I thank the Lord for having the kind of a career that doesn't happen very often to an individual. A lot of times when I was playing, I pinched myself to see if it was really me and if it was really happening. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything.

As far as sleeping goes, you're up and ready to go at six in the morning. Spring training was always a combination of relaxing and working, and I missed that quite a bit. I missed being around the ball field. A baseball. A bat. The smell of the uniform, you might say. Talking baseball. Seeing opponents as well as the Cubs.

The overall thinking of the shortstop covers the overall context of the ballgame. You have to know the count they'll hit-and-run on. You're thinking of the speed, not only of the runner at first base, but the runner at the plate. You have to know how fast the pitcher is on a particular day.

Yeah, I miss it. You don't just break off a friendship you've had with a sport, and with all those you've met all over the country. We've got some friends, some very close friends, and you just sit back and think how fortunate you were having a career like that. And, actually, there's nothing in the game of baseball that hasn't happened to me.