1989
My first trip to the U.S. after I signed was a disaster. I was all by myself,
without my parents, and the plane was delayed. So I arrived in Miami late. Then
I missed my connection to Sarasota, so I had to stay overnight in the terminal
at the airport because the next flight wasn’t until the following morning. I
slept on the floor. When I finally arrived in Sarasota, no one from the team
was there to pick me up. I had to wait another two or three hours to get a
ride. So that was my introduction to Florida. And the next morning, I was in
Port Charlotte for spring training.
1989
當我簽約後第一次到美國時根本是一場災難，父母沒有陪同我，只有我一個人，而且飛機還
延誤，所以我到達邁阿密的時候已經晚了，然後我又錯過了到Sarasota的轉機，到最後我只
能在機場航廈待一整個晚上，因為到明天早晨之前都沒有任何航班，我只能睡在機場的地板
上。當我終於到達Sarasota的時候，竟然沒有任何球隊的人來接我，我必須等兩到三個小時
有車能搭。
這是我第一次到Florida的狀況，隔天早上我在夏洛特港開始春訓。
1989
I got my nickname on the very first day of camp. People always think I’m
called “Pudge” because of Carlton Fisk. That’s not the case. I’m a huge fan
of Carlton Fisk. He’s one of the greatest to ever play the game. But he had
nothing to do with me being known as Pudge. Chino Cadahia, who was a Rangers
coach at the time, gave me that name. He saw that I was short and stocky, so,
from Day One, he started calling me “Pudge.” It caught on, and the rest is
history.
1989
在第一天我就在訓練營獲得了暱稱，人們總是以為”Pudge”這個綽號是因為Carlton Fisk
，其實不是！我是Carlton Fisk的頭號粉絲，他是這世界上最會打棒球的人之一，但是他從
來沒做過甚麼讓我知道他像是Pudge的事情，給我這個暱稱的是當時遊騎兵的教練Chino
Cadahia，他覺得我看起來又矮又壯，從那一天就開始叫我”Pudge”，就這樣，剩下的也不
用多說了
1989
They knew I didn’t speak English very well when I arrived, but I told my
coaches that I wanted to learn as quickly as possible. And I did. We took
English classes every day from 6 to 7 p.m. back at our hotel. I studied hard,
and that helped me a lot throughout my career. But at first when I went out to
the mound, I’d be using a lot of hand motions, and just one or two words in
English.
1989
當我剛到的時候他們知道我英文說得不是很流利，但是我告訴教練們我想要盡快學好，之後
我們每天在晚上六點到七點會上英文課，回到飯店之後我仍然認真念書，這對我的生涯有著
莫大的幫助。但是當我第一次上投手區的時候，我還是只能比手畫腳，其中混著一兩個英文
單字來溝通。
1989
It was a grind waking up at 5:30 in the morning every day to be at the ballpark
at 6 or 6:30. Andat Port Charlotte, from our locker room to the main field
where we would do our stretching was almost a mile. So we’d have to walk a
mile even before we got started every morning. But as a 17-year-old kid, it was
hard to complain. I’d have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then go out
and do my work for the whole day.
1989
每天早上都在5:30起床然後6點或是6點半會到球場，從我們休息室到訓練的地方差不多有一
里遠，所以我們每天早上必須在訓練前走一里的路到球場。當時一個十七歲的小孩子是不太
會去抱怨的，我會帶著花生醬以及果醬三明治然後出門去做我整天的訓練。
1989
There wasn’t much to do in Port Charlotte. There was one mall, but it wasn’t
a very good one. The Rangers paid for us to go eat every day at a restaurant
called Ponderosa. And other than Ponderosa there was a McDonald’s. That was
it. Ponderosa was O.K. for two days, but after that, it started to get a bit
old. So we’d have to go to McDonald’s … a lot. I can’t even tell you how
many Chicken McNuggets that I ate back then. So many Chicken McNuggets.
