Latest / Foul Territory / Former 2x World Series champ Scott Spiezio joins Halo Territory

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Former 2x World Series champ Scott Spiezio joins Halo Territory · Foul Territory

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Play Angel fans in Welcome back to Halo Territory.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I am Mike D.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Giovanna, former Eli Times Baseball writer and host of the show,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: joined by Sam Blum of The Athletic, a regular HT contributor,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and if you're watching on YouTube you can see we
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: have a very special guest today, Scott Spiezio, the former
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Angels slugger World Series hero speez. Thanks for joining us.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: How you doing today?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I'm doing fantastic busy, but it's always it's always an
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: honored to be able to talk to you too and
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: share some fun stories.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll get right to it as you. As
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: all fans know, Scott is a two time World Series
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: champion with the Angels in twenty two thousand and two
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and Saint Louis Cardinals and six. He hit the biggest
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: home run in Angels franchise history that three runs shot
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to spark the Angels comeback from a five to nothing
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: deficit in game of the two World Series. But soon
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: after he rose to the top of the game, he
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: hit rock bottom, experiencing alcohol and cocaine addictions, financial hardship,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: eleven rehabs, two divorces, multiple arrests, and the estrangement of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: several family members. We are happy to report that Scott
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: has come out on the other side of all that
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and as authored a memoir titled The Hardest Comeback, which
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: was released on July twenty eighth, and he's also the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: subject of a documentary titled Spizio, which will premiere on
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: September tenth. Scott, fans remember your clutch moments in the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: World Series with both the Angels and the Cardinals. But
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: your biggest comeback happened after baseball. Why didn't you decide
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: this was the right time to tell your story?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean we you know, we started telling the story.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I mean when when Sam you know, came and came
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: to more big old town Moors, Illinois and it wrote
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: a great story, you know in the Athletic in in
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the New York Times. Uh, you know, put it out
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: there as well and picked it up, and boy, we
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: got a lot of traction. And you know, Sam said
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: we would. He's like, man, you know, we put this out,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: you're gonna get a lot of traction.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Uh. Of course Sam.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Sam didn't want to write the book though, but uh,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: well we did talk about a little bit, right, But
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I think you had so much going on. Uh, but
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: you know, I actually after that, I just knew that
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: it was probably time to get moving on it. I'd
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: reached out to a couple of people. There was a
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: girl from my church that had written two books. Uh,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: she had ghost written two books for a pastor and
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: uh I asked her to do it and she said
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: no as well.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I talked to that the guy that did Left Behind series,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Jenkins I think is his name. I can't remember his
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: first name, but like he was too busy, and uh
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: so I just kept, you know, just kept thinking of ideas,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: talked to some different publishers, and then uh, Leslie Butcher,
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: who wrote who co authored my book, she said, hey,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: I got somebody that you know, uh, wanted to do
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: a capstone project for their for their their degree, to
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: finish their degree, and wants to do a documentary. Would
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: you be interested? And I said, yeah, I'd definitely be interested.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: And so we started with that and then after that,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Leslie's like, we got to get this down and so
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: we we spent you know, eight months to ten year,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: eight well probably about a year, maybe over a year now,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: it's been a long time we've been working on it.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: And you know, man, I have a lot of appreciation
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: for what you guys do. That is not easy writing. Yeah,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and then you know fact checking and editing.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I thought that would be the that
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: was the hardest part. I think.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Let's give viewers and listeners a little preview of the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: documentary is about a two minute trailer for the movie Spezia.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, Scott Spiezio, I'll take ten more.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Just like it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: When he became our teammate, he was awesome right away.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Personality funny, but boy, he was intense, and his work
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: was intense, and his commitment was intense.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: And his dad knew kind of the roadmap that he
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: needed to do to get where he wanted to be.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: My dad would tell me, envision great things, envision things
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: in the future. So I didn't vision myself hitting home
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: runs in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: This is a big at bat for Scott Spezio.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: We'd always end every practice three two counts, two out, spaces.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Loaded down one in.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Seven of the World Series, what do you do with
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: two on one out, seventh inning and Spezio at the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: play Speezio and it's one in the deep right.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I was literally praying, like God, please push this out,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: like let this go.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, just unbelievable.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: One of the biggest moments in our lives.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I think now they call it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: The greatest home I ever hit in Angel Stadium.
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: Like everybody wants this guy's life right, like he's he's
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: cool on the other side of the pillow man.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden boom.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what's happened to him. This
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: is not him, This is not Scott.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like Scotty. Why why is this going on?
