THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Baseball Legend's UNSHAKEABLE Faith w/ Rod Carew

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

ROD CAREW will be the first person to tell you that he has led a BLESSED LIFE, though it has been anything but an easy life. For five years, when I was a young man pursuing my dream of playing baseball, Rod was my HITTING COACH, MENTOR, FRIEND, and a man I looked up to and ADMIRED deeply. I am not overstating things when I tell you Rod Carew is directly responsible for TRANSFORMING me into the man I am today. Not only are you about to hear an INSPIRING interview with tons of BASE HITS you can apply to your own life, but you’re also about to hear an INTENSELY PERSONAL AND EMOTIONAL interview for me as well. MY DEAR FRIEND HAS LED TWO LIVES. Millions of baseball fans know Rod Carew as one of the PUREST hitters and best hitters ever in baseball. His stats and approach to the game are LEGENDARY. During his 19-year career… --Rod won 7 batting titles, including hitting for a mind-blowing .388 AVERAGE one season and winning another title without hitting a single home run in another. --He batted .328 for his career, including hitting above .300 for 15 CONSECUTIVE SEASONS while racking up 3,053 CAREER HITS. --In 2016, in recognition of his prowess at the plate, the MLB American League Batting Champion award was renamed the Rod Carew Award. Fewer people know about the private side of Rod Carew. It’s there where you’ll find the INSPIRATIONAL and HEARTBREAKING chapters of his LIFE. You will draw STRENGTH as you listen to Rod describe his early life in Panama with an abusive father, creating emotional scars he would carry with him well into his adult life. Here’s a HUGE TAKEAWAY for every one of you… Rod never took for granted the GIFTS and OPPORTUNITIES he was given. You’ll be more than a little surprised to learn he took extra batting practice throughout his entire career, including on the day he RETIRED! And the story of how he got the best of NOLAN RYAN is pure gold. No parent should ever go through the pain of losing a child, but when Rod lost his daughter, Michelle, to leukemia, it took his life in a completely NEW DIRECTION. I will forever ADMIRE him for how he took such a tragic event and turned it into something POSITIVE to help so many others. You will also not believe how GOD INTERVENED when Rod had a massive heart attack, flatlining multiple times, and the REMARKABLE story that followed of how his heart transplant was a GIFT FROM GOD as well. After all his achievements and adversity, Rod will tell you that what has seen him through is his FAITH IN GOD. This faith has brought him immeasurable PEACE. And by hearing my friend’s story, I hope you can also OPEN YOUR MIND and discover what it takes to find GREATER PEACE IN YOUR OWN LIFE, too.   👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈  → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK  ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE  

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All of it's for $99 a month to month agreement. It's a killer to month agreement. It's a killer killer opportunity. So go to bambi.com slash my let right now to schedule your free HR audit. That's bambi.com slash my let right now that bambi b-a-m-b-e-e.com slash my let. All right, let's get into this awesome awesome life changing show for me. And I know it will be for you. Welcome back to the program, everybody. Today is a special day for me. It's a surreal day because not only is the man to my left, a major league baseball hall of favor. He's got 3,000 hits. He had 388 one year. He's one of the all-time greats in major league baseball, but he's been one of the

all-time most influential people in my life as a young man. He became a mentor to me. I haven't seen him in decades, and now he's in my living room on my show, which is this going to be an incredible experience. We're going to talk about his amazing. This will be one of those shows where if you're driving, you're going to pull over because you're going to lose your breath a few times about this man's life story, what he's learned, his lessons, and the incredible experience and journey that his life has been.

So everybody, this is Hall of Famer, Rod Kuru. Rod, thank you for being here, brother. Thanks for having me. So good to have you. It's surreal for me to have you here because probably somewhere in the show, there are weven and videos of me and you hitting together when we were little kids. You helped all these young men in your life. But he's got a book out called One Tough Out. And that is the perfect title because those of you that

may not know this, not only is the image of Lee Baseball Hall of Famer, but this man's lived through a massive heart attack that would have killed him if he was on the wrong golf hole. He's had a heart transplant. There's another heart in this man's body beating right next to me. He's also had the tragedy of losing his daughter Michelle to

leukemia. And so there's an awful lot of life lessons that could have taken this guy out that didn't. So we've got a lot to talk about today. I've been fortunate, you know, it's it's been great. When I tell people I am so blessed. I am so blessed. You feel blessed? Oh yes, I am so blessed because my mom always told me, God's gonna follow you for the rest of your life. And I believe it because of some of the things that I went through as a youngster growing up, trying to get to the big leagues.

