Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Dream Makers w/ Jim Morris

Episode Date: August 1, 2022

If you love a great sports comeback then you are going to love this interview with Jimmy “The Rookie” Morris. Yea, I said it. Jimmy Morris! In this episode  Shawn French sits down with Jim and he recounts his childhood and Father that didn’t support him at all in his baseball career. His career ended early due to some arm injuries until….Shawn French sit down with Jim and he recounts his childhood and Father that didn’t support him at all in hi Until one day he was throwing batting practice to his High School Baseball Team and they noticed how hard he was throwing the ball. Soon after they all made a deal that if they won Districts then he had to go try out for the minor leagues. Jim ended up making his Major League Baseball debut on September 18, 1999 striking out Royce Clayton of the Texas Rangers. Nowadays, Jim Morris is motivational speaker for corporations and all other events. He is also a published author and just released his second book called Dream Makers. You can order a copy at http://www.jimtherookiemorris.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. a little bit. I don't know how long

you're in the minor leagues before this happened, but that moment that you got that phone call. I was in AAA playoffs. And playing for the Durham Bulls and we're playing to Charlotte Knights. If we win this game,

we go to the AAA World Series. If we lose, we're out, we lose. And so we're sitting there talking about which direction we're going to drive home from Charlotte. When the manager comes up and taps me on the shoulder,

he goes, I need to talk to you. I look back at him and I said, I don't think so. He goes, why not? I said because the last six guys you talk to are all crying right now. I choose not to cry. He just shook his head on me. He said, come on.

What's up, guys? How's it going? Welcome to the another episode of the podcast Determined Society. You guessed it. This is Sean French, your host. And today, guys, I have someone with me that, to me, just resonates determination, grit. He followed his dreams.

And, you know, it was never a straight line for this gentleman. And he was told at a young age of 25 that he never played the game that he loved ever again due to a bunch of injuries. And, you know, fast forward 10 years. I'm sure it wasn't a fast 10 years for him. There was a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, having to go into the fact that he couldn't do what he loved anymore. And at the age of 35, he found himself on the mound in a Tampa Bay. At the time, the Tampa Bay double rays. They are now the raise here in West Florida.

And he is an author of two. books most recently dreammakers he's a motivational speaker but to baseball players he is the epitome of the american dream jim the rookie morse welcome to the show man glad to have you thank you i'm glad to be here absolutely man i i was telling uh my wife when we you know got in contact i shot a message to you on lincoln i'm like hey you know what you never know maybe he answers and uh you answer with such grace and humility and your wife shana such a sweet soul and uh You know, we were able to to get this worked out pretty quickly. And immediately after we booked the show, I had to put my kids in front of the movie, right?

They're like, well, who is this, dad? You know, and my wife was like, this is amazing. And, you know, I just, I look at your story. And like I said, before we started recording, it's just, you know, we know how it's portrayed, right? And, you know, I'm just super excited to have you on the show, at least talk about all those things, right, so that my listeners are, are, my listeners really enjoy stories of adversity and triumph, right?

That's why they listen to my show because they like to see the problem, and they like to see somebody work, and they like to see the solution or the pinnacle of what's going on. So I know we'll be able to provide that today. And yeah, man, once again, we're just, we're here for it. I do want to talk about your new book. You know, so we'll get to that to you. So give it to us, man.

You know, we know what we see in the media, but start me off as a kid because the way it's way it's shown in the movie, your father was in the military and you moved around a lot. So the way it looked, it was you get involved in baseball, then you're having to move again. And then Pops was just like, sorry, dude. You know, it's just the way it is. So talk to us a little bit about that. Oh, Sean. What a long story. My father wasn't a military. We moved everywhere. He was not a nice person. And, okay, here's one thing. He's holding my little brother one day. He looks down at me. And he goes, this is the one we wanted. We never wanted you. And that was my life. And physically and verbally abusive. And I tell audiences, I say, the bruises go away. It's the words that stick. with you. You're not smart enough. You're not good enough. Why do you even try? You're

embarrass yourself and everybody else. Just give up. And that was him. And sports for me was an escape. And if I could be in between the white lines of a ball field, I could be away from him and for only a few hours at a time. And so for the first 15 years of my life, baseball is how I made friends. He didn't like me to talk. Children are to be seen and not heard. So I never talked. And ironically, now I talked for a living, so I guess God was saving it up or something. But baseball for me has been the one go-to in my life. And even when I couldn't play anymore, I thought, I'll coach it. And but at 15, I made the varsity baseball team in MacArthur High School in Hollywood, Florida,