1989
供飲食的餐廳叫做Ponderosa，除了Pondersa之外的只有麥當勞，就只有這樣。Ponderosa在
頭兩天覺得還不錯，但是再之後，讓我感覺到有一點厭倦，所以我們就常常跑去吃麥當勞，
我甚至沒辦法告訴你我到底吃了多少麥克雞塊，太多麥克雞塊了！
1991
I was 19 when I got called up. The Rangers were playing in Chicago at the time.
I never expected to be in the big leagues so soon. I should’ve been happy. But
it was actually a little depressing. Get this: The day they called me up I was
supposed to get married on the field down in Tulsa where I was playing Double A
ball. The night before, we had done some rehearsals with all the players out on
the field, and it went great.
Then the next day my manager at the time, Bobby Jones, calls me into his office
and says, “Hey kid, I think we have a problem.” I didn’t know what was going
on. “You’re getting called up, so you have two choices. You can either get
married here tonight, or you’re going to Chicago with the Rangers. But you can
’t do both. If you’re headed to the big leagues, we’re going to have to
delay the wedding.”
So I went to Chicago.
It was difficult to tell my fiancée that we couldn’t get married just yet. We
ended up getting married the next year, in the spring, down in Port Charlotte.
But not at the Ponderosa.
1991
在我十九歲的時候我被大聯盟叫上去了！當時遊騎兵正在芝加哥比賽，從來沒想過我會這麼
快就到大聯盟，我應該感到高興的，但是卻反而感到有些失落。讓你知道一下：當他們徵招
我的那一天，我本來是要在Tulsa也就是我2球隊的地方結婚的。在這一晚前，我們跟所有選
手都已經完成了一些排練，而且進行得相當順利。
隔天我的教練Bobby Jones叫我進去他的辦公室然後說：「嘿，小夥子，我認為我們有個大
問題了！我不知道發生甚麼事，但是你已經被徵招了，所以．．．這裡有兩個選項：一個是
你今晚在這裡結婚，或是你現在去芝加哥跟遊騎兵隊會合，但是你不能同時都做到。如果你
能去大聯盟，我想我們可以把婚禮給延期。」
因此，我去了芝加哥
如何告訴未婚妻說我們沒辦法在今天結婚是一件困難的事情。我們最後於隔年的春天在夏洛
特港完成了婚禮，當然不是在Ponderosa
1991
When people ask me for my favorite memories as a player, I always think of my
defense first. Every time I threw out a runner, or picked someone off the base
paths, I enjoyed that so much. I’ll almost never talk about my hitting. But
the one exception would probably be my first major league hit, because that was
special. It was my first game with the Rangers. We were playing the White Sox. I
’d just called off a wedding and traveled hundreds of miles to make it to
Chicago. I was dead tired. We were losing by a run in the top of the ninth
inning and I singled to drive in two runs and help us win the game. It was like
something out of a movie. I’ll never forget that as long as I live.
1991
當人們問起我選手生涯最棒的回憶時，我總是想到我的守備。
每一次我抓到了跑者或是牽制那些想離開壘包的傢伙時，這總是讓我樂在其中，我幾乎不會
談到我的打擊。但是除了一個例外，就是我的大聯盟首安，因為這是相當特別的。
那是我第一次在遊騎兵隊的比賽，正在跟白襪隊比賽。
我才剛取消我的婚禮以及經過了數百英里才到芝加哥，這讓我感到相當疲倦。
九局上半我們輸了一分然後我打一隻兩分打點的安打幫助我們贏得比賽，這感覺就是電影情
節一般，我永遠不會在我人生中忘記這一刻。
1992
As a young player in Texas, I learned from so many veterans early on — Nolan
Ryan, Julio Franco, Kenny Rogers, Rubén Sierra, Dean Palmer, Juan González,
Kevin Brown, Tom Henke. That was my introduction to what it meant to be a major
leaguer. They taught me from Day One to play the game hard. Those guys didn’t
give a damn that I was young, that I was only 19 or 20. They expected me to do
my job. They treated me like an adult. They didn’t treat me like a kid. And I
learned from them. It’s not so much what they told me, it’s what I saw — it’
s what they showed me by how hard they worked.
