Royce: You say you have a lot of fun playing the game.

George: Uh-huh.

It can be frustrating. Like last night when I didn’t get any hits. Well, actually, I got one hit, but it was a frustrating game because I know I didn’t have any really good swings at any pitches. I don’t get too frustrated when I get out. I get more frustrated when I know I’m not taking a good swing. Because if you take enough good swings, and quality swings, you’re hitting the ball hard, and sooner or later you’re gonna start getting the hits.

Royce: How much are you focused on the details? The swings? The throwing? Getting the good jump from first base? Your footwork? How much are you focused on that, as opposed to when you pause and look at the big picture, such as, "Where am I? How am I going? What does John Schuerholz think about me this week?"

George: I look at the little things a lot more. There’s a game report that’s turned into John Schuerholz after every game and in that game report it says who gets the hits, but it also says every little detail – whether you had a sacrifice bunt or you got a runner over or you hit three balls hard and didn’t get a hit, but had three quality swings at pitches, made a great catch. And those are the little things that are going to keep you in the major leagues when you’re making the good catches and doing little things in the game.

Royce: Who’s filing that report?

George: Don’t get me wrong, the numbers do mean something. But if I just looked at numbers, I probably wouldn’t be playing this game. I probably would have quit this game a long time ago, because I hadn’t put up the best numbers up until the last two years.

But I think the coaches did a good job of keeping me away from always looking at the numbers. Minor league numbers really don’t mean too much. You can look at over half the major league players and they had horrible minor league numbers their first two years.

Royce: Last night you tried to steal second. The throw beat you, but the ball went into center field, and you got to go to third on the stolen base and the error. So what are you thinking there? Are you thinking, oh, it’s good I got another stolen base? Are you thinking, oh, it’s good I’m on third, it helps the team? I should have got a better jump? I need to learn pitchers better?

George: No, at that time you’re thinking you’re happy because you got a stolen base (laughing). You take everything you can get in this game.

And when you sit down you look at what you did wrong and what you did right. You have the little bloop hit – I’ll take every little bloop hit I can get, but you’ve got to make sure that you correct what you did in your swing or you’ve got to realize what you did.

And the stealing there – the pitcher had a great move. I knew the pitcher. I was gonna go first move. I had a small lead and I was lucky. The catcher had a bad throw. I probably shouldn’t have done that, but, numbers-wise, you’re not gonna throw out every runner. There’s been times when I’ve had – you know, in my career – really good jumps and still have been thrown out. So, all that stuff evens out.

Royce: So, deep down, you look at which element?

George: I know that I’m a player that has to make things happen. I made something happen and I forced him maybe into not making the best throw that he could. Just maybe he knew there was a fast runner on base and maybe he sped up his process and rushed the throw and made a bad throw.

But I know for me to go in that situation again, I would have to have a better jump.

Royce: You said that last night you didn’t have good swings –

George: Uh-huh. I feel much better when I’m seeing the ball. I didn’t see the ball well the last couple of nights.

Royce: What does that mean? Can you explain it?

George: When you’re hitting well, you feel like you can barely swing at a ball – or you can take a hard cut – and still be under control. And you can let that ball get right up on you and still make a good pass at it, a good swing at it. And when you’re not seeing the ball well, it looks like the pitcher’s throwing the ball 130 miles an hour.

Royce: It has something to do with your body? Something to do with you?

George: It has something to do with the way you prepare for a pitch, and I wasn’t preparing myself right for a pitch. I may have had too much movement, and there's a lot of things.

You know, today’s a new day, so you can’t look back on what went wrong.

Royce: You recently hit a 540-foot home run into the trees in Greenville. What’s it feel like in your bones when you connect like that?

George: When you hit a home run and really get ahold of it, you don't feel it. When the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand, everything is in slow motion and you see the ball forever. I was looking for one pitch in one area and I just happened to get it. If it was anywhere else I would have taken the pitch. Your swing just feels short and quick to the ball. Everything is perfect on a swing like that.

Royce: And you recently hit a grand slam in the 9th to win a game. How did that feel?