second freshman ever to make a team. And two weeks after the season started, my dad said, guess what? You're moving to Brownwood. That move ended up being the best thing for me in my understanding. entire life because I was moving out of a household where I watched two people argue, throw, curse, hit, fight, scream, moved to Texas where my grandparents were. And when I walked into my grandparents' house, I thought, this is my father's parents. He got it from somewhere. Oh, boy. And when I walked in, I was shocked. I had two rules. If you do it, own it. On it, live up to it

and move on. And number two, tell the truth. You don't have to remember the truth. And those were my grandparents and they ended up being the dreammakers of my life and the mentors that I look up to for people who did it right they were never rich but they always found a way to get back my grandfather had a menswear store in brownwood texas you know a population was 20,000 people but he had this menswear store and people would come from all over the country it never dawned on me as a teenager like most teenagers it wouldn't dawn on that since my grandfather had fought in world war two he knows a whole bunch of people well he knew a lot of people and he knew a lot of people And people would come into the store all time from everywhere and buy suits,

not just because the quality of his suit, but because the quality of the man. And he was such a good, fine human being. I didn't find out until about 10 years ago that he spoke for a living when he wasn't doing work in a store. And I thought, that's pretty cool. Now I talk. And my grandmother, the opposite. He was 6'3.

She was 5'3. But probably the smartest woman I've ever seen in my life could hear a piece of music, couldn't read music, but could hear something on the radio, sit out and play it on the piano. And just incredibly talented, incredibly smart, could do trig in her head. I mean, just she showed me shortcuts in math that I tried to use when I was in high school. My teachers would go, that's the right answer, but you don't show your work, so it's wrong. That's how smart she was. Wow.

But they took me in, and when a teenager who could have fallen off the rails either way, my grandparents said, no, not on our watch. and they ended up being the biggest mentors of my life. And I worked for my grandfather during the summers. And I would also help my grandmother at church. My grandfather had me take my grandmother on lunch dates once a week the entire time I was in high school. So I would know how to treat women.

And, you know, he wanted me to be prepared. Take their arm across the street. Keep them inside away from traffic, open car doors, restaurant doors, pull out chairs, all of it. And they taught. For 15 years, I heard screaming and cursing. And the next three, I never heard a crossword said. I never heard anybody lift their voice.

And so for me, walking into that situation, I was almost like thunderstruck. I thought, this can't be true. This is a movie. Yeah, but it was. And they were just such good people. And they put me on a road to success. And my grandfather said, what are you going to do when you can't throw a ball? throw a ball hard anymore.

You know, when you're a teenager, you're like, I will throw a ball hard as long as I want. And then at 40, you start waking up three times a night to pee, and you're like, you know what, I can't throw a ball hard anymore. For him,

he wanted me to be prepared for after sports. And so he was teaching me lessons every day about character, about morality, about keeping my word. He goes, you are your word. If you break your word, then at the end,

of the day, people are going to know you if you told the truth or not. And if you didn't, that's how you're going to be remembered. And he was very much that person who did everything right and slow and methodical in the same way every time. Here's a funny story. He would go to market twice a year and to buy suits to bring back to his store. And he would call the husbands and he'd go, what kind of suits do you want? And he'd listen to everything they said. And then he did the smart thing, and he would call the wives, and he goes, what are your husband's want to wear? And he would come back with what the wives told him to bring, and they would buy everything. I mean, he just knew how to be a people person. And one day, and I didn't learn this until two years

ago, so this story I'm just kind of sticking in. One day in a store, this man walks in, I recognize him from TV. I'm 58 years old, and there used to be three channels, and I was a remote, and people find it hard to believe now. But I recognized you from TV. He walks up, he hugs my grandfather like they've been best friends forever. I later found out they were. It was Gene Autry. And two years ago, I'm doing a podcast with Dennis.

