Monarch has so many fans. I firmly believe in my heart that somewhere out there is a perfect home for this dog. He certainly deserves that.

He only weighed 78 pounds when he got here. ... The stench of burned flesh coming from his ears was terrible.

Often it feels like we are at a home match when we have so many fans there. The singing, the cheering helps the players.

The fans wanted a home run but I was concentrating on making contact. Anything to bring the run in I was going to do. I was ready since I was on the on-deck circle.

It means a lot to do it at home. I really wanted to do it here for the fans. I never had a doubt that eventually it was going to come. Now I don't have to think about it anymore. I think it looked like I was even more anxious because I always swing at bad pitches, anyway. So it looked even worse because I was swinging at even worse pitches.

I'm very happy for the fans. I wanted to do it at home. During the ovation, I wanted to run out to right field, forgetting that I was the DH.