He was right there with me. But what surprised me, I was reading about U-Rod, was you did have this amazing mother, but there's a lot of people listen to my show listen they've got a dream right now right they want to be a successful entrepreneur they want there to be well known on social media or they want to find their dream spouse they got a dream and they feel like a million miles from it and you end up becoming this Hall of Fame magely player. And for people that aren't my age,

I'm talking about one of the unbelievable hitters of all time in baseball. In fact, I was at your 3000th hit game against the twins, by the way, as an end center field when you got your 3000th hit. But you couldn't be further away. Rod is the only up until Mariana Rivera, Hall of Fame, or Ever from Panama.

And your dad wasn't a very supportive dude of yours at all. So what was it like having a dad that wasn't really, to put it mildly supportive, you talk about it in the book, and then to find yourself some day living this dream playing in front of these stadiums in Major League Baseball? I had an uncle that took interest in me.

And as I went to school, Jim classes, you know, he was in charge of the physical education part of the school. And my dad used to beat me. I mean, and he beat me with with everything that he could find. And there were days that, you know, we had this little window looking out and he always took this path. And at three o'clock I would sit up in that little window and just see how he was walking and I knew that I was in trouble that day. I might not have done anything but what happened at work, it brought it home to me. And I used to stand it to doorway.

I had a hose. I had a iron cord. I had a rope. So he could have his choice. Oh, my God. What are you going to use today? You would hold in your hands the weapon your father would use on. And he's just, yeah, let's go into the other room.

And, you know, I never had wealth or anything in my body, but I remember when I had my daughters and I used to go to the lake, they never saw me without my shirt because I still felt like the beatings they took back there, it's like a logically. I felt like I had a lot of scars back there. Wow. You know, so they, Daddy, why don't you take your shirt off? You know, jump, I'd always jump in with my shirt on. You're kidding me. Yeah, and so that went on for years, even when I played baseball. I never turned my back towards the players in

the shower. I always found a corner that I could stand in by myself with my back facing the wall. Because you're in the major leagues you would still not do this. Yes, right. It's crazy. He says, well, you don't have any scars and I says, yeah, but I go back to all those beatings I took on my back. Dennis screwed me up a little bit, but I wonder if it didn't though. One of your great legacies is how great, and by the way, now we're going to get into something that most of my audience will probably can't even believe when they hear this story. But one of the great things about your legacy,

and I'm one of these children, is how kind you were to children as a player and after your career. And I wonder if that, I may be even a career writer. That was a promise. What do you mean? I made to myself.

You did. That every child that I meet, I'm gonna make him feel good about himself. I don't care from what type of background. I'm going to make him feel like, you know, he's a big shot. You know, because I knew I was coming from some tough things in my life that I know how you can hurt kids and ruin kids' lives. And, you know, I was fortunate that if God wasn't in my pocket,

I don't know where I would have been. I'm one of those kids. Well, thank you. I'm one of those kids. We would certainly not be sitting here right now in my home together. Had you not been so kind to me and built me up at a time where I have a great dad, but he was an alcoholic in those years. And so was mine.

Was he? Yeah. Yeah. And you provided, for me, at that age, exactly what you just described, you made me feel like a big deal. You made me feel important. You made me feel very special.

And so thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. And I did it because of what I have had in here before. I went through the transplant. You know, just a good heart. Baseball player, one of the greatest hitters of all time. And I'm in the cage. I'm hitting.

I'm hitting like this. And behind me, I hear a man say, who's the little lefty? Who's the little lefty? And I go, oh, that's a little leddy. And I I hear him talking and I hit another one, line drive up the middle, line drive up the middle. And all I'm thinking about is what had happened to me that day. Still wearing the same jock strap, by the way. Line drive up the middle. Just one of those dream moments, right? And the guy goes, I like this kid swing and I look and turn to the batting cage and guess who's standing there? Rod Koo, number 29, and he goes, hey kid, where did you learn to hit like that?

I said, oh my God, I said I learned by watching you, he goes, let's hit a few more. And he stood the great Rod Karoo, stand right there, because let's hit a few more. He goes, I like your swing, he goes flatten the bat out a little bit, spread your right foot out, open your toe. Psh, I'm going. That's why I grew. Psh, and he goes, you're good. You're really good.

I think you could be a great player someday. And he didn't stop at that. He said in fact, would you like me to work with you? Oh, I went, yes. He goes, well, here's what I do. When I'm in town on Tuesday nights, they come over to my cages and I work with about five, six guys, just like you.