And I'm telling him this story. He goes, you're kidding me. He goes, that was my uncle. Oh, wow. And then years later, he's playing me in the movie. So, you know, the world as big as it is is a lot smaller than we think it is. You know, it truly is, and it's fascinating because a lot of your story, you know, and again, I'm sure my father has a different spin on this. But my father was also very hard on me. He didn't really physically abuse me, but it was a lot of, hey, if you don't play baseball, you're kind of up the creek without a paddle because you're not, you can't do anything with your hands. You don't have any skills, right? You, you can't fix a car. You can't do this. And I always said, you know, dad, I, I,

I feel like people like me and I can talk to people, right? And he's like, well, you can't make any money doing that. And, you know, throughout my whole life, I've been able to generate an amazing sales career and, you know, build my business just on the way of being able to relate to pretty much anybody, right? And to have great conversations and to be honest and tell the truth. And it's crazy because, you know, sitting here having this conversation with you now, I was like, I had a feeling I knew there was a contentious relationship with your father.

in fact you talk it about in your new book dreammakers right you kind of dive into that and just kind of the life after baseball but you know when you when you see public figures like yourself you don't really know them know them you're like you just you never know what somebody's going through in their life right you know we look at uh celebrities or major league baseball players or professional football players and in in the and the civilian or the the lay person can go wow what an amazing life but we never know what they did to get there and what i'm hearing from you is that you dealt with a lot of physical and verbal abuse, right? And that was your time, you know, in that one and a half to three hours, depending on the level, right?

That you got to be in between those white lines. And that was your safe haven. And I have to tell you, Jim, like, you and I are more alike than I thought, right? Because I remember no matter what was going on in my life, that at a moment I walked through those gates, I was where I was supposed to be. It didn't matter if I went over three or three. for three or whatnot. Did I get upset when I went over three? You're darn right I did, right? Because I'm a competitor and I like to win. But I could, I could forget about the breakup with my girlfriend. I could

forget about what my dad sets me. I could forget about my parents yelling at each other. I can forget about so many things within the school that happened, me being bullied because I wasn't in the best shape or I wasn't as good looking as the other guy, right? The baseball, the game of baseball saved me. right and and as I progressed it turned into something that I was able to do at a you know at a higher level in division one but just hearing the story it's it's so it's so parallel because I dealt with people yelling and screaming to where when and I didn't have the opportunity you know to where you were blessed like you said at 15 that moved to Texas was the best one you've ever made in your life because you got to see true modeling of a great relationship and respect and love.

I didn't have that, right? I just got a bunch of yelling and screaming. So when I would get into a relationship or when I would, you know, get married at first, I thought that's how you disagreed. It's like, no, I got to yell. And it's funny because, you know, when you, when you have that other partner, that wife, said, well, hey, I'm not used to this. Like, why are you doing this?

Right. And it's, it's just strange. I know it's a tangent, but it's super. It's super encouraging, and I want everybody listening to really dial in on the fact that, just like Jim said, you know, the world is small. It's smaller than we think, but we're also more alike than we're not. Yeah. We all have opinions.

What's that? We all have opinions. We sure do. But it doesn't mean we're right. Right. Right. Totally. I, you know, I want to go through some of the things like, for instance, the high school season.

you coached, I coach, right? It's one of the ways we can give back to the kids and still feel part of the game and compete. And the one thing that I always found really, really difficult was, you know, you don't have that remote control. You can educate the baseball IQ. You can work on the skills. But at the game time, it's up to the kids.

And the one thing that is always the most challenging is finding ways to motivate or drive the collective unit, right? because everybody's so different. So it's a lot of times you have to differentiate, right? You do. You have to differentiate, you know, to player X, player Y. Like you've got to coach them differently. The way it's portrayed in the movie is, you know, it's a struggling team.

All right. You were coaching. Could even go grass on the baseball field because the deer was eating the seed, right? And somehow they saw you throw a baseball. And it was like, well, if we win, you got to chase your dream. is that accurate yeah there's a lead up to that story how it happened was in 99 where the movie takes place i was on my way to baseball practice and this athletic director stops me he was head of the program he's not the guy who hired me he was a guy they brought in and he couldn't get rid of me

and that really made him mad so i was the kicking post he goes you've taken these kids as far as you can these kids are losers they're never going to mount anything their parents are losers they they've never gone anywhere they're never going anywhere he goes this is a stepping stone for people like me and he goes you may be one of the best baseball coaches I've ever seen but you're always going to come in last to people like me because I know how to step on people

and I'm sitting there saying wow and they put you in charge of everybody that's so awesome but around the corner there were two of my kids and they heard it and this guy destroyed two years of work in 90 seconds and so as a movie opens up back to the nuns, 15 to 1 and 15 to 0, and we just get rumbled. And so after the second one, I just stand home play and I just said a prayer.

My grandparents had faith. I've got great faith. And I'm just like, God, what do you want me to do? How can I push them without breaking them? How can I get them to believe? How can I teach them if they want something? They have to go get it. They can't just go, I wish I had it.

