Athletes are going to tease each other. Football players want to be baseball players. Baseball players want to be football players. Basketball players want to be baseball players, and vice versa.
Just because I made it look easy doesn't mean that it was and you don't work hard and become a Hall of Famer without working day in and day out.
I came up as a number 2 hitter. My first year I hit 16 homers, and I was like, Whoa, I'm rollin'!
I was just putting way too much pressure on myself. I was just trying to get that validation from my dad. It got so bad I remember my high school coach telling him not to show up to games.
My dad had a 'fro, and I didn't. So I wore his hat and it always hit me in the face, so I just turned it around and it just stuck. It wasn't like I was trying to be a tough guy or change the way that baseball is played. It was just that my dad wore a size 7 1/2, and I had a 6 1/4. It was just too big.
I've been swinging the same way since I was born. It's always worked.