I'd love to work with you. Can you be there next Tuesday? Yes, sir, I could be there. And for the next five years of my life, my baseball mentor, my life mentor became Rod Kru. And I'd sit in the batting cage with Rod. I'd sit in the cage with Rod. and he'd tell me exactly what to do but on that he goes, you're out working everybody buddy, you're going to do something great someday with your

work ethic, you're going to do something great, you're going to be a great college player. Every Tuesday it was a town, every Tuesday for years. And this man took this shy boy who had just had that experience in baseball over the next five years constantly loved on me, constantly told me how great I was, constantly told me, believe it, and because of what a powerful example he was, when you have one of the five greatest hitters in the history of baseball, tell you you're great, you believe it. You did have a good heart and you do have a good heart and that's probably where we need to go. We need to talk about this heart thing because guys if you've

ever believed in, I don't know, if you believe in karma, if you believe in you reap what you sow, I'm a product of your kindness. And maybe if you didn't have that dad who you'd hand the weapons to to beat you, maybe you wouldn't have been so aware to be kind to all of these children. But this part right here, guys, this is going to take your breath away. So let's, let's go to the heart. Let's talk about the heart for a minute. And so you are, and by the way, it's hard to really get, you're Rod Caru, right? So you're playing golf one day. And I'm going to let you take them through the story, but you know, we're playing golf like probably any other day that you've played golf before. And let's tell everybody what happened.

The night before we had a program at the stadium, the leukemia lymphoma walk. And I joined at Dennis' school, one of the presidents of the angels, and we put on this big event at the ballpark where you could rent a spot and you could make t-shirts for whatever group you're walking for. So we had a good night and then I decided to go home and think about playing golf by myself because I was too embarrassed that you know I wasn't good enough to be playing with people. Yeah because right? Yeah, because one time we got looked at me and he says, you were an athlete. Yeah, same big sister. Yeah, I said, yeah, I said, you know, but, you know, we all don't do to play the same games the right way. I said, I played military golf, you know,

left, right? You know, and I still have fun, you know. Right. But I got up the next morning about five o'clock. Okay. And I thought, well, I know this slow course in Corona that can go on, I can play by myself and nobody can watch me. So I was the first person at the golf course at morning at 5.30. Okay.

And I went out to the first tee and I hit a ball straight down the middle and I said, you gotta be kidding me because usually I'm slicing or cutting or whatever. But it went straight down the middle. So I said, well that's good. I just go out and hit my ball out of the fairway. But before I did that, I was put my club back into my golf bag. And all of a sudden, my hands got clammy.

You know, I never felt anything like it. And then I had an indigestion burn in my chest. When I said, boy, that's strange. But before that, I went out with his friend of mine. And he was in Vegas for the weekend, and he was playing crafts, and he was winning, and all of a sudden he felt something different in his chest.

And so he picked his money up, went up to the doctor at the hotel and it says, you have a problem. So the best thing to do is when you get home, go see your cardiologist and get it taken care of. And he had about a 90% blockage. Oh my gosh. And that came back to me right away. You feel something funny? Go see your doctor right away. So I backed the car, I was on the first hole, backed the car up to the clubhouse, got off. I went into the, there was this 14 year old kid

and this lady getting everything ready for today's people that were coming in. So I walked ten and I said, man, would you please call a paramedics? And she says, okay. She gets on the phone and she was talking to her husband and the kid left it her and says, did you call a paramedics for him? And she says, I'm talking to my husband, but he needs a paramedic. And then she, when she got off the phone, she told the little boy and I that her husband

was a paramedic and he was asking her questions about me, you know, what color my hands and my lips and all this stuff. And so then she called a paramedics and sure enough. She laid me down on the floor with my legs propped up. And it seemed like when she did that the paramedics were already there. But I had flatlined. You flatlined? Yeah. And they came in and they brought me back. My gosh.

And so while they're working on me, all I could hear was this voice yelling, let's go, let's go, we're losing them, we're losing them. And I flat-lined again. They brought me back and the guys were talking to me and telling me I'm going to be okay, telling me I was going to be okay. And at the same time, the only thing that came to my mind

was I've got to make sure that Rhonda is available and they can pick my phone up and look for Ice Honey. They'll look for Mrs. Kerr, who looked for Ice Honey and call her. Yeah, so going back, I remember when Michelle was in the hospital. Michelle's daughter. Michelle's my youngest one that died.