And here it comes. You've got to work for it. Nothing comes easy. And the answer was so simple. It was go down there and teach them what your grand. grandparents taught you and I thought I could do that and we walk I walked down nobody's looking at me they're all looking at the ground start talking about hopes and dreams and goals and I said you guys have to go out and live life you can't let life live you don't ever let anybody dictate to you what you do

with your life this is your life and I'm thinking I'm sounding pretty good right in the back of my head I'm like my grandfather would be proud they're looking they're engaged and then my catcher looks at me my senior on the team and he goes what about your dreams I said my dream is to see you guys be successful in the classroom, successful in the field, graduate from high school and then go to college or trade school or whatever it is you want to do. But it's your decision.

He goes, well, we think you still want to play. And I said, no, I think I want to stay married. Thank you very much. And by now I'm 35. I weigh 260 pounds. Right. Their mom's making me fresh homemade tortillas every time you get on a bus to go somewhere.

And like, this is a scouting diet. This is not a playing diet. And let's not forget the fact that at 28, I had a surgery which the doctor said you will never, ever pitch again physically impossible. And they just kept challenging me. They're like, coach, but the way you throw to us, we know your heart's still in it. We can't even hit you on us.

That's because you can't hit. But you teach us everything about the game. We know you still want to play. And I said, wanting to playing, being able to play are two different things. I said, I've had a doctor in a medical field tell me I will never pitch again, impossible. What if we win? Can't do it. We go through all the reasons, including the medical reasons. Well, what if we want a district championship, which these kids never been a part of in baseball? We win, you try out. So for 20 minutes, I did what every parent does. I argued every course of action,

and then I caved in. I'm like, all right. If you win, I'll find a tryout. In the back of my mind, I'm like, I'm old for baseball. I'm fat, and this is going to be embarrassing. But if it gets these kids to play, I'll do it. I'm embarrassed myself for a few minutes. Little did I know what that would do. And they start winning. They start winning by a lot. And we're running teams off the field. We're not even, we're not trying to hurt anybody or just score the daylights of stuff. We're just playing baseball. And we're down by two runs in district championship.

And the history would dictate these kids don't come back very well. They come up in the top of the last inning. they score six runs, they hold the other team to zero. We win. One of the best sites I've ever seen in my life. I'm watching a group of kids celebrate an accomplishment that not even they thought they could accomplish. By now I've forgotten about the bet. When we made the bet, they couldn't hit me.

By the end of the season, I couldn't get these kids out. And so I forget about the bet because who cares? And we're playing and we're winning. And that's when my second baseman hops up on the bus. And he goes, we did our part. Now it's your turn. Oh, no. Oh, boy.

Here we go. And I've got to go to a tryout. And, you know, we get into the second round of playoffs. It was the third game of the three-game series. School's over, baseball's over. I found a tryout in my hometown of Brownwood at Howard Payne. And when I drive the trial with my kids who are eight, four, and one, I'm looking at all these other kids get out of their car.

Tall, thin, athletic looking, brand new bodies, brand new gear, smiling because they're chasing that dream. And I remembered when I was back at that age, what baseball meant to me. And now here I am with my three kids, one of which I'm changing her diapers. And I'm here to actually try out again at this age. And I go up to the sign-up table, Doug Gasow, he's about 70. He said, how many kids do you bring the tryout? And I looked down and I said, I brought three.

He goes, no, two tryout. And I said, let me explain something. I made a promise to a group of kids If they did something nobody thought they could do I would try to do something I know I can't do It's going to be embarrassing It will be humiliating You get a great laugh out of it

But either you let me throw I've got to find someone else who will Because I made a promise When he got done laughing He looked up with a serious face And he said Why didn't you just shave your head like every other coach I said where were you three months ago man

Yeah that that is you know it's so funny because you watch the scene in the movie and like here you are you know going to this tryout in your hometown and you have all three of your children and you're changing diapers and you're probably sitting there for a long time for your turn and you know you're dealing with all these things and you know the the mental toughness and the mindset that you have to have at that moment to stay connected with your three children, but also to switch your focus on a drop of a dime and go out there and throw pitches. To me, it's, it's everything that life is, right? You know, there's a lot of times we're all sit here at home and I'm trying to cook dinner and

maybe dishes have to be done and I got three kids going daddy, daddy, daddy. And here you are, you tried out for the minor leagues for spot on a roster and I'm complaining I'm in here in the kitchen that's kind of embarrassing for me but i want to be vulnerable i just think it's impressive you know how did you how did you um stay sane in that moment i mean like for me if i had my three kids at a tryout and i and they call my name i'm going to be pretty frazzled man i don't know if i could hit a broad side of a barn at that point for me it was just let's show up and do this and get it over with i thought i can't get 16 and 17 year old kids out now how am i going to impress a major league scout. I'll get this. I'll get done. We'll go home. It's all good. Yeah.

