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.
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.
In the hundreds of hours spent in Parliament debating Brexit, I constantly think of how we could have spent our time better.
I just loved officiating, and I hope what I did helped make it better. That's what I tell young umpires: you can have fun. I never spent a day where going out on a baseball field didn't make me feel better.
[ Chadwick Boseman] was not a baseball player. He spent, I don't know, countless hours, many months, working two sessions a day with professional pro coaches to develop the baseball skills that he needed.
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.
There is no better feeling than doing well while you are doing good. If you really want to meet the nicest, most caring people in your field, get involved with charity work. The thankless hours that go into planning charity dinners, running a carnival, and gathering donations for silent auctions are noticed and appreciated.
Obviously when you challenge yourself you learn a lot about yourself, and ultimately you're going to get better in whatever field.
I think when you start to do well and get your confidence back, everything becomes more fun. When you're playing with not your full capacity of confidence, I think things get a little tough. I knew I could be doing better than what I was doing. Even though I was ranked 5 or 4 or whatever it was, I wanted to get back to the level I thought I could play at.
It's rewarding riding into the sunset. What better way to go? My teammates carried me off the field - it doesn't get any better than that. Now it's time to be a dad. To be as successful at that as I was at baseball would be nice.
There are those who advocate, and those who do. I'm not trying to slight my peers, but there is a difference between using a soapbox and actually getting your hands dirty. I've spent not only years and millions of dollars but hours and hours and hours of my time doing what I do, and that's very different from what anyone else is doing.
I was really into '24' at university, and it resulted in a lot of lost hours that could have been spent at the library. If you could have told me then I would be in it one day, I'd have hit the roof.
A lot of the off-ice is actually spent sort of as a recovery process. Because the closer we get to a competition, the more and more you do on-ice. So if you're already on the ice three to four hours, you get enough cardio doing your run-throughs. But I sometimes do the elliptical or bike.
You know, they say you can reduce genius to someone who spent 10,000 hours trying to get good at something. I'm not claiming either one of those. I haven't done anything for 10,000 hours but sleep. But you do stuff enough, you get better at it. Usually it's a simple thing like that. Essentially, a brainless endeavor.
If I could get better on the field, I could get better in my interviews. I took that approach: if there's something I'm deficient in, whether it be in relationships, whether it be talking to people, just that self-reflection to seek people out who can help me.
Everyone from the pope to some hobo thinks, "I'm a human being. What am I doing here?" You can't get carried away with fame and fortune and all that. It's all nonsense. The whole pop-star side of it is all fun and good, but you don't get anywhere without putting in the hours. I get so fulfilled when we play a song live that we spent hours working on. It's all cool. Fame is something to have fun with, but you shouldn't take it too seriously because it is bollocks.