And she would say, I'd be laying in bed with her and we're doing crosswords from the inquirer and the star because she was in there all the time. And she loved doing those crosswords, so I would lay him and do it with her. And then she says, you know, pop, you can't see it right now, but right over in the corner is my guardian angel. And he's got the slight shining glitter around him. And he's sitting there like this and he's praying for me,

but you can't see him. I said, okay, what hit me was, oh boy, she's been on a lot of drugs, so maybe she's imagining these things. But as these paramedics were working on me, one of them had a light around his whole body, and I said to myself, myself, I'm going to be okay because that's my garden angel. Wow. You know, so all of a sudden you flash back to laying a bed with her and the guardian angel. Oh my gosh. And so after we, you know, they got me going again and they were getting ready to put me in the ambulance to transport me

to the hospital. I flatlined again. I flatlined three times. And I wasn't worried. You weren't. No, because I said, Father, you can take me anytime. I'm ready to go when you want to take me. And as I'm laying in the hospital in Riverside, all these thoughts came rushing back, you know, that I've got a guardian angel. Oh my goodness. I know that, as my mom had said, God's going to be in your pocket the rest of your life, he was there. So I wasn't afraid. I didn't. Did you have a sense it also just wasn't your time to go yet?

Yes. And he's keeping me here to do more things for him. Wow. That was my first thought, because after I came out of it, I yelled out to my wife, I said, honey, he's not ready for me yet. He says he's leaving me here to do more of his work. Oh my gosh. And I said, what are you talking about?

I said, you know, God, God doesn't want to take me yet. He's going to leave me for a little bit more time to do some more of his work. She says, okay. And then. But you knew. I knew it. It's amazing to me because we're going to talk about Michelle

a little bit later, but the idea that as you're going through this, your life-sending Your life technically ended three times. Yeah, that you flash back to you laying in bed with your beautiful young daughter who's dying as well and her Sort of ironically during this moment comforting you reminding you of that guardian angel back then is just Life's full circle. I also have this bizarre feeling that part of that work is just me and you talking today and this going to millions

of people. That was one of the other reasons God kept you here. But I guess I have to say everybody this as unbelievable as that is. By the way, if you're on the third or fourth hole, you probably are gone. Yes, because there's no one out there. So you be gone. So it was on the first hole. Clubhouse is right there. Incredible. Yeah. It's incredible. Because that's what I tell people. I say, you know, if I was on the second hole, the third hole, they would have found me dead out there and probably sprawled out on the tee box. Hopefully you will have hit one of the straight shots before. Hopefully. It wasn't one of those out of bound slices the wrong way.

By the way, just curious, you play left or right handed. Left handed. You play left like I do. Yeah, the only thing I do left handed is hit and play golf. All right. Everything else is right handed. Yeah, well you were good at hitting by the way. Now as crazy as that story is, this idea of the law of reciprocity you re-put you so

planting seeds that are harvested, karma, et cetera, is about to blow everybody's mind. All day long, people in my show, there's good people, just every day making deposits in God's kingdom, doing something good, holding the door open, complimenting somebody, texting someone, saying, I love you, I'm thinking about you, these little things we do every day

that, you know, for us, it's just the goodness that we do. We don't think about what the ramifications of those good deeds could be. And I'm one of those children that you helped, but there was another one. And so now you've had this heart event. You need a new heart. You need a new heart. You're going to... That's still on the way I can go on.

The only way that you can live. And the place in which you receive this heart from is one of the all-time in-life greatest stories ever because again it's connected to just one of these children that you were just kind to. So tell us everybody the story of how you ended up with your heart and who it came from. I went to watch my son play basketball at preschool. So I got there a little early and I was walking around the campus. And this little boy was out there running around and he comes up to me and he says,

your rod career, aren't you? I said, yeah, I said, who are you? I can't talk right now. I said, why not? It's just because you're a rod career, so I can't talk. I relate to that. Yeah. So his mom came to pick him up and that's all she said

he talked about. I met Rod Carousa today. That dinner, I met Rod Carousa. You guys own Rod Carousa. I know Rod Carousa. I met Rod Carousa today. And he's just on and on. After that, I never saw that kid again.

And so when I was looking for a heart, he had grown up and he started playing football. And he was waiting to sign with New England Patriots. So he was working out. He had a seizure. And he wasn't lucky because he passed away from it. And so the day of the funeral, I was in the hospital, and kids were talking about, you know, his heart, and what they were going to do with his body

and different things, and talking to his mom. And she says that, I want my son to get someone that's deserving of his heart. We didn't know what was going to happen. It's one of those things that my wife sat and my wife knew the lady. They started being in contact with each other. And she says, I want my son's heart going to your husband. Here's a little boy that I met when he was about 11 years old. And here I am. Now I'm in my 40s or 50s.

