KEITH HERNANDEZ

You never know what's going to happen the rest of the way. You can't predict. You don't know what Montreal is going to do to us this weekend, and you don't know what the Cubs are going to do to the Cardinals.

They can't have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling lose a game.

Everyone has someone they looked up to. Mine was Mickey Mantle. For Alex Rodriguez to idolize me coming up, that makes me feel very good.

You can always improve your bench and relief pitching.

The Yankees have better starting pitchers than Arizona. Arizona just has two... the Yanks have four.

I didn't cost the Series. I cost a game in the regular season.

I won't say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout.

Acting is really not what I'm interested in. I'm not an aspiring actor and you should be able to tell.

I played football in the fall when I was in high school. Then basketball, a different conditioning - you're running up and down the courts. Then you come into baseball, you're doing a sprint to hit a triple.

When I was little, my older brother, Gary, was forced to read a book a week in fourth grade. The books he liked he threw on my bed when he was finished with them. This continued throughout my childhood and made me a reader for life.

I went through a lot of hard times. I went through a lot of struggle. A few times, I was in tears. It brought me to my knees just about.

I like to write, and I try to be positive and optimistic.

I don't believe in playing just one sport. I believe it results in burnout, and each sport trains your body in a different way.

I've been to Gettysburg probably more than half a dozen times.

I love to read, and I've always loved to write.

I'm pretty sure when I need a comma; I'm not so sure about a semicolon.

The great thing about Little League was that anyone could play it.

I had great moments. I had not-great moments.

The best class I ever took in high school was typing.

I always got good grades in creative writing from elementary school on up.

Baseball began early for me. When I was 5, my father took two Little League bats and put them on a lathe. He whittled them down and sanded the bats so they were the proper size for my brother and me. He began by throwing tennis balls to us. Eventually, we practiced hitting and fielding at a field near our house.

Three hours for an average game is not good for baseball.

My father was a San Francisco firefighter. He also was an amateur artist. Art ran deep on his side of the family, which originated in Spain. He painted our portraits. My mom, Jacqueline, was Scots-Irish. They met in 1947 when dad played for the Houston Buffalos, a minor league baseball team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.

I'm just another guy who likes his job and doesn't like his commute.

In New York, I have a photo of my parents on their wedding day in 1947. They're beaming at home plate in Houston's Buffalo Stadium. I love the photo because my dad is smiling. He didn't smile much in his later years.