And so he hands me a fastball. Last one a tryout. They've thrown. They've hit. They've run the 60. And so he tosses me a ball and he said, how many pitches do you need to warm up? I said, to embarrass myself, none. I just want to pitch quickly and run off the field. And I said, all right, he goes, he goes, give him signs. Give me a sign for a fastball. I wind up. And I throw it. And he's shaking his radar gun. I'm like, I don't even throw hard enough to register. That's ridiculous. And immediately, I'm more embarrassed than I thought it would be. And then all the young guys threw like 20 pitches. And now I'm up to about 60. And I think they're making fun of the fat old guy. And that's me. Wait, you threw 60 pitches. Yeah. That's like a game.

Especially for someone who's been out of baseball for a long time. And by the end of this session, he tells this kid, because everybody had tried out, they're all putting their stuff up in their cars, and as I'm throwing, people are slowly coming back behind the backstop and watching, parents included. And I thought,

I'm either doing really good or really bad. And he tells this kid, he goes, go get your bat and get in the box. And the kid goes, you want me to get in there against that? And I thought, huh? So they finally say that's enough. My one-year-old's crying.

I would get my kids to put them into car and turn the air on. he asks the way he meets me he goes i remember you 15 years ago a ranger junior called you were a football star everybody wanted to make a picture out of i said yes sir he said jimmy back then you were tall and thin through 87 or 88 said yes sir he goes i don't know you've done your time off aside from eat but the first pitch you threw without warming up was 94 everything after that went up to 98 and i'm stunned but when somebody tells you you're throwing 98 there's a happy dance going on between your ears right The next thing that hit me was I had been throwing 98 miles an hour high school kids.

I'm getting sued as what I'm getting. And my kids were hitting 98. No wonder that kid who threw puke to us the last game we couldn't hit because we were so far out in front of it. And he goes, don't be surprised if you get a phone call. It's all right. Put the kids in a car, drive home an hour in 10 minutes. It's not one phone call. It's 12.

They want to come back in two days and throw hard. And I tell audiences, I say, this is where walking to walk and talk and the talk separate. I call my high school kids and I say, look, I did good. If I want me to come back in two days, if I do good again, they want me to sign a minor league contract. I said, but this is something I failed at every single time. I was supposed to be young and talented. Now I'm old for this game. It's going to be harder.

Over here, coaching, teaching, I'm successful at. I know I'm good at. I got a job in Fort Worth at a great big high school. This is good. This over here, bad. I fail every time. I said, coach, you told us if we ever had our dream in front of us. You'd chase it no matter what.

And I said, I was lying. I don't only pertain to you. And so two days later, and rain so bad they had to have me a brand new baseball every pitch, sliding up to my knee and mud. I hit 98 every time with my three kids being watched by half my high school team. And so it was cool to be a part of that. It was cool to watch those kids who, when I pushed them, they pushed back and we made each other better.

And as I'm watching going back, as I'm watching those kids celebrate that championship, for the first time my life and all those years it took me, lessons my grandparents taught me. It's not about me, it's about we. What can we do to win? And, you know, you're exactly right with every kid on a team. Some kids you need to bury a foot in and tell every single day what they need to do. Some kids need to tell once they run off and they do it.

And other kids know what they're doing. And you just, your best coaching is to leave them alone. Stay out of the way. And, but every, every kid is different. And every kid needs something different. And I think it's fun now to look back and see all those kids being successful in their lives now. And, you know, if I played a small part in that, that's awesome. but I just want them to know that when they pushed me

and I pushed them we made each other better we were a team you know the thing that I really love about this story Jim is I love the ending right I love the you know we'll get to the top of the mountain here in a second of that specific day in Arlington but to me what is most impressive about this story is your ability to show your raw authenticity to your kids there's so many coaches and so many baseball players

and baseball coaches in general we we operated in this huge ego and you know we don't we don't we don't connect well with other men sometimes right because our ego's too big and we don't acknowledge other men because we say well they're better than us so you know I need to you know be insecure about it or whatever the right choice of words is but what I'm hearing is you had such an ability just to be raw and authentic and vulnerable with those kids to a point where you humanize yourself more than any other coach

