If I'm going to wind up playing left, I want to be the best left fielder in the game. I'll work to be that.

There's a fine line between playing through things and sitting out. I was always on the side of, 'I'm going to play through it.' It's probably good at times, bad at times, but for an athlete to always try to be there and play through things, from a teammate's perspective, it speaks volumes. Now that I look back, mentally it makes you tougher.

You're going to fail. It's how you respond to that failure that kind of defines you as a person, as an athlete.

Even though I'm only going to wind up playing the one [preseason] game, I'm going to make the most of it, man, ... That's why I'm still out here working and practicing every day. I can't wait to go.

If I could go the ballpark and play the game for three hours and then go home? It would be awesome. But that's not the case.

I remember the first time I played the triple-A Yankees when I was 20 years old, and Darryl Strawberry was on that team. It was the first time I actually got goose bumps playing against another team.