You want to try to play the game in a really good positive way, not just on the field but off the field as well in being a positive person and getting good vibes out to the community.
I've been booed off the field, and I've been carried off the field by people cheering me. So I've seen both ends of it, and I can tell you the bad side of it gets a lot more attention than the good side does, but the good side is pretty darned good when it's on your side.
When I talk about the early years in Oakland, I don't want to take anything away from who that player was, because that player was still a heck of a player, that player was just young. I played off the field the same way that I played on the field.
Spirituality is something that makes you who you are on and off the field. It's something you try and live by. The way you play is one thing, but the way you act is a little different. You're just trying to be a good person, the best you can be, on and off the field.
I don't really focus on these things - on what tags are given to me or what people think of me off the field - stuff like that. My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.
If you're playing baseball, why are you playing baseball? Is it to have success on the field and be a Hall-of-Famer or whatever it is? Sure, that's everyone's goal. But then what? For me, it's about the legacy you leave off the field.
I'm the same as I am on the field as I am off the field. It's not an act. I can't be another person on the field as opposed to being off the field. I am on who I am off.
My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.
Indian coaches are strict on the field, but off the field, they take very good care of you.
I'm from Boston, and in Boston, you are born with a baseball bat in your hand. And actually, most of the bats in Massachusetts are used off the field instead of on the field, and we all had baseball bats in our cars in high school.
I think I'm a real good person off the field. I've got good character traits, I go to Church often, and I do community service. I think I'm a really good role model.
I actually don't wear any makeup when I'm on the field. I like looking nice, but my main concern is how I play - to me, if you look and feel good, then you play good. On the field, I only wear Coppertone Sport SPF 30. I like it because it feels like I'm putting on lotion rather than SPF.
At the end of the day, when all is said and done playing this game ... it doesn't matter what you did in the field, it's what you do off the field and the lives that you touch off the field.
One of my theories is to be captain on the field and off the field, you need to totally enjoy each other's company. I don't like discussing cricket off the field.
I was a fan of baseball growing up. We played baseball; I used to play in an A&P parking lot. It wasn't always easy to find a good baseball field to play in.
If you want to get to know me, you have to get off the baseball field. Because when I'm on the field, and in the clubhouse, I'm doing what I'm paid to do, what I love to do, and man, I hate it when I fail.