“It doesn’t take any talent to play hard.”

I get nervous watching teammates. I get nervous for them. Late in the game, pressure situation, I’m nervous for them.

Everyone fears rejection.

If you’re going to play at all, you’re out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.

When I was younger, I was always taught not to make excuses.

You have to take the good with the bad. Some players only talk to the press when they are doing good. When you’re doing bad you shouldn’t shy away from them and when doing good, don’t run up to them.

I think sometimes people need to get used to an idea.

My grandmother asks me to race down the street, I’m going to try to beat her. And I’ll probably enjoy it. Competitive to a fault, sometimes.

We just want to win. That’s the bottom line. I think a lot of times people may become content with one championship or a little bit of success, but we don’t really reflect on what we’ve done in the past. We focus on the present.

The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward.

What kind of influence did my parents have on my life? Well, they had the most influence. These are the people who are closest to me. My parents are very positive people. They’ve been supportive. They’re always there.

Athletics keeps us healthy, gets us up and running around. It also gives you an opportunity to meet a lot of different people, which is very important.

I always take criticism as a challenge. It’s the way I’ve always looked at it.

If you’re going to win games, you’re going to have to come up with the big hits. That’s the bottom line.

I go into every game thinking I’m going to be the hero. I have to, or I wouldn’t enjoy it.

When you put a lot of hard work into one goal and you achieve it, that’s a really good feeling.

It doesn’t feel different being here (at the All-Star Game) I feel like I’m on an All-Star team everyday.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.

Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.

Some times your best effort just isn’t good enough.

A boss wants to pay for results, an employee wants recognition for effort. If a boss recognizes effort, they will get even better results.

Our daily objectives should include an honest effort to improve on yesterday.

Three very important points to keep growing. Great team effort.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.