Nomar Garciaparra

“It's great that fans have people they can enjoy and watch play.”

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

“I love the game of baseball.”

“That's basically what I'm doing when I'm tapping them - getting my toes to the end of my shoes.”

“When I go home my mother still makes me take out the garbage.”

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

“People are going to make comparisons and they can do that but I'm definitely not going to compare myself to Derek Jeter.”

“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.”

“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.”