"Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that." - Nomar Garciaparra
"Every year I have just one goal in mind and that's to win the World Series." - Nomar Garciaparra
"Former players like Johnny Pesky have helped me realize what it's all about. He's helped me understand the game and he's also helped me understand Boston and I think that in itself is key." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I can just say I played bad because I was horrible today and I've got to work on it tomorrow or do something to get myself better." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I didn't have a passion for any one team." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I don't even know who the toughest pitchers in the league are." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I don't like having excuses." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I don't really know pitchers." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I don't want to have to make any excuse for playing bad." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I enjoyed going to games, but I didn't like watching them on TV. I wanted to go early to watch batting practice, to see how players prepared themselves." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I focus on myself day in and day out." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I guess my theory is that God put a bat in my hand for a reason and it wasn't there to look pretty so I might as well swing it." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I have a great family and my success is due to them." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I have some pitchers who are friends and they make fun of me as they are about to pitch, but they also know my routine doesn't take that long." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I hit and I play the game on a lot of feeling." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I kind of just go do it rather than think about every little aspect of where my hands and feet are." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I learned to play every single position in baseball." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I love the game of baseball." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I never had a hero. Never had someone I looked up to. Never followed anybody as I was growing up as a kid. I never had that." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I never modeled myself after anyone as a kid." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I really don't know Red Sox history. I hear a lot about it and I've always known it was a club rich in tradition and I've learned more as I've been here." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I really feel that if I stayed away or wasn't ready or prepared I'm really doing them a huge injustice." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I think Jeter is a great player, an absolutely phenomenal player to watch." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I truly believe I'm just like everyone else and I'm just lucky enough to play the game." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I truly believe that baseball is such a repetitive game." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I truly believe that I get into the routine because I expect to perform well every day." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I was answering the questions but it was funny because I never break down hitting that much." - Nomar Garciaparra
"I'm going up against the best every day. There's no room to slack off." - Nomar Garciaparra
"If I'm swinging well, I don't care who's on the hill. If I'm swinging bad I don't care because they can all get me out." - Nomar Garciaparra
"It's an honor to have Ted Williams speak so highly of me. I can't even find the right word to describe it." - Nomar Garciaparra
"It's great that fans have people they can enjoy and watch play." - Nomar Garciaparra
"John Valentin: I love the guy. He's one guy who's taught me so much about my game, about my position - being a former shortstop himself." - Nomar Garciaparra
"Listen I don't know what you're talking about. I play for the Red Sox now. We're going to start our own tradition here. And you can talk about us in years to come." - Nomar Garciaparra
"My attitude is that I don't pay any attention to pitchers." - Nomar Garciaparra
"My feeling is if I'm swinging well I'm going to hit anybody; if I'm swinging poorly anyone is going to get me out." - Nomar Garciaparra
"My inspiration was the game itself, not any individual player in it." - Nomar Garciaparra
"Often times, I'm kind of waiting for the pitcher to pitch. I don't try to do it to throw their timing off." - Nomar Garciaparra
"People are going to make comparisons and they can do that but I'm definitely not going to compare myself to Derek Jeter." - Nomar Garciaparra
"People ask me if my shoes were too small when I was a kid and I say it wouldn't matter how fight my shoes were, I just liked that feeling of them being in there. That's how I started tapping my toes." - Nomar Garciaparra
"People expect me to go out there and play my best. They pay their money to see that." - Nomar Garciaparra
"People expect you to play your best, so I go through a routine to prepare myself so that I know I'm physically and mentally ready - prepared for the game." - Nomar Garciaparra
"So I had to know everything. I wanted to know everything. I needed to know everything. There's so much to learn in this game." - Nomar Garciaparra
"That's basically what I'm doing when I'm tapping them - getting my toes to the end of my shoes." - Nomar Garciaparra
"The toe-tapping thing and the glove tightening I've done as far back as I can remember." - Nomar Garciaparra
"They may be great players or whatever but maybe they get caught up in certain things and don't realize what it means to put on that Red Sox uniform." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When I first talked to Ted, it was for about 45 minutes and it was just question after question after question. He wants to see how much you actually know about hitting." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When I go home my mother still makes me take out the garbage." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When I put my gloves on, I have to pull them at the end. When I pull my gloves, I'm pulling down to get my hands to the end of the gloves so that it feels tight." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When I step out of the box, it's important how my feet feel and the way my hands feel." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When Pedro is pitching and striking out a lot of hitters, it's amazing to watch." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When you have Ted Williams asking about those things you start really thinking about them. I'm sure not going to tell him I don't know, so I answered every question." - Nomar Garciaparra
"When you put on that jersey, you'd better put it on with pride because you're coming from a tradition that's been handed down to you. It means something." - Nomar Garciaparra
"You know it as soon as you walk in Yankee Stadium. The electricity is there every time, every day." - Nomar Garciaparra
"You play this game every day and people ask me how you get better at it. Well, you take a lot of ground balls and you take a lot of swings, over and over and over." - Nomar Garciaparra
"You're not only playing for the team - you're playing for the city and there's a lot you have to learn about this place." - Nomar Garciaparra
