"Fans, for the past two months you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at those grand suckers. Which of you wouldn't consider it the luckiest break of your life just to laugh your back pocket off at them every day?

Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known George Washington.  One hundred sixty-two million, two hundred fifty-eight thousand, two hundred and sixty-nine times.  To have spent years ignoring some of the finest managers in the game.  Then to have come to Los Angeles and make a