I expect us to compete every game and have a chance to win every game. That’s all you can ask for as a team.
I’m harder on myself than anyone else can be. That’s what got me here. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it helps. If I had listened to everybody, I wouldn’t be here. “Not big enough, not strong enough, not fast enough.”
You know what? At one point, I came to the realization that nothing you do in this game’s enough. I hit .300 two years, and it’s, “He strikes out 100 times.” You know what I’m saying? “He walks 30 times.” Or if I walk 50 times and hit .250, it’s, “He didn’t hit .300.” You know what I’m saying? It’s always something.
Barry Bonds is the closest. Now he doesn’t run as much as he used to, but that’s the closest you’re going to get to a perfect player.
My mom was always at football, basketball, baseball–whatever I played. I always had a lot of support. My mom’s still the biggest support group I have. When things are going good or bad, she’ll call me and let me know what’s going on.
The other day in Cincinnati, she told me I was rushing. She said, “Why are you rushing? There’s no reason to be rushing.” She knows. She knows.
Nobody can mess with her. Nobody can say anything about her. She’s off-limits because without her, I wouldn’t be me. First of all, she birthed me. She taught me right and wrong. She taught me about sportsmanship. I had different rules than everybody. The rules in high school are a 2.0 (1). If I didn’t have a 3.0, I couldn’t play.
Tony Gwynn and Kevin Mitchell were my heroes growing up. Tony Gwynn was just a pure hitter. Kevin came from the same neighborhood (2), and he showed us that you can make it out.
I wasn’t ready for the pros out of high school. I knew I wasn’t ready. I was a 33rd-round draft pick, and I knew I would be a small fish in a big pond. I was never really away from home. I knew I was a good player and shouldn’t have gone that low, but I thought maybe I could better myself as a person by going to college.
We played well together and did good things together (3), but they never really added on to win a World Series at the time when we could’ve. There was a time when we could’ve gotten Jim Thome. We could’ve gotten Shannon Stewart in ’02. They waited around to see what was going to happen. It just never really materialized.
Every year when it was time for someone to get traded, it was me. You know what I’m saying? There was always a guy who was coming up who was going to compete with me. I had to compete with Torii (4). We told each other there has to be room for both of us when it’s all said and done, and that’s how it turned out.
We talked about it a little bit (5), but we knew we had no control over it. The only thing we had control over was going out and playing. That was a big reason we were able to do some of the things that we did for three years because no matter what we were dealt, we had to go out and play the games. They weren’t going to stop the games until things got straightened out. We were just taught to go out and play the games as hard as we could.
For a while, I don’t think it was a rivalry (6) because a rivalry consists of going back and forth, and for a while, we (7) dominated those guys. We had more of a rivalry with the Indians than the White Sox. They came through last year and beat us pretty good in the regular season and went on to win the World Series. They talked a lot in the paper. They belittled us, they said we couldn’t compete with them.
I’m not really a big autograph guy. People who impact my life, I appreciate. But just to get an autograph because somebody is an All-Star or a Hall of Famer or a legend, no.
You don’t have control over what the umpire calls. You don’t have control over what the pitcher throws. You don’t have control over the ball once it leaves the bat. But if you give total effort every day, and no one can question the way you played the game, then I think you had a good career.
It’s time to win.
(1): Grade-point average to participate in sports
(2): In San Diego
(3): When he played for Minnesota
(4): Twins outfielder Torii Hunter
(5): Rumors of the Twins franchise folding
(6): With the White Sox
(7): The Twins
