Me and Roger had a very good relationship, |
My confidence is sky-high, |
My success is a lot due to Cooper and the patience he's had with me since last year and through the first half, |
On the team, there are probably 10 players who work like spies. They see you doing something that is suspicious, and they go tell on you. Players [from other teams] will talk on the field. I know that, but you can't talk anywhere else. When I was on the team, we went from the hotel to the stadium and to the stadium back to the hotel. People see you talking to people, you will be in trouble. I know some players are going to ask the Cubans to go eat or go get a beer. The Cuban players will be scared. They will run away because of the fear. That's how it is in Cuba. |
Our pitchers get along with Coop. Coop understands us, lets us do what we think is best and we feed off each other very well. He's been a great part of our success. |
Since the first day I walked into the clubhouse, everybody believed in me, |
Since the first day I walked into the clubhouse, everyone believed in me and had confidence in me, ... Even the language barrier. The manager not only speaks Spanish, he's my friend. He gives me a lot of confidence. |
That's baseball, |
The comfort level comes from throwing strikes like I have in the past and passing the ball around the strike zone and not walking as many people, and that comes from confidence, ... When you have confidence you have success, and that's when you have wins. |
The confidence I have received from my manager and my pitching coach Don Cooper, ... I think my pitching coach and my manager have been really patient. |
The first thing I do after a game is call my mom or brother or someone, and I don't know how they do it, but they get the information before I can tell them, ... It's pretty funny. |
The government is one thing and the country of Cuba and my people are something different completely, ... It's like the United States government and your country. You don't have to agree with the policies to be proud of your country. |
The invited are young players who are followers of the revolution and have a clean background. If you have relatives who live in other places in the world, it will be really difficult to be taken out of Cuba on that team. For example, if you have an uncle who lives in Miami, it's going to be real hard for you to leave the country. They worry that you will stay there. |
The most important thing is we won. [My] confidence level is completely different then it was two years ago. |
The most important thing to me is to stay healthy. If (I) stay healthy, the rest will come. (I) can keep the ball in the zone and strike batters out. |