It's not absolute. But his expectations of himself are very, very high. He does not want to disappoint himself, let alone everyone else.

A lot of people wanted to assume it's about the 600 home runs: ?He had to get to 600 home runs. He needed to keep playing. It's not that. It's not that he has to stay in uniform just to be in uniform.

This isn't a play to see what else is out there. He thinks he's better off not playing.

Not withstanding his protestations from time to time, Jerry is and has been one of the elite power sources in baseball for decades. And that is even truer now.

When it comes to the economics of baseball, there's no question he's been a hawk and is a hawk. But I don't think that meant that he didn't want to win. His excitement right now is undeniable.

Jerry's a tough guy when he's in a battle. He's a very kind guy on a personal level. His public personality is different from his private personality. On one hand, he's one of the smartest, toughest guys going. On the other hand he's one of the funniest, kindest guys going.