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Q. Who did you look up to when you were a teenager?
A. Other than my brothers and my fatherx I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, so the Big Red Machine was like the big thing. Looking up to a player it would have been probably Pete Rose and Johnny Bench and guys like that who were part of the Big Red Machine.
Q. What do you think about athletes being thrown into the spotlight
as role models?
A. If you're a professional athlete, once you get to the major leagues then you're becoming a role model for somebody else. I don't think there is a player out there who is playing right now that didn't have a role model in his life that were players, so I think you're expected to conduct yourself in certain ways when you get to the top of your game.
Q. Have you ever found it difficult being a role model?
A. I never did anything to make myself more or less of one. I just think basically that is the way people are meant to live.
Q. What advice would you give a kid who wants to be really good at baseball?
A. Baseball is like any other sport-- a lot of your abilities are God given. Other than that it comes to a point where everybody kind of goes as far as you want to go with something. If you have the God given ability then it becomes a challenge in how much work you do and how difficult the work is and how much belief you have in yourself.
Q. When you were a kid, what did you do to get better at baseball?
A. As a kid, I think first of all you need to have fun playing the game. I think that kids and parents in this day and age try to stress so many things where they take a lot of the fun out of the game and we keep mentioning baseball as a game. The game is suppose to be fun, so I think initially you learn how to play the game, but you also learn how to have fun playing the game.
Q. What's the funniest thing that has happened to you or a teammate during your major league career?
A. I would say the funniest thing I ever did was I thought a game was over and I kind of missed the ball. I ended up kicking it and I kicked the ball all the way to the cutoff man and thank goodness it went straight or I might never have played again. Looking back, it's probably the funniest and dumbest thing I ever did.
Q. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
A. Mint chocolate chip by far.
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