And he comes back into my life, incredible, to give me his heart, incredible. I said, Father, thank you. Unbelievable. I will continue doing your work, Father, and thank you for giving me a second chance at life. Unbelievable. It's absolutely impossible to believe if it weren't true, and I'm sitting next to you,

and his heart is beating in your chest right now, as you're talking to me. His name is again. Conrad ruling. Unbelievable. And it's amazing because now we became two families knit together wherever I go. Conrad's right there with me. He's right there with you. It's truly one of the your life story, that story, that fact that I'm sitting here with you, that Conrad sitting here with us, the fact that I've seen his mother literally put her head up on your chest and listen to her son's heart beating in your body, true. So true, because when I got out of the hospital, that's the first place we went, I got out of the hospital, that's the first place we went. Was to visit his mom and she asked me if it's okay for her to listen to Conrad.

I says, you can listen to Conrad's heart anytime you want to just call me and I'll be here. What is your takeaway from, you had a near death experience, you had a heart attack, you've had a heart transplant from a child who you were kind to as a young man. You've left Panama where basically you had this huge dream to play in the major league, you couldn't even watch it on television, you had to listen to it on the radio, then you're

in these stadiums. What do you, what if you, what is, you've had this experience, it's just, you have to read one tough out and I'm not promoting a book. It's just, this is not fiction. If this was a movie, people go, this is like a Disney movie, forget it. There's no way this is true. It's corny, except it's actually true. And I'm actually sitting here with you right now.

And you know, it's, when I was a kid growing up, every time that I took the field to play baseball, it was like, I was better than everybody else. It's got to give me this talent and say, here, this is your gift from me, work at it, and continue to better yourself. And I did. You did.

I took extra bad in practice every day of my 19 years in baseball. Extra every day. Every day. And also the day that I retired, I took extra bad in practice. The day you retired you took extra bad, you did one more.

One more. Because I was given this gift and I didn't want to just say, okay, you know, it's all over and done with, but I still had that energy inside of me that I wanted to do more. That's incredible. You know, and-

I'm writing a book right now called The Power of One More. And so the fact that you say this, it's something I learned from you, is that you don't remember this, but we'd be hitting, and even if I hit a good last one, you always go, let's do one more, and we'd hit one more. And I have taken that since I was a little boy into business, I'm gonna make one more phone call.

If I'm running on the treadmill at the gym, it's 30 minutes ago, let's do one more minute. And the fact that you're now telling me that you retired and you took one more round of extra batting practice. Yes. I was never satisfied. I knew the gift that I had. And I knew that I probably could have just

gone through life and and being a mediocre hitter, but I wanted to be the best. You want to be great? Yes. I wanted to be in the class of Willem A.s and Hank here and in Babe Ruth and Jack Erovenson and all these guys But you and you are you know it's interesting to me that people that are listening or watching this right now and they're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same.

They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same.

They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. your job. There's a chance to improve your financial. There's someone you could meet and it's that treating it as precious and doing the extra because I'll bet you played with

We won't name who they are, but you played with other guys who had a gift similar to yours Oh, yeah, and they didn't take the extra batting practice They did not work in the offseason. And I used to tell this one player and in particular, you are going to be out of this game by age 32. I said, God has given you everything. You can throw the ball as well as anybody you can hit. You can run, you can field, but you're not using it. He says, well, you know, it's okay. I said, no, it's not okay. You've got to tell him, strive to be greater than some of these other guys that don't care, you know, but he was out of the game at age 32. He really was. It really was. And you have this unbelievable

curve. How many, how many, you have seven batting titles? Right. So guys, in fact, correct me if I'm wrong. The batting title in the American League is now the Rod Crew Award. They've literally named the batting title every year after this man sitting here. Am I right about this?

That kind of means you were pretty good. Yeah. And my buddy Tony Gwynn, who they named it after nationally. Who's a lot like you. Left and right didn't hit for a lot of power, had to grind, had to work hard, incredible student of hitting. And we worked the same, we worked the same way every single day. We were working on something, you know, because so many young players can look at videos and they

want to pick everything or pick themselves apart, you know, instead of looking for one thing that, okay, I'm going to look for this so that I can go out and spend some time working on it and getting comfortable with it and making the adjustment to make myself better. Would you always be learning even late in your career? You've already hit 388 one year, you've led the league and hitting all these times where you still trying to find those little inches to improve upon all the time. Every time I went out, it was to improve myself. I'll tell you a story about Nolan Ryan and I had this thing between us. I'm number four on his strikeout list. You struck me

out 29 times. But I ended up hitting 300 off of. Because when I first came up to the league, I used to hold my hands up high. You did? Yeah. You didn't have the flat back, you know? No, my hands were up high. And so that's why Nolan struck me out so many times because I tried to hit that high fastball

and there was no catching up. He's bringing me. Oh. And so I decided I've got to make an adjustment. So about three weeks, I took bad impact, extra bad impact is sitting on a stool that swiveled. OK. And that kept me down.

