In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

I was totally dominated and revered my father. I admired everything he did. He was a great sports person. He loved me. I was his only boy at that time, before my brother Billy came along.

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

When did I know I had talent? I think it started when I first started playing sports, organized sports.

My goal is to be number one in MMA.

That’s what you live for as a sportsman. You have to put up a fight.

February is always a bad month for TV sports. Football is gone, basketball is plodding along in the annual midseason doldrums, and baseball is not even mentioned.

Basketball is booming, and it’s not just an Under Armour standpoint: it’s about the game itself. Kids going out and playing and being inspired by what we do on the court.

Fortunately for a quarterback, you can play for a long time because you don’t get hit very often.

Ordinarily, players fine-tune their match-fitness during the pre-season.

I look at athletes in all sports and try to picture what kind of football player they’d be, what position they’d play and so on.

Baseball is a universe as large as life itself, and therefore all things in life, whether good or bad, whether tragic or comic, fall within its domain.

I have really been disillusioned with soccer in England.

I am very happy playing and showing off my talent on the cricket field and have no plans to enter Bollywood.

As a part of the NFL, things change every year.

In India, people are really glued to the Premier League and La Liga.

Without sounding biased, 70 days of football is not enough. Even if Messi plays 70 days he cannot be in the national team. You need to play around the year to be in contention for the national team.

The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.

ESPN is a great organization to work for.

I plan on taking athletics as far as I can.

When I look back at what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go.

I wasn’t a kid growing up thinking, ‚One day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech.‘ That wasn’t on my mind.

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.

I played a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him.

The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.

I get a little bit emotional during a game!

I want to be part of that long list who have achieved great things with McLaren, won races and championships.

I had been playing for a while, and I asked Louisville Slugger to send me a dozen flame treated bats. But when I got it, I realized they had sent me a box of ashes.

The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

I was a huge Mike Tyson fan growing up; his fights were always on in my house.

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

What is Champions League level? I saw a lot of rubbish games at Champions League level.

When I was playing, there were always lots of teams in contention for the league – Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds. Every week was a big game and a big battle.

If you watch me during the game, I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out.

The day I think I’m not enjoying the game and contributing the way I would like to, I’ll hang up my boots.

Bobby Knight told me this: ‚There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.‘ In other words a good offense wins.

The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.

At the end of the day, we started playing football because we loved it.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

Every season is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of games, goals, assists.

Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.

Career highlights? I had two – I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.

Eventually you won’t think of ‚the Internet business.‘ You’ll think of it more like news, weather, sports, but even that taxonomy isn’t clear.

You can say that 2016 was my finest. It went well for the national team, started by winning the SAFF Cup, we reached the finals of AFC Cup, we reached the semis of ISL. I think it was a fruitful season.

I love soccer, love tennis… Roger Federer has been a favourite for a long, long time. The kind of consistency he has shown, 16 Grand Slam titles… The way he handles himself in pressure situations is admirable… He is so calm… In soccer, I’m a huge fan of Barcelona… I like watching Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and David Villa.

While playing golf today I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.

To be honest, there are no problems between me and Messi. People have their own opinions about who they think is the better player. It is what it is, but there is no rivalry beyond games and what happens on the pitch.

The worst thing is for a player to come to a club and not be able to play.

If someone told me I could play two Asian Cup finals, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Taking in a baseball game on TV is also a big treat.

I like playing. I wouldn’t be a good coach. I don’t have the patience to be a coach.

My game is really played above time. I don’t say that like I’m saying I’m ahead of my time. I’m saying, like, if I’m on the court and I throw a pass, the ball that I’ve thrown will lead my teammate right where he needs to go, before he even knows that that’s the right place to go to.

March is a month without mercy for rabid basketball fans. There is no such thing as a ‚gentleman gambler‘ when the Big Dance rolls around. All sheep will be fleeced, all fools will be punished severely… There are no Rules when the deal goes down in the final weeks of March. Even your good friends will turn into monsters.

Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.

Derbies are always difficult to play because you have to handle the pressure. There’s no advantage or disadvantage for either side.

I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.

Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It’s gossip.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

Volleyball, I could be pretty good. After a few practices I could be that striker, or whatever they call it.