the imagination in some ways. Baseball.
To stay sane, I lived in my head, where I could travel and imagine. In my mind, I played a championship game with the Knicks. I won Wimbledon five times. If the Yankees needed a home run, I came to bat.
Pitching keeps you in the games. Home runs win the game.
They used to call me 'Touchdown T.' I remember in high school, we had homecoming, and I got in front of the pep rally, and I told them, 'I'm going to run for three touchdowns.' I ran for three touchdowns, kicked the extra point, and took myself out the game.
You're seeing more players come back to MLS in their prime and the homegrown talent coming up that's of high quality. I think that game's always continuing to grow, and I'm happy to be part of that growth and come back to the league.
This is the honest truth: I could absolutely care less on yards per game. I think that's a totally overblown stat.
What I wanted to do in talking about basketball in 'Hoop Roots' was retrieve the game as something to participate in, not to watch.
It was more my uncle - my mom's brother - and my aunt who turned me on to hoops. He was more into basketball and he'd take me to Raptors games. And then my dad started taking me with him. And I started falling in love with the game.
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