That's why I developed that unorthodox stance. Wait, you're telling me your whole hitting style that you're known for was born out of an adjustment to be able to hit against someone like Nolan Wright or actually Nolan Wright. Yes. And so, wow. You know, I would take XRBP and I stay down.

I couldn't come up. And I did it for about three weeks. And then the first time I faced Noley, I got two hits. Ah! Ah! And then the next time I faced him, I got three hits. And I remember this one game, he threw me a change up and I bunned it down the third base line for a base hit. And he came over towards first base and he's rubbing the ball.

He said, he's supposed to swing at that pitch, not bunny. I got a hit that night. So people that don't know, no one rides one of the all-time great intimidators, no hit machine through heart. I'm believe it will, by the way, how many guys throw hard nowadays? The amount of velocity now, guys coming out of the pen throwing 99 a hundred miles an hour, it's unbelievable to get the difference is they don't do it consistently They don't throw strikes consistently. They're not pitching today. They're just throwing throwing. Yeah, you know and Very interesting anyway to go on with with the Nolan story We were playing this game in Minnesota and he was

pitching. The first time I get a base set, the second time I go up to the plate and he's yelling at me from the mound, stand up, stand up. And I say, no, bring it down. And that's how I developed that on orthodox style. That's amazing to me. Because I had to make an adjustment. Wow.

You know, and I made the adjustment and greater things started happening. It's amazing to me how critical that point is and every area of our life is just making adjustments. Like for me, even in my speaking, when I was a young man, I'd speak on stasers, a certain style of, you know, bravado and intensity. And over me, even in my speaking, when I was a young man, I'd speak on Stasers, a certain style of, you know, bravado and intensity.

And over time, I thought, and mainly the people I would reach were young, intense males. And then I started to think, I'd like to reach a broader audience of people that, with my message, I had to make an adjustment in the way I communicate.

Now my audience is actually more women than it is men. And I attribute that to the adjustments. In business, it's constantly constantly Mike Tyson has that great saying where he says everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. You have to make adjustments in life and business if you're listening to this.

Maybe there's adjustments that you need to be making that you're not aware of, that you're not thinking about, that you're not thinking about in advance. Also, one other thing I've always wanted to ask you that baseball is a different sport and people that aren't fans of every sport, maybe you need this nuance isn't obvious to you. But football, they're going to play 16-18 games now.

There's a game on a Sunday. We all work towards that Sunday. There's an event we have at the, and there's a playoff. Most sports are that way. Baseball is a grind. You're playing 162 games in a very short window of time. And there's a grind. There's a, you have to maintain an emotional level

of control throughout a season. And most people, a lot of big league players, even struggle with that. How did you maintain emotional control through slumps, through ups and downs, through a full season, and then through a career as long as yours as well? Well, to me, it wasn't a job. To me, it was just a little boy's game at Camp Inello's set.

Little boys, baseball's a game, little boys play. I never can tell you that I've gone through a slump where it has kind of knocked me off my heels and pushed me back. Because I remember I was the the longest streak I think I had as a hiter, I was old for 17. That was your longest slump? Yeah. The longest.

Four games. So, I hate you. So, the 18th time, I dropped a bump down for a base hit. Made an adjustment. So the 18th time, I dropped a bump down for a base set. Made an adjustment. I hit a high chopper, didn't leave the infield for a base set. I dropped another bump down for a base set. And I had another high chopper for a base set. Not one of those balls left to infield.

But while I was going through this old for 17, I was hitting line drives and we were going right at somebody. Yeah. And great lesson. So guys, how do you do that? This is well, I work on my bunning. So if I'm not getting hit, swinging the bat, I'm going to the next dimension. I think there's a lesson there, Rod.

And I always go back to like, okay, how's this applied to other things? And that it's true in business. We're always trying to hit these big home runs and what you feel like things are slipping. Just get some bass hits, get a sail, get an account, get some momentum, get in early, make extra phone calls, do the extra email.

Just lay the bunk down, get some momentum going. Because sometimes the slumpier in in business, you're hitting line drives. it's just not the time. Right. It's just timing, it's just things aren't, it's not always you're doing something wrong, maybe it's just bad timing right now, keep making adjustments, et cetera.

And you know, the difference about me and other players is I had the six tool. Which was? You know, they always say you have the five tools. The six tool was this. Your mind. I never let my mind get me in trouble. I stayed positive all the way.

