“I won't maintain that emotional level. I guess I'm lucky we have another week left in spring training, and that will give me an opportunity to recover.”
“The longer I played, the more important it became to me. I think those who followed me could see this best. The fans want me to get hits, and since I've been able to in the past, 200 hits became a kind of benchmark indicating I've done well. One hundred eighty wouldn't cut it. For the fans it's got to be 200.”
“In the second half of the 2003 season -- actually, I'd include the 2002 season in this -- I started to struggle as I approached the 200-hit mark. As I got closer to the goal, I lost control of that part of batting and sort of lost focus.”