1992
身為一個在德州的年輕選手，我很早就從許多的老將身上學到不少東西－Nolan Ryan,
Julio Franco, Kenny Rogers, Rubén Sierra, Dean Palmer, Juan González, Kevin
Brown, Tom Henke
這些人指引了我該如何成為一名大聯盟選手，教我從第一天就必須努力去比賽，當我很年輕
只有19.20歲時，他們不曾責怪我，期待我做好我的工作，對待我像是一個成年人而不像是
小孩一樣，然而我從他們身上所學到遠遠不及他們所教我的，我只看到他們示範給我看的是
他們有多認真的去做好他們的工作。
1993
One of the things that I always tried to remember, and that I developed during
my years with the Rangers, was the importance of respecting the fans. I always
respected the 45,000 or 50,000 people who paid good money to watch us play.
They paid to see a good show on the field. So I always wanted to play my very
best every day. I felt that I owed it to the fans.
1993
我在遊騎兵的這幾年，有一件重要的事情是我常常想記住的就是尊重球迷。
我非常尊重那些付了大把鈔票來看我們比賽的四萬五千人或是五萬人。
他們付錢來看一場好比賽，所以每天我都試著全力以赴。我感覺這是我積欠這些球迷的。
1994
Catching Kenny Rogers’s perfect game on July 28, 1994, meant a lot to me. I’d
rather help a pitcher do something like that than hit a thousand home runs. To
me, calling a great game and helping a pitcher be at his very best is what
being a catcher is all about.
1994
在1994年7月28日蹲捕Kenny Rogers的完全比賽對我有極大的意義，我寧願去幫助投手達
成這樣的成就勝過自己打了幾千支全壘打。
但是對我來說，指揮一場美好的球賽以及幫助投手能在最佳狀態下是一個捕手所該做的。
1999
That MVP season was probably the most fun I ever had playing baseball. People
remember the 35 home runs that year, and the high batting average. But a lot of
people forget about the steals. People think that because my nickname is Pudge,
that I was a slow guy. Now, I’m not saying I’m fast. But I stole 25 bases
that year. That’s pretty cool.
1999
拿到MVP的球季可能是我打棒球以來最有趣的一季了。
人們記得那年我打了35隻全壘打以及高打擊率，可是很多人都忘記了盜壘這件事了，大家認
為我的綽號叫做Pudge，就認為我跑得很慢。
現在我不是在說我跑得很快，但是那年我可是盜了25次壘，真的是很酷的一件事情。
2002
I have no regrets about leaving the Rangers. Of course, I had wanted to play my
whole career there. That was always my goal. But sometimes baseball is a
business. A few years earlier, the Rangers had signed Alex Rodriguez to that
$252 million contract. So with paying him that much money, they couldn’t
really afford me. That’s part of baseball. I understand it. But I played hard
every day for that team. I did my job. I worked my butt off. So … no regrets,
and no hard feelings. Plus, it definitely helped that the Marlins thing worked
out pretty good that next year.
2002
我不會後悔離開遊騎兵隊，我想整個生涯都待在這裡，這是我的目標。
但是有時候棒球就是一門生意，在年初的時候，遊騎兵隊花了252M簽下了Alex Rodriguez，
在付了A-Rod這麼多錢後，他們沒剩下多少錢能夠付我的薪水，這就是棒球的一部分，我很
了解。我每天都在隊上認真打球、我完成我的工作、每天都蹲捕。所以不感到後悔，也沒感
覺到相當難受。此外，隔年在馬林魚隊的成功，也讓我離開遊騎兵隊這件事情變得沒那麼糟