There's a bigger difference now than when I first got into professional baseball because that was before guaranteed contracts, before there was a lot of money, so it was mostly survival. You had more competition.
My mind is just a product of 50 years of being taught. I'm no smarter than anyone else, but I've been taught by some wonderful people.
It's easy to figure out whether you're getting stale. All you've got to do is look in the mirror and be honest with yourself.
When you don't have the deepest pockets, you better have the best scouting and development.
Just because you're down to your last strike, you're not out yet. You can always do more. You'll always have more at-bats to take. That's true in baseball, in rescuing animals, and in life, generally.
I had started law school at Florida State University as a part-timer. I would go two quarters, and they allowed me to drop out to play baseball, and then I'd get readmitted in September. I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer and was using my baseball salary to pay my way through school.