Athlete Quotes

Circulating through the children's ward and seeing terminally ill kids, heads shaved, smiling and having a ball despite the tubes and needles sticking into them, I thought: What do I have to worry about? If God takes me, at least I've lived for 35 years.

If you don't believe in something, you'll fall for anything. I believe everything happens for a reason. If you are strong from within, you can will anything. I'm a firm believer that where there's a will, there's a way.

I'm having a good time. I'm going to treat every game and every day as if they are my last because I now know that they could be.

People spend time worrying about things they think they have to have and lose perception of what they do have. You can have all the money and material things you want. If you aren't here to enjoy them, what good do they do?

I don't listen to what people say about me and I don't read what they write about me. People can compare me to anyone they want to, but I'm not going to worry about it.

Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing.

It takes a lot of energy to be negative. You have to work at it. But smiling is painless. I'd rather spend my energy smiling.

Never give up and don't ask why because every situation does not need an answer. I'm a firm believer that I don't worry about anything I can't control.

You fool around with different pitches playing catch, but it's not the same when you've got to face some guy with a bat in his hand.

You don't get old being stupid.

There are certain things I can't do, certain pitches I can't hit. You stay away from them. You try to wait for pitches you can hit. The bat speed isn't what it used to be. You make up for it by using your head, working counts, getting ahead in counts and getting pitches to hit and hitting them hard.

The first time I picked up a bat in a professional game, I hit a ball hard left-handed, and my first home run was so effortless, it surprised me.

It's good to know you're working for someone you're familiar with, who's a friend and he has your back and you have his back also.

It all comes down to when spring training comes. Do you want to go or don't you? If you want to go, you go.

Individual statistics, plate time and everything tend to come, but the most enjoyment I get out of baseball is actually winning.

If I stayed in this game for individual achievements, I don't think I'd still be playing.

I've been on teams that lost a hundred games in a season. I've been on teams that had a shot to make the playoffs and fizzled out at the end.

I've always favored kids as a player. If I walked out of the locker room and there were 100 people there and 50 of them were kids, I'd sign the 50 kids before anything else.

I'm at the point in my career where to be a winner is more important than any individual things.

I used to lead off when I was a rookie. I've always been able to bunt.

I have always loved the Bay Area. I spent a lot of time in the Bay Area. I started my career there. That's a huge part of the excitement for me.

For me, I tend to sit back sometimes and just count my blessings because of how long I've played.

I've got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.

Professionalism is not sportsmanship. If you don't succeed, you won't be in your profession for long. In our society, it's not about good or bad. It's about who's on top.

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

When I look at our roster, I'm sure all of you have printed that I'm coming up on 35, and given my situation and my salary structure and all that, yeah, I have to wonder if this team is going to make moves and they haven't.

It's fool's gold if you are winning games and are not playing the right way.

If you're going to trade me, trade me. Whenever they are going to do, let them do it so I can situated.

If these are the last 34 games of my NBA career, I want them played as tough as I can.

I've never had a chance to go to the Finals, and I don't have a ring - and that would be the only thing that would get me to think about it.