Quotes By Al Leiter

Pitches are like pages of a book; they're so important. The chess game; how I set you up early, and how I'll do it differently later.

I like starting. It's pretty cool.

Announcers don't do enough of the cat-and-mouse strategy and all the work that goes into it. You watch a broadcast and guys get the pitches wrong.

I look at this as a second life. Every game feels like an event. Every pitch matters. I need that. It elevates your aggressiveness.

It's a very big mental game, all day leading up to warm-ups. You're not sure if your curveball will break, or will you be able to throw it over the plate? It's all negative thoughts going into the game.

I think the World Cup is going to be bigger than what a lot of people are anticipating. At this stage in my career, when there is an opportunity, albeit a small one, of being on the team, what a great way to possibly end my career.

The pitcher setting up the batter. It's chess, and you play with it.

But I'm still not 100% convinced that Roger Clemens took steroids. I'm not.

You put deadlines on people you really don't want, because that's how you feel about them.

I did not want to leave the Mets and I did not want to leave New York.

For seven years, I was in this fishbowl with this intensity, with all the stuff that went on with the Mets.

I love the game very much, but when you were a certain type of player for a few years, being a front-end starter, that's the way I still think I can pitch. But the body tells you no.