Mike Barnicle Quotes

I've always wanted to see a game at Fenway.

There's not a ballpark I've ever played in as a visitor or home that has the historic feel and energy that Fenway Park has.

The first time that I ever saw Babe Ruth was in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse.

From the time I was 3, I wanted to be a major-league player. To accomplish that at 35, get my name on my jersey, be in the clubhouse with major-league players, see my family for the first time in three months, be in my home state and pitch the day I got called up, was incredible.

I really like Kansas City Royals stadium - Kauffman Stadium.

Here's the thing: I had never been to Boston, my whole life. Probably because I'm a Yankee fan.

I'd love to play in a Red Sox game. It would be so awesome to actually walk out on the field and play, just for one inning. I'd also steal everything I could get my hands on in the clubhouse, which is why they won't let me do it.

I miss the ocean; I miss Fenway.

Having been aware of the Red Sox since the 1946 World Series, having been growled at by Ted Williams as a young reporter in 1960, having been present at the horror of 1986 and the comeback of 2004, I have seen the highs and lows of some other people's favorite team.

I would like to own the Red Sox.

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

I've gotten to visit all the parks and put my name inside the Fenway wall.

I grew up watching Pedroia play.

Everything with me is normal except when I pitch (in Fenway Park). When I pitch here it's a little different. There is a little more anxiety to go along with the nostalgia because this is the park I grew up with as a kid. This is the park I dreamed of playing Major League Baseball in and no other ballpark has that feeling for me. There are a lot more family and friends here than in my normal starts and I want to pitch well here.

The last time I put on this uniform (Cincinnati), I think I was eight, for a father-son game.

I remember getting my first Leeds shirt, me and my brother.

I remember the first time I played the triple-A Yankees when I was 20 years old, and Darryl Strawberry was on that team. It was the first time I actually got goose bumps playing against another team.

Growing up, I was a big Red Sox fan and looked up to guys like Dustin Pedroia, who's obviously not the biggest guy, but the way he competes, the way he works, it was motivating for me.

Our family business was operating batting cages. The pitching machine spit out the balls at lightning speed. Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax. Whitey Ford. 50 cents for 12 pitches. Of course, my mother ran the place, and I was her slave: selling candy, hosing down the street, and the most dreaded of all jobs, feeding the pitching machine with balls.

Fenway is the essence of baseball

Tell my father I wish to be his son.

We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past--the portrayals of family life on such television programs as "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" and all the rest.

I'm helplessly and permanently a Red Sox fan. It was like first love...You never forget. It's special. It's the first time I saw a ballpark. I'd thought nothing would ever replace cricket. Wow! Fenway Park at 7 o'clock in the evening. Oh, just, magic beyond magic: never got over that

My parents had a sidewalk cafe: every Sunday there was an accordion player and apparently I went through the motions, squeezing a shoebox. One of the regulars in 'the cafe said to my father: "I think you should get your son an accordion-that's what he's trying to do, with that shoebox." So they got me a little cardboard diatonic accordion-I still have it. I started to play the National Anthem, and things like that. It seems I was musically gifted-but my parents just never pushed in that direction.

Tis a happy thing To be the father unto many sons.