If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.
I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all I had to give.
The farther away you writers stay, the better I like it. You know why? Because you're trying to create a bad image of me... you do it because I'm black and Puerto Rican, but I'm proud to be Puerto Rican.
I am convinced that God wanted me to be a baseball player.
My father used to say, 'I want you to be a good man; I want you to learn how to work. And I want you to be a serious person.' I grew up with that in my mind.
They said you'd really have to be something to be like Babe Ruth. But Babe Ruth was an American player. What we needed was a Puerto Rican player they could say that about, someone to look up to and try to equal.
To the people here, we are outsiders. Foreigners.
But some people act like they think I live in the jungle someplace.