Ortiz said. ''Vladi says he doesn't remember it, but that his family always talked about the help they received from the US.

I remember my family talking about all the destruction they had there, ... One thing I feel very happy about is helping people because my family struggled before and other people helped out.

I swung after they took me out (Thursday), ... I just wanted to make sure I could tell (manager) Mike (Scioscia) I was OK. I didn't want to wait until (Friday).

I always swing at bad pitches, ... But lately I was swinging at even worse ones.

I think it probably seemed like I was anxious because I was swinging at bad pitches. I was thinking about it, but I'm going to keep swinging. Sometimes it looks bad and sometimes it doesn't, but I'm not going to stop swinging.

We're really close, ... My mom's very important to me. It's nice to go home after games and forget about it - enjoy the game and then enjoy the family atmosphere.