I knew, yeah, I'm going to make out. This is a game that three out of 10 and you're successful. Yeah. You know what I'm not gonna worry about days that I don't get a hit. You know, like some guys, all of a sudden it's panic. You're right. You know, they panic.

What am I doing with them? You see, do you see something? No, you're just hitting them all good, but you're hitting them right at somebody. So. You think the mental part of your game was the separate part of your game? Definitely. And I tell kids that today.

I say, this is the most important tool. You can do everything else, but if you can't control what's going on up here, things are going to be tough. One million percent. By the way, those of you who are listening to audio, he's pointing at his head and he's talking about how important the mental part of the game is, maintaining emotional control, not stacking worries and thoughts that get bigger than they need to be. It's amazing to me. I work with a lot of athletes on their mental game and people will ask me, you know, what are you really working with them when you're if it's a UFC fighter or a boxer or a golfer?

And I'll tell them often, the main thing we work on is their confidence. People say to me there's no way confidence at that level of play. Yes, confidence at that level of play is even fragile for many athletes as well. So is that not true? You're in dugouts with guys all the time. Oh geez. Yeah. And I listen to them talk. This is hey dude. He pointed his head. It's a point play. Yeah. Yeah. 100% the mental side of the game. He says, hey, dude. He pointed his head. He pointed his head. Yeah, 100% the mental side of the game. I want to ask you about the hardest part,

I think, probably of your life, and I could be wrong, but speaking about mental toughness, which is, so guys, this man goes through this heart transplant, he ends up getting the heart from a child, he was kind to, it's just bananas. If he's on the second hole, he's gone. He reverts back to the guardian angels of Michelle. And at the time when Michelle was struggling with leukemia,

it became another national story. This was not some secret thing. This was something that I was following that people all across the world, you were getting letters and mail and all these other things. I have to think that during that time, your mental emotional control was tested the most then. This is not a major league baseball game. This is your little girl struggling

and dying and I'm sure in a great deal of pain and I don't want to be too personal about it but there are people right now listening to this that are going through their form of tragedy, a business failure, a divorce and illness in their family. I just lost my dad recently. What was that time like for you and what were the lessons and takeaways that you took from it? It was easy for me because she brought me into her fold. You know, she knew I didn't talk to the press much and she knew that it's going to be stretching the limit for me to be talking to a radio person or a writer or somebody about what she's going through.

But when I was checking her into Children's Hospital in Orange County, all these kids were there, like, 10 kids out and all the way way kicking soccer balls. They have their poles and they're kicking soccer balls And some of them are wiffl bats and all this stuff and she just walks up to me and she taps me in my shoulder and she says daddy You've got to start talking to the press See all these kids Maybe we can save some of their lives. So she came to me and told me. And I said, OK, honey, I promise you that from today on,

until the day I die, I will give my full efforts towards helping kids. And she says, you promised me, I said, I promised you. My gosh. You know, because I never spoke to the press. I know. I kind of stayed away from them. And when she asked me to do that, I said, I will. I promise you, I will. You know, and for all the time she spent in the hospital, I remember that first day when she found out that she had leukemia when the doctor told her.

And she says, well, what do we do? Doctors say, well, we'll try and clean it up and make you better. She says, okay, let's go. Didn't cry nothing, not for the time that she was in the hospital. She did not cry one single day. Now one single day, you know, and the week that she died, I went down to the chapel and

I asked God to take her. He did. I said, Father, please take her. She's suffering. And I don't Father, please take her. She's suffering. And I don't want her to suffer anymore. So would you take her and put her in your garden? And he gave us another week with her. And then we found a four out of five cord blood that we were going to use to instead of

the marrow. She couldn't find anyone with a marrow to save her life. And when she was walking in that room, she said, Dad, I know that I'm not coming out of their life. She said, come on, God's going to be with you. She says, Dad, I'm not coming out of their lives. And I know that God's gonna be with me. So I'm not gonna worry. Here's a 19 year old kid talking to me like that, to her dad.

And I'm like, you're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay. But she knew, when she, when in that room, she knew she was gonna die. You know? Just like you knew you weren't when you had your heart attack. Yeah. What an amazing story. You've just honored her so well with your life because you've done, guys, if you just do a simple Google search, you'll see all the tireless

thousands of hours Rod's put into doing things for children and how you've honored her, you know, little one-on-one things, things at the stadium like you were talking about. The thing you were doing the night before your heart attack was an extension of the promise that you made to her in the hospital. And you know, it's funny. I remember driving down the five freeway, I had gone to Washington and spoke in front of Congress about raising funds for NIH. And then I got a call, my agent called me and he says, guess what?

