I was standing next to him(1), and it was a big ol’ bear hug. Nothing needed to be said.
We finally got an opportunity to go. We’d waited a long time.
The city had waited a long time.
I never really wanted to leave. The city was always good to me. The organization was always fair to me. It’s never been about the almighty dollar.We make a lot of money. I’m not complaining about the amount of money I’m making. I get paid well.
The problem you have nowadays is there’s no loyalty from players or management. When you have that going on, it’s hard to get guys to stay in one organization for their career.
I had to take some time to think about it.(2) It’s a tough decision, but once you make the decision, zip up the bag and move on and just go out there and be the best possible second baseman you can be. I never did it before. To play a position you’ve never played before is huge. I had a great coach in Matt Galante. We spent numerous hours on the back field by ourselves, starting from the beginning. I owe him everything. One year when I won a Gold Glove, I gave it to him. He deserved it.
Thurman Munson. Just because he was a catcher. I really respected the way that he played the game. I really wasn’t necessarily a Yankee fan. I wasn’t a fan of any team. But he was one of my favorites because as a role model, the way he led by example on the field and off the field. Unfortunately, his love for his family and wanting to get home to see them all the time is what eventually took his life in the airplane crash. He was always my hero.
And Walter Payton in Chicago. Football is what I wanted to do. That’s really what I wanted to play. Walter was my hero because he wasn’t the biggest guy on the field. He was relatively maybe the smallest guy, but he never ran out of bounds. He always took that extra yard or two where he ran through a guy rather than taking the courtesy out-of-bounds route. The way that he prepared himself and the way that guys tried to work out with him in the off-season–that hill. We did some hills, but obviously not his hill.
Smartest baseball man I’ve ever been around,Yogi(3) is. You don’t get that many rings–he’s been to what, 14 World Series?–without knowing the game. He’s known for his Yogisms for what he says, but he knows the game better than anybody. Being a younger player, he’d say some things and I was kind of like, “Yeah, OK, whatever,” and then that would happen and that would happen. I knew right then and there I had a lot to learn. He’s brilliant, by my standards.
My dad would go to work and come home and work out with you. He wasn’t my coach, but he’d go out and pitch to you on the side. Or play football catch. He was an air traffic controller.
She’s a runner.(4) She was athletic growing up as a kid. A cheerleader. She ran the New York City Marathon. Not bad.
Our time is limited when you play eight months, so you’re not home for a lot of stuff. It’s the little things that when you have a moment, you treasure it. A hug or a kiss or being there for a special moment.
I’m a part of a group called Sunshine Kids. They’re one of the reasons I wanted to stay. They’re kids who have cancer, leukemia. It’s not a fundraiser looking for a cure. It’s an asset to make money and take their families on a ski trip, they can go whitewater rafting, they can get some things they wouldn’t normally experience. You see pictures, you see smiles, you bring them out to Minute Maid Park–we have a day out there for them where I pitch to them all–there’s so many different things that we have for them. I’m just fortunate to be part of it.
I think everybody plays back-yard Wiffle Ball where you’re thinking about Game 7 of the World Series. Either you’re the pitcher or the hitter or something. I was a player, and the Yankees were always the team where I grew up in New York, so I was Thurman Munson or Willie Randolph or Mickey Rivers or Reggie.(5)
But now it’s a reality.
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1: Longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell, when Houston beat St. Louis to clinch a spot in the World Series.
2: Changing positions from catcher to second in 1992.
3: Yogi Berra, former Astros coach
4: Biggio’s wife, Patty.
5: Reggie Jackson.