probably did in their lives. And they appreciated that about you. And I can imagine if I interviewed one of those kids, they'd probably say that's why we love Jim Morris is because when it got time for him to perform and walk the walk, he was scared. You know, he didn't hide from the fact that this, like he failed at it every other time he tried. But what happened was is you chose differently this time, right? You said you're going to do something and you led by example and you showed those kids. And anybody who watched the movie or followed your story that like you said,

your grandparents said, you can have anything you want, but you got to work for it. Yeah. You know, and to me, that is the most impressive part of it. And in hearing it and like the real side of it, It just, there are a lot of similarities to the movie. Yeah. You know, for instance, it's your turn. Well, that was in a locker room.

It really happened on a bus, but it still happened. And I believe your catcher in the movie did say, what about you, coach? You chase your dreams. This is all very awesome. You know, let me fast forward, you know, a little bit. I don't know how long you're in the minor leagues before this happened, but that moment that you got that phone call. that you was it actually in arlington um i was in triple a playoffs and playing for the durham bulls

and we're playing a charlotte nights if we win this game we go to the triple a world series if we lose we're out we lose and so we're at our lockers talking and bobby munoz who played in the big leagues was trying to get back after elbow surgery he and i are best friends in triple a and so i decided I'm going to ride back with him in his pickup. We had a lot of stuff with us just in case. And so we're sitting there talking about which direction we're going to drive home from Charlotte. When the manager comes up and taps me on the shoulder, he goes, I need to talk to you. And this is my sixth sense of humor, I guess.

I look around. I look back at him and I said, I don't think so. He goes, why not? Because the last six guys you talk to are all crying right now. I choose not to cry. He just shook his head on. He said, come on. and I walked in his office

and our big league general manager is there and he goes, you can smile, you're going to be in Texas tomorrow. And I didn't get it. And I go, I know that. Bobby and I are going there right now. And he goes, no, the big league team isn't Arlington

playing the Rangers. That's how I found out. And so instead of riding home with Bobby, I got a plane ride to Arlington the next morning. And it was so amazing. Johnny Oates, the opposing manager,

God rest is so let 150 people in the game that day that had ties to me. My kids that I coach were there. My kids were there. I hadn't seen them in three months. Kids that I coached against coaches that got in school buses in the middle of night and drove nine hours to the DFW area to see the coach who made a promise. And to me, that was just beyond awesome. And, you know, until that moment in time, this is where how,

non-baseball I was. And it shows Dennis getting out at the ballpark and then walking in through the gate. I didn't know this, but you go in underneath the stadium. Yeah. And they drive you in and here you go and they let you out in front of the door. I thought, this is awesome.

And then I got to sign my contract before I can walk into the clubhouse. And then I go into a clubhouse where there's Wade Boggs who just got his 3,000 hit. There's Fred McGriff, Roberto Hernandez, Jose Canseco, all these guys I've been watching on TV and now they're my teammates. And I have a group of high school kids and thank for that. You know, that's, excuse me, that right there because I'm a coach, that that hits differently.

You know, all too often, we hear parents come up to us and I still coach on a volunteer basis and they'll come up to me. And thank you so much for the impact that you've made on my son, my son this, my son, my son, at what you do for the kids. And I always look at them and say, serious? I was like, these kids save me. You know,

whenever I coach, like they give something to me and I come home and I'm in a better mood. They make my life better. And it's just that that's what you, you know, you had 13 high school kids to thank for that.

That is a life full of experiences. You know, your story has touched hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people since then. because of those 13 kids. Yeah. That's incredible to me. You know, I, what was that moment like, man?

You got called out of the bullpen. Let's let, well. The moment. The moment. I've thrown three days in a row in AAA, so I'm convincing myself. There's no way they're putting me in. And so for eight innings, I'm sitting in the bullpen talking to big league pitchers

about how to face the guys I might be facing if someday I face them. And eighth inning rings are like, Morris warm up and I'm like oh they just want me to warm up in front of 40,000 that's cool and two minutes later I'm in the game and I think that's when the size of it hit me because there are things that are normal that you remember since you were five like opening the bullpen and going in and smelling the dirt and the grass and the leather and the hot dogs and the popcorn to me that's baseball and what's what we used to play for a hot dog and a coke after a game And as I'm running to the mound, everything flashes in front of me, the steps I've taken, the wrong directions I've taken, how I got put back on course, that when I step my spikes under the door of the mound of the ballpark in Arlington, I'd come to one conclusion.

