When you're up there and everything feels good and you're competing against the pitcher and the pitcher strikes you out, you're like, 'OK, yeah, I struck out, but that's OK.'
We want the fans to be in it, because when they're in it, it makes you kind of live up to it.
To me, you can always get better.
I think the one thing I have learned the most from all the veteran guys is kinda like not to dwell on a loss or a bad day.
Sometimes what we see, what's going on in front of us, isn't really what's happening.
You know, this league is all about adjustments, and the one thing you kinda notice when you're playing every day is how teams make adjustments. Once you start having a little bit of success, they are going to make their adjustment.
I think that's one of the things you start learning from being hot and playing every day at the beginning, you know. The league, they made their adjustments and their change to you, the way they pitch you, the way they attack you, and just learning and learning from that and making the adjustments the very next at bat or the very next pitch.
I mean, I learned a lot from Houston. And you know what? It made me who I am and there's really no animosity there. In a sense, they did me a favor by allowing me to leave and going to play on another team.
I've always been hungry, but when people ask what drives you - 'How do you stay so driven throughout this whole thing?' - you just don't stop. It's every single day. The people that know me and the people that love me and are in my life see it.
All through Miami, the guys who grew up with me hitting at the place I hit, they all call me Flaco. Nobody calls me J.D. It's like, 'Hey, Flaco.'
Obviously, I have to do what's best for me and my family; I've got to put that first. But I definitely want to be on a team that's in contention.
I've always loved hitting, and even as a kid, I always hit.
I just want to go deep in the playoffs and be put in that situation where I'm locked in and the game and the season is on the line.
I think I'm a funny guy.
I love the game and I love to play. You have to admire fans who are the same way.
I found a place in Boston, a home in Boston, and I'm pretty happy here.
You can ask every coach from Ron Gardenhire to Dave Clark, anyone who has seen me play, they don't know why they say I'm a bad defender.
My preparation and my routine are the foundations to my success.
My parents taught me that in life, you get out what you put in.
My teammate Torii Hunter taught me how to lead and provide encouragement to the locker room.
