Adrian Beltre quotes:

I'm not a rookie anymore-no more excuses about being young.

I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. But I love baseball and I love to play hard.

2004 has to be my year. No more excuses.

I work hard on my defense. It's something I take pride in, but it's nothing that I want to brag about. It's part of my game.

I have to get better, but I can't change the way I play.

I don't like to play slow or softly. I like to play hard. Always.

I'm confident, but not so confident that I'm cocky.

I love hitting-that's my favorite part of the game.

I want to be consistent from the first day of the season to the last.

When you go to home plate with a lot of confidence, you feel that you can hit any pitch.

I'm an immigrant myself. I'd probably support it, but I can't do much.

But the Twins opened the fifth with their second and third hits, and Beltre helped Hernandez by taking his bullet throw for a force at third on a bunt try. I felt it, ... My only worry was that he didn't throw me a sinker. He threw hard, but a good fastball.

Byrd has always been that kind of pitcher, trying to trick you, keep the ball low, in and out. He threw a lot of strikes, worked it inside and out, threw breaking balls for strikes behind in the count.