I would not change one thing about my journey because that made me who I am. And I am that person because of those kids. I never would have tried again. I mean, the doctors told me it was impossible. And to be able to come back and, you know, throw 98 to 102, that's pretty cool. That's a gift. That's a God-given gift. If I went out there and tried to throw 98, I'd be home crying, you know, in my bed at night because I'd be in so much pain.

You know, so, I mean, the fact that you could do that just shows that there's a higher power working, you know, and he really had his hands on you. And it's an inspirational story. I mean, it's, you know, I was in 99, so I was just in college, right? And I'm watching this whole thing unfold. You know, it's pretty darn cool. But now we're fast forward to today. And now you're an author of two amazing books. And the most recent one is Dreammakers.

And, you know, I can't even get my hands on it because it's in reprint, man. Like, what's going on? Like, this thing has already been sold out. What's this book about? Talk to the audience about it. Oh, for 20 years, during my speeches, when we do question and answer session after, people would go, the story is cool, the movie's awesome,

Dennis is great, what are you doing? What have you done since then? And so for 20 years, I had almost this whole book about what I've been doing since. And it took me until 2017 to get the answer. And so in 2020, the book came out during COVID. And we had all this. we're going to go do this.

We'll do these book tour and we'll sign our photographs and all that gets canned because everybody's stuck in their house. And so it was just by word of mouth. But it ended up being something that very few people know about. In 2001, I'd signed with the Dodgers and I probably would have made that team pretty easily. But I went from Chavez Ravine where we had Winterball and we were getting in shape and left and throwing and hitting every day to a five-day trek over to. to Viro Beach and in five days something happened to me that I had no idea. I had knew for no for two decades almost I didn't have any idea but I went from throwing 98 to 100 to not being able to play catch with the guy because I was afraid the ball he threw back

him he was going to hit me in the mouth and so we tell everybody that's my arm and Dr. Joe even goes along with it to his arm he's quitting but I was petrified if I throw a ball up there a hundred and they had it back back of me 120, like Mike's standing now. Jan Carlos Staten, I mean? Just, no, I'm not doing that. So I quit, I go home, eyesight starts going to win balance issues. And so we film the movie, we do all that,

and I'm still not feeling right and everything's off. Over the next 15 years and 70 surgeries later, I got diagnosed with Parkinson's. The drug they gave me, helped me with my symptoms, I could smell and taste for the first time in years, but now I killed my stomach so my stomach done it works. We have to have gastric bypass too. So they do a deep brain stimulator in me.

And they put two electrodes in my brain up here and a battery pack in my chest, which TSA loves, by the way, when you have a battery pack in your chest. And that became my medicine, was electricity to the brain because my dopamine was gone on the right side of my brain. And because my left hand was affected first, they said it was the right side. So I did this brain scan. drink this radioactive fluid. They do MRI on you and they go, yeah, you have no dopamine.

That's why you're shaking and your balances off. I got to the point I couldn't even button my own dress buttons on my shirts when I would go to speeches. So Shauna had to start traveling with me. And I stopped cooking because I couldn't smell and taste. And I knew the surgery and stuff that they said wouldn't come back did. Like the hospital is overflowing. And so they have way too many people in the recovery room. And the lady next to me tells this nurse, she goes, I have to pee.

She gets a bed pen and I smell pee. Now, most people would go, I don't want to smell pee, but for me to be able to smell for the first time in years, that was pretty cool. Right. I get to my room finally. My wife had bought Italian food for herself. And I smelled that, but I didn't tell her because I was scared it would go away. And when we finally went home, I could smell the Italian food you ate. And she goes, you can what?

I mean, I quit cooking and everything. And so there were all those things. And this is a time when doctors, I would get these headaches for six months at a time. They don't know why, but I have scarring on my brain. And that was part of my Parkinson's slot they put me in, was in the pain region. And so they were just throwing out opiates at me. And those weren't working. And so I was taking them like I was opposed to.

I didn't overtake those. But what I did do was I prescribed myself vodka to go along with the pills so I would feel better. Yeah. And I couldn't even get away from me, man. I couldn't walk. My dogs were tripped me every time I got up. So I end up in rehab at 52. And I think for the first time of my life at 52, I had to concentrate on me.

