“I was very nervous, excited, and happy to be given the opportunity to even be in the major leagues.”

Barack Obama likes to point to General Motors as the poster child for the job creation success of his economic policies.

My dad and my mom had to sacrifice so much, and had to teach us and show us the way of going about things, how to be humble, all those things. They helped us stay on track for what we wanted to do.

You have to have a lot of motivation, a lot of heart and be able to work hard. You can never be down on yourself because baseball is a sport that will bring you down [at times].

When I got to the stadium, one of my biggest things was watching video of hitters.

I liked playing with David Eckstein (former Angels shortstop). I’m not talking about players with top skills, I’m sure there were players with way more skill than him, but there were very few people in the league that had the heart like him.

I think my mom and dad did a great job with that, because we [with brother] never had any competition in baseball. We always tried to help each other.

If you’re a pitcher and strike me out and show me respect and you don’t show me up, when I get a homer or a hit, I’m not going to show you up. That’s what I believe.

There’s a lot of disrespect in the major leagues. I believe that the disrespect in the major leagues is at a high rate and is really bad for the gam

We had a strong relationship with Walter Brown, and felt that he was the best owner in the league.

I want to stay around longer than the pitchers who were at the top when I came into the big leagues. I don’t want to be gone and have all the old guys – Seaver, Carlton, Ryan and Sutton – still pitching. I got rid of Palmer, now I want to outlast the rest of them.

He’s supposed to speak for the good of the league, but in my opinion, he’s strictly behind the owners. Those 1996 rule changes are a joke

She may be a wispy, thin little thing, but when you see that girl, you know you’re really in the presence of something. In that league there’s only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It’s a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you’ve found it.

Some of the best competition there’s been since I’ve been in the league. Just every night, night in and night out we get to play against the top guys, the top teams. It’s a lot of fun.

When you’re scoring five goals in one Champions League match, there’s no value that’s too high.

Well, I wanted to play twenty years in the major leagues. I never made it twenty though. I played nineteen.

Ms. Wormwood: Calvin, can you tell us what Lewis and Clark did? Calvin: No, but I can recite the secret superhero origin of each member of Captain Napalm’s Thermonuclear League of Liberty.