I would like to thank the fans in Detroit for understanding my injury and being supportive of me as well as the Tigers. Everybody thought that I was hurt. When my teammates found out that I was injured, I had a lot of guys on the team coming up to me saying just my presence alone being in the lineup helped the team, so it was hard to pull myself out of the lineup. I did it for my teammates.

When I look back at the whole situation, I felt like the most important people to me are my teammates and the fans. I'll be in good health come April 1st. I came to the Tigers to help get the team to the World Series and win. We were on our way.

July 21st kind of changed everything for me personally. I had just got in the swing of things and got my stroke. I was feeling confident in the team and in myself. As I swung the bat, my body wouldn't allow me to follow through with my swing or get full extension. I got two cortisone shots and was on my way to getting a third one, but it didn't help the pain. I knew I was injured. I got in a situation where we were three games up in first place. We pretty much had the best record in baseball. I felt like my presence alone and how good was would get us through. But I gotta give Cleveland a lot of credit. Those guys are a great ball club. They deserve to be where their at. They hung in there and stayed with it. But unfortunately, we had the injury bug through our whole pitching staff including middle relief. We lost key guys. With me being the guy they brought over to get the team over the hump, I felt like we were on our way. We had just started gelling together as a team.

The pain I was feeling from day-to-day kind of put self-doubt in my mind. I had doubt in my ability to get something done.

I did all the things that the doctors asked me. I went through all the tests: got the MRI's and the x-rays. One of the things I was saying that was bothering me, the doctors didn't see it. They didn't know anything about my rotator cuff, they didn't know anything about my leg bothering me, and they didn't know anything about the bone that was poking out of my shoulder. I think they knew that it needed to be shaved, but they didn't think that my collarbone was snapped in half and the bone fragments were floating out of my shoulder. They didn't see that in the x-rays. I then talked to my doctor and got a second opinion and learned that it was kind of difficult to see all of the other injuries. A lot of times, people say that it shows in my face that something is wrong. I try my best to get through it and not show any emotion---to just gut it out. Once I got to my doctor and he saw my x-rays, he was able to show me where my collarbone was snapped, where my leg was torn, and where my rotator cuff was torn, and four bone fragments. They looked at me and couldn't believe that I played from July on in that condition. I think my doctor was taken a back that I was able to perform in that condition. When he said he had to open me up to do surgery, I was filled with fear. When he told me he could perform the surgery through the scope—arthroscopic, I was relieved because I felt like that was the safer way to go. When we did the surgery, I came out and have been moving my arm with persistence. I refuse to let this injury hinder me in any way.

I arrived at the hospital in Miami at six in the morning. I felt like, "piece of cake!" I'll go in, get the surgery and I'd be ready to play. Then all of a sudden you drive up and the nurse is sitting right there in the VIP parking with a cop standing next to her. You know, it kind-of made me nervous! I knew it was serious now. Because its one thing to be sitting in a hotel with your family in Miami, running up and down the beach with your kids. But then it's another thing to be pulling up at the hospital at six in the morning to have my twelfth surgery. When I got in there, what made it worse was that the doctor wasn't there yet, so I sat for thirty-forty minutes thinking about what I was about to endure. I've been through eleven other surgeries and I know what it takes to get back. It is a lot of hard work and dedication and will power. I had to really challenge myself and ask myself if I was willing to do this once again and hopefully for the last time? So I focused and told myself this is the twelfth and hopefully the final time I will have surgery and I have to work to get back to be the player that I once was. The butterflies came over me and overtook me. They immediately began to prepare me for surgery. When they stuck the IV in me I was jumpy and sweating. I was a nervous wreck in there. The next thing I remember is waking up all bandaged up and leaving out.

I got through it. I always kept Detroit in mind, the players in mind and the fans in mind. That helped me get through it. I focused on what I want to accomplish for the city. I want to be apart of the winning side, that's my goal. I am now at home relaxing. My physical therapist will be with me everywhere I go to get me back so I can finish what I started. I'm in a new city, around new people and I want them to get to know me for who I am.