Nick Johnson Quotes

I had 12 years under my belt of baseball at the amateur level before I got to the big leagues.

This is something I've wanted to do my whole life is play baseball, and I think just the opportunity to put on a big-league uniform every day is just... you know, people dream of it, but not everybody gets to do it. I'm thankful every day I get to do it.

Well, I wanted to play twenty years in the major leagues. I never made it twenty though. I played nineteen.

I started in the lowest league in baseball, and I worked my way all the way up to Triple A and then to the big leagues. I never reached the level that I thought I would reach as a player. But that's the way it goes. So then I started from the bottom as a manager, and I worked my way up to managing the Dodgers for 20 years.

If I could do it over, I'd want to come up to the big leagues like Mike Trout. He's exciting and I like watching him.

And then 45 years later, as I finished my career in the great city of Cleveland, that was another great way to end my career, going to the World Series.

I'm very thankful to the Yankees and to Major League Baseball for allowing me to play this game.

I thought I was a pretty good shortstop, but I also wanted to play in the major leagues.

It's definitely a dream come true playing for the Red Sox.

I loved playing baseball, and the only reason I played was to play professional baseball. I wanted that to be my career for a long time. I turned down multiple jobs and meetings because of it.

The draft is a crapshoot, so I've been very fortunate to be drafted by the Yankees, and to have spent my whole career here.

So to get to play for the Yankees was really exciting. Really exciting.

I would say I was jock. I went to Sierra College. I was a big baseball player. Getting into the MLB was my dream - to become a left-handed pitcher for the Yankees. That's what I was hoping, but life kind of went the other way.

I wanted to be a professional baseball player.

When I came into baseball, I had one goal for my career - the Hall of Fame.

I kept thinking, 'this must be the coolest job - I'd like to be a professional baseball player.' They were getting paid to play a game, and what a cool lifestyle that was.

I loved the opportunity to play for the Yankees, too.

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.

The Oakland A's, I loved all my teammates there. I loved all the coaches. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues. And for that, I thank them. I mean it was a dream come true for me.

You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it.

I played good ball in the minor leagues, and that's why they called me up to the major leagues.

I want to finish my career in Cleveland. They gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues.

I know what a full season is like in the big leagues. It's not going to be a surprise anymore.

He's (George Steinbrenner) the one who gave me a chance to get to the World Series. This is where I wanted to be all along. We had a couple of nice offers from other teams, but I tied my agents' hands. I told them I wanted to be a Yankee.

There's no way I can go play for the Yankees.