I'm proud of what he's been able to accomplish this year, and I tell him that every time I talk to him. But this is a marathon, not a sprint. And this is only one season. He has to continue to do it.

My message to a lot of guys is, if you like school and you like education, baseball is gonna be there, and you can get some of the same great competition in college that you do in the low minor leagues.

The stance I took was there is no room for racial bias anywhere in sports. I believe that was basically all I said about it. Certainly I was cast as an abolitionist. Death threats came. Hate mail came.

I remember playing on pretty much an all-minority youth team and going to some of the tournaments north of Cincinnati and not being able to stay with host families where all the other teams were staying with host families.

I have a love for Shea Stadium and its fans. I had so much fun with the fans. Yeah, they booed me. I was like, 'I know, I know.'

I'm glad that I just played baseball, because I'm sure I had a much longer baseball career than I would've had a football career. I did miss football, but I didn't miss some of the injuries from football.