“Young players need to know how to take care of themselves for life after baseball.”

I’ve always played for the acceptance of my godfather (Willie Mays) and father (Bobby Bonds).

Losing dad (Bobby Bonds) was the worst thing in the world.

I’m clean, I’ve always been clean.

It’s not the name that makes the player. It’s the player.

I’m a very private person. My life story isn’t for everybody.

When I finish playing, I think I’d like to coach college baseball.

I like to be against the odds. I’m not afraid to be lonely at the top. With me, it’s just the satisfaction of the game. Just performance.

Every pitcher can beat you, it doesn’t matter how good you are.

I don’t know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination and technically hit a baseball.

My career is an open book, but my life is not.

I don’t know if the record is going to happen. I don’t really think about the record. There are other things I worry about.

Serra High school, to me, was my most enjoyable time for me in my entire life. That was the only time I was free. We just played baseball because it was fun.

There is nothing better than walking out and hitting a home run.

Sometimes I surprise my own damn self.

I have a chef who makes sure that I’m getting the right amounts of carbs, proteins and fats throughout the day to keep me at my max performance level.

I think everyone needs to be a role model, period.

I’m not perfect. Nobody’s perfect.

That’s why I’ve gotten so much experience at my age.

You have three teachers next to you every game, and if I’m not playing, I’m watching baseball.

But I love baseball and I love to play hard.

I love the flow of the game. There’s a certain fluidity to basketball. I don’t enjoy watching baseball or football in the same way.

In my opinion I really haven’t done anything yet. I still have a lot to prove. I just want to prove to myself that I can play at the highest level of baseball in the world every day.

I hope baseball doesn’t get to the point where everyone’s saying, ‘He takes it [steroids]. He takes it. He takes it!’ because not all of us do. I’ve been big my whole life, and I’ll always be big. That’s all natural.

In baseball, it’s tough to get up for every single game, every single moment. In football, you have 90,000 fans screaming and the band’s playing. I do miss that