Obviously, this is a job, it's a grind, but it's what you love to do. It's your passion.

When you're up there and everything feels good and you're competing against the pitcher and the pitcher strikes you out, you're like, 'OK, yeah, I struck out, but that's OK.'

We want the fans to be in it, because when they're in it, it makes you kind of live up to it.

To me, you can always get better.

I think the one thing I have learned the most from all the veteran guys is kinda like not to dwell on a loss or a bad day.

Sometimes what we see, what's going on in front of us, isn't really what's happening.

You know, this league is all about adjustments, and the one thing you kinda notice when you're playing every day is how teams make adjustments. Once you start having a little bit of success, they are going to make their adjustment.

I think that's one of the things you start learning from being hot and playing every day at the beginning, you know. The league, they made their adjustments and their change to you, the way they pitch you, the way they attack you, and just learning and learning from that and making the adjustments the very next at bat or the very next pitch.

I mean, I learned a lot from Houston. And you know what? It made me who I am and there's really no animosity there. In a sense, they did me a favor by allowing me to leave and going to play on another team.

I've always been hungry, but when people ask what drives you - 'How do you stay so driven throughout this whole thing?' - you just don't stop. It's every single day. The people that know me and the people that love me and are in my life see it.

All through Miami, the guys who grew up with me hitting at the place I hit, they all call me Flaco. Nobody calls me J.D. It's like, 'Hey, Flaco.'

Obviously, I have to do what's best for me and my family; I've got to put that first. But I definitely want to be on a team that's in contention.

I've always loved hitting, and even as a kid, I always hit.

I just want to go deep in the playoffs and be put in that situation where I'm locked in and the game and the season is on the line.

I think I'm a funny guy.

I love the game and I love to play. You have to admire fans who are the same way.

I found a place in Boston, a home in Boston, and I'm pretty happy here.

You can ask every coach from Ron Gardenhire to Dave Clark, anyone who has seen me play, they don't know why they say I'm a bad defender.

My preparation and my routine are the foundations to my success.

My parents taught me that in life, you get out what you put in.

My teammate Torii Hunter taught me how to lead and provide encouragement to the locker room.

Paul Goldschmidt, who gave me the confidence to lead as one of the game's greatest players, acknowledged that what I had to say was valuable to my teammates and crucial to winning.

I'm usually rough during Spring Training. My Spring Training numbers aren't very good, but I never expect them to be.

Just kind of finding it, that's what Spring Training is for, to work on stuff and get ready.

I played street basketball for a while and wanted to play competitively, but I was so used to the street-style of game that I would have fouled out by the end of the first quarter.

I started playing ball when I was 4 years old.

I have so many memories of going fishing and camping as a kid, and my dad had season tickets to watch the Marlins - and that's where I fell in love with the game.

Starting in middle school, I would play on two or three baseball teams at the same time, because that's just how things worked in south Florida. I would practice six or seven days each week. I honestly don't know how my parents did it, but my dad always found a way to make it to each and every game.

It's easy to sit there in the dugout when the game's going on and talk, chitchat about this and that. But I think paying attention, watching the pitcher, watching the game develop, putting yourself in situations you're not even in yet, anticipating the game, stuff like that, I think that really helps you take that extra step.

Learning how to slow the game down is the biggest thing.

I'd say the challenge of DHing is going to be learning the routine and to stay loose and stay warm and kind of be ready for it.

The last thing I wanted to do was get buried in Triple-A behind prospects.

It's so hard to win a World Series.

That's why, to me, Spring Training is so hard, because every time you go up there, there's a new pitcher, and you have to come up with a new plan.

Any time you go into the playoff game everyone's adrenaline is high and tensions are going, stuff like that.

Contrary to everyone's belief of 'J.D. is a launch-angle guy. He wants to get the ball in the air and this and that.' This is true, but you're not trying to force situations, trying to force things.

I don't go up there and try to hit home runs.

I believe that you're a hitter first and you're a slugger second type deal.

To me grinding out a good at-bat is pretty much fighting. And it's not trying to do too much with pitches, just finding a way to spoil a good pitcher's pitches, really.

If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.

I think my failures in Houston is what made me who I am. I think it's given me that drive, that drive to keep working, because you never know what can happen type deal.

I always talk about it like I'm a hitter first and if I'm doing things right and my body's in the right place, I drive the baseball.

Detroit will always have a special place in my heart.

I really judge me on me.

I'm going to tell you right now, no one is harder on me than me. The fact that fans sit there and boo me, I'm booing myself when I'm walking in.

Obviously, I love Boston. I love the passion. It kind of matches my personality. The fans, I almost feel like they're just as passionate as me.

I'm always just grinding and figuring out what adjustment I need to make and how to tweak my swing to where I want it to be for that game and that pitcher.

I preach about getting the ball in the air.

Whenever you see me and I'm hitting ground ball after ground ball, you know I'm not feeling right.

Kids want to see relevant teams.