And I wasn't thinking about anybody else. I wasn't taking care of anybody else. This was the fractured child inside of a grown man who now had all these different problems and used something outside externally to make me feel better. And it wasn't working. and I will tell you this, I went to a faith-based place, and my guy, my counselor was a pastor, he loved baseball. He's been to every major league team,

has stuff in his office from every major league field. He looked at me, he goes, a great movie. Why are you here? And I said, I wasn't trying to die, but I wasn't trying to live either. I just stopped. He goes, well, do you have faith? And I said, absolutely.

I said, God's with me all the time. He goes, so if what I hear, hear you saying is that God is with you all the time. So he's like your co-pilot, right? And I said, yeah. He goes, if you're in a vehicle with God, why is he not driving? And I think that hit me in a way where it was just a light switch. And I was like, oh, I'm better than this. I let this beat me. And I don't need to let this beat me. And I was five and a half years ago. And I look back, it would probably save my life. And, but I will tell you since then, whether that was one of the, that was one of the chapters in the book that we got an ending to. God gave us two chapters in his infinite wisdom.

The other one was a faith chapter. If I go into everything that happened about me not having Parkinson's anymore, people are going to call you really mad, but I don't have Parkinson's anymore. That's fantastic. A set of circumstances bringing that up that just blew me away, and I didn't even believe in it happened to me. And I've been through some pretty amazing stuff at that top that even my dog heard it. And I had the only elective surgery I've ever had was in 2020 and they took the brain stimulator out. Wow. So I run, I lift, I walk, I do whatever I can, try to stay in shape, get back in shape, whatever a 58-year-old can do. I try to push the envelope and do more. And I don't have Parkinson's anymore. They did all the tests. They did a radiation test again.

Your dopamine levels are fine. This doesn't happen. We don't know what happened to you. you try to tell them and they're like we don't want to hear that but okay right of course well i mean i'm i'm speechless i had no idea about you know obviously any of this i mean nor what i think i would right um but this is more inspirational and in more impactful to me than the the the story that everybody knows about, which is your athletic journey. I mean, dude, people that know me very well are probably laughing, will be laughing at me when they hear this episode because I'm never speechless. But you're a guy that I definitely need in my life.

I mean, just what you've overcome and the story you just told me, people don't ever wake up not having Parkinson's again once they have it. Like that's impressive. That's incredible. You know, and it's just a testament to who you are. And I know you've had amazing support from your family. You know,

Shauna's amazing. She's such a sweet lady. I got to tell you, she's really, really sweet. I wish her happy Mother's Day on Facebook yesterday. Yeah, I'm in over my head.

Yeah, you are. Yeah, man, I definitely outkick my coverage. I outplayed my game with my wife. But, you know, I just, you know, guys that are, you know, guys and girls that are listening, you know, everybody in this world goes through adversity. They go through tragedy. And I think what we all hope to strive for is the mental fortitude, you know, have the faith

and to really choose how we feel every single day about who we are in our circumstances. we have the power to choose differently. You know, we can, we can choose to be upset or we can choose to fight. And like, Jim, you're the ultimate fighter man. For real. Thank you. Like, that's, that's awesome. So, so nowadays, we got, you know, we got to lay in the plane here because, you know,

we're on a schedule and I, if I could spend 70 hours with you, I would. But, you know, now you're speaking. And from what I understand, people can actually. book you to speak. So for my listeners that you own big companies or small businesses and you want to have the best individual come and speak to your sales force of your company, Jim's the guy. So how would they get in touch with you and to see if they would qualify for that type of event? Jim, the rookie morris.com. Perfect. Perfect. And what I'll do, Jim, is I'll make sure in the show notes that I put your website, the name of your book again. And hopefully you'll save me a copy.

Yeah. Okay. And maybe you're, I'll, you know, put your Instagram handle. I don't know how active you are on Instagram, but it's another way for people to connect with you and just kind of see what you're doing. But with that being said, guys, I encourage you to look deep within yourself. And if there's a dream that you are suppressing and not going after because someone either told you you couldn't do it or you're telling yourself that you can't do it, I encourage you to go out there and try because you never know if you don't. I mean, that's just you would rather go through life knowing that you tried and failed than to never have tried at all. And you'll never know. So, Jim, if you don't mind hanging out real quick after the recording. But guys, thanks again for listening. If you got anything out of this episode, please share it out to your friends, family, whoever, people definitely need to hear this episode.

And Jim, once again, thanks so much, brother. I'll see you guys soon.