Now that I feel 100 percent, I'm looking forward to playing my game the way I want to-getting on base, stealing bases and trying to help the team any way I can.
Stealing bases was put to me almost as a prerequisite for staying in the game. They didn't give me a handbook on how to do it; they said do it. Under those conditions you go out and develop your own handbook.
I play baseball - 'The Show' - a lot. I'm pretty good at that. I go 'Road to the Show,' where you build your own player. I build myself when I used to play as a center fielder. Power, speed, stealing bases.
I know I'm the world's worst fielder, but who gets paid for fielding? There isn't a great fielder in baseball getting the kind of dough I get paid for hitting.
Defensively, hitting-wise, running the bases. There's always room to improve. That motivates me to get a little better every day.
I might have a great game hitting, but if I'm not having a great game fielding, if I feel like I let a guy get an extra base that I could have stopped, that's something I've got to do better, got to get better at.
I let the players use their abilities and what they're capable of doing. If they're capable of stealing bases, I'm going to give them the green light. I'm going to teach them to pick their spots and to get a base when they can get a base.
Stealing bases is just something I like to do. I figure if I can hit home runs and steal bases, I'd be different than everybody else.
Base stealing for me is another sport all by itself. It's a game within a game. I'm the mouse and the cats are trying to trap me.
Well, stealing bases adds some runs but very few, and you lose most of the runs that you gain by having runners caught stealing.
Being bi-racial and being young along with being American and Canadian [allows me to] try and cover all the bases and expand my fan base to a level that has yet to be seen.
There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.
One minute you're starting left fielder, hitting home runs; the next, it's career over. I was 20.
I want to get on base every single time I get up there. Whether it's a walk or a base hit, I really don't care how I want to get on base. I just want to be on.
I'm just trying to affect the game in some way whenever I get an opportunity. If that's stealing a base, making a catch, beating out a double play, whatever it may be.
It's all stealing bases and winning games. If not, go home.