I got to be very close to Gene as a player and after I retired, ... I think I probably stayed in closer contact with him than most.

I think he's closer to 100 than he is 90.

If I had stayed with him, we probably would've been fine,

I think if you retire from touring then people think you are retired.

When I stepped into the box, I felt the at-bat belonged to me. Everybody else was there for my convenience. The pitcher was there to throw me a ball to hit. The catcher was there to throw it back to him if he didn't give me what I wanted the first time. And the umpire was lucky that he was close enough to watch.

You could say he retired, but he didn't retire. He wanted to make sure their trucks ran and stayed up to par.