They just passed a $50 million bill for the kids. That's crazy. And I opened my son Roof. I said, honey, thank so much. We did it again. You know, and that's the way it was. And even today, some nights, you know, I'm sitting at home and I don't have anything to do.

I get in my car, I go for a drive and says, Pish, how are you doing? I used to call her Pish. How are you doing? I said, I'm hanging in there and says, Pish, how you doing? I used to call her Pish. How you doing? This is I'm hanging in there and I talk to her. You really? You know, yeah.

I do it many nights. You know, and it makes me feel good. You know, and I'm sure she's saying, I'm proud of you dad. I'm proud of you. I'm sure she's doing what you're doing. We're doing it right now. Yeah, I'm proud of you, dad. I'm proud of you. I'm sure she's doing what you're doing. We're doing it right now. Yeah.

I'm proud of you. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. You changed my life. And I just thank you. And today, not often in interviews, brother, where I kind of lose my ability to articulate words of how I really feel about somebody or something, but you've had this. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine.

I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine.

I'm a very good friend of mine. I'm a very good friend of mine. And I would not be here without you. I would not be, I'll get emotional if I go any further than that. And there's, you would not be here, had you not planted those seeds and had the heart that's in your chest. You've had this amazing life rod. I mean, you've had this, you're beaten as a young boy,

you come from a place that no one ever made it in Major League Baseball, the way you did before. You have this unbelievable career, the career ends, you then have this amazing legacy of what you do with children. Then you have this whole other chapter of your life where you lose a daughter, which is the worst thing a parent can ever have happen in their life is to lose a child. And then you have a way of honoring her that's just remarkable and a piece about it. Then you have this other chapter of your life where you have this heart attack and a heart transplant

that's connected to a child that you reached out to. And now I feel like then you then one tough out. By the way, now that you've heard this man's story, would you agree this is he is a tough out? He was a tough out at the plate, but he's been even tougher out in life. And then now there's this other season now where being here with me today and sharing this story is just another chapter in your life and I'm just curious, I'm sure everybody would love to know the answer to this and just what your thoughts are. Obviously faith has been the center of your life. What life advice do you have of any type that there's been this ride that's just it it wouldn't make it past a producer's desk for a script because it's so

unbelievable and yet and even our little version of our story that we're here today what have you learned in life that we haven't covered today that you would you know you'd leave if you could have a message your son sitting here today with us and I'm sure there's things that you know, less than you've been parted on to him. If this whole audience was your son's, guys like me that have all been kind of extensions of your sons in your life, your actual son is here today with us physically.

What would you advice you give all of us to just about life and the pursuit of doing something great in our lives? Have faith in our friend upstairs. If you can maintain that faith. It's the greatest gift that you get from God. Because I've had faith throughout everything that I do. Growing up, taking beatings from my dad, playing baseball, leaving the country and coming here and doing working

with different organizations to make the dreams of kids come through. Because they all have dreams like I had a dream when I was a seven-year-old, and my dream was to be a baseball player, to play in front of 50,000 people. And my mom used to say to me, you think you can really do that? And I said, you're going to be there when I'm playing in front of big crowds. And so when I played in front of like 50,000 people in New York, and she was in New York, she just shook her head. She couldn't believe it. You know, she says, you've made it, you've done it.

And I say, mom, that's because of you. Because of what you've taught me and showed me along the way. And the faith that you had in me and faith that you put in me to be God's Son. That's what's it has done. Brother, it can't really be this good today. I mean, just it's been unfreaking believable and I just am really grateful for you in my life. I love you and I'm very, very

I'm proud of you and I know what you're saying. I'm proud of you and I know most importantly, God so proud of you brother, you're shining. You're shining again. You're shining when you got over there and had your first at bat in the big leagues all the way through all those years. And here we are in your mid-70s and you're shining even brighter now. so I just want to say thank you. Oh, pleasure's mine and I hope that with this that we can help other people. Yeah. We can have people sit down and think about their lives and what God means to them. And the faith that they have to have in themselves and you know that's what's all about. Yes, I don't hope it. I know we did it today. I know you did it today. God's all over this

conversation. So thank you Rod. Everybody I have no words. Obviously it's a very emotional show for me today. If it affected you I hope that you have a heart to share it with somebody you care about or a lot of people that you care about. This is one of those shows that should be played over and over. You should share it with your children, with your family, with your business partners. And I hope that you subscribe to the show. And this is why I do it. Today is the reason that I do the show. These types of conversations that you'll get once in your lifetime.

So God bless you all. Max out. [♪ Music playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in the background, playing in