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.

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.

I love the game of baseball.

You know it as soon as you walk in Yankee Stadium. The electricity is there every time, every day.

My inspiration was the game itself, not any individual player in it.