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: It was just all a slow moving train wreck. What
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: changed in the window between his two World Series wins?
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do this.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Wow?
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Well that's uh.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: That was that was unbelievable. I mean, I mean I
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: I saw some of that, some of the spots and
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: Morris it was covered in snow though. I mean, you know, yeah, Scott,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Like I just want to say, you know, your story
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: is just I think I think people don't really always
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: understand addiction. You can, you know it exists. I think
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: you can internalize that it's it's out there that people
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: experience it. But I think you you coming out and
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: sharing your story is it's unbelievably important, and the way
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: you've done it just so transparently, even even like the
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: really really ugly parts of it. That was my experience
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: with going with you, and I was just like it
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: was so inspiring. And I think you having this book
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: and having this documentary. I'm sorry I wasn't part of
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: the book, but I do think, like, I'm just so
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: happy it's out there. So congratulations. Really it's awesome. I'm curious, like, yeah, no,
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: I thank you. And I'm curious if you take us
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: back to like kind of the origins of this of this,
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: you know, I mean it was alluded to in the documentary,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: just like all the things that that kind of started
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: happening for you. But if you can take us back
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: to two thousand and four, you know, I think it
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: was with the Mariners, So what kind of spurred your
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: addiction and you know, let it begin spiraling?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean if you talked to and you know,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you know, you guys both know the story. But you know,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: if you talk to anybody with the A's or you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: in college or with the angels, they'll tell you I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: was straight as an arrow, you know, I I I
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: didn't like taking advil tail and all at Adville.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: I didn't like going to trainers. I was very rarely
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: went out. I would go see some concerts, but you
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: know if I if I went out, which was rare,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I might have a beer or two. You know, very
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: rarely did I ever get intoxicated. And it didn't take
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: much to get me intoxicated. So I you know, I
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: was very careful with that. But yeah, have two thousand
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: and four. You know, I really wanted to say with
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: the Angels, they had other plans, and so I was
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: a free agent. I signed with Seattle and went to
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: spring training. I had signed a three year deal with
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: the four year option, and I had a freak play
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: where I was playing third, came into to make a
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: pop up play on a pop up at over the mound.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Nobody called me off, so I called it last second,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: hit my heel on the side of the mound, and
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: somehow that that jarring blew out my T six and
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: T seven discs, and uh, you know, right away I
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: caught the ball, turned to turn to uh Rich Aurelia
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: flipped him the ball and said, hey man, I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: I just blew out my back and He's like really,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: and I said yeah, And so next you know, that night,
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: I could barely move. Next morning, I could barely get up.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I tried to you know, I told the trainers. They said,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: go in the pool. You know, we'll give you some ultrasound.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. I tried to hit. I actually tried
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: to play, and Bob Melvin was telling me, don't, don't
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: do it, and uh, I did it anyway. I hit
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: a ball to the right, to the left side of
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the infield, and I collapsed coming out of the box.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: And yeah, it was a scary feeling. I'd never really
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: dealt with any injury of that magnitude before. And I
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: went to you know, six different doctors down there in
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: spring training. They all told me the same thing. You know,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: that you blow out your T six T seven. If
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: if you try to play more fluid could come out
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: and potentially paralyze you. And they said, it's going to
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: take a long time for your body to reabsorb that,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: and and if that happens, then you know, if we
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: wait until June or July, we might be able to
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: do a special procedure where we go in we clapsure lung,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: we take out a rib, we go in and put
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: you know, reinforcement along your spine, and there's a five
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: percent chance that you could be paralyzed with that surgery.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: And there's only one guy in the country that does it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And you know, I'm just thinking, you know, I went
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: from there thinking like what what in the henck? I've
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: done everything right? You know, I kind of got you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I'm a believer. Uh and and I kind of got
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: angry at God, like wait, I've I've done all this,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: you know, the right way.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: What's going on? And uh?
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: And I just you know, I didn't handle it the
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: right way. I didn't really never doubt with that kind
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: of adversity, that kind of I thought depression was fake.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I thought anxiety was fake.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: You know, people would you know, say they haven't you know,
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: had a breakdown of some sort and I'd be like,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: what are you talking about? Like, you know, and and
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, I'm facing it. And I
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: didn't handle it the right way.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to reach out for help with anybody.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: I thought I could handle it my own. And and
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: I the other thing that was tough is, you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: here I am on a new team with the Angels,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: I had such a great brotherhood with everybody on the team.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: And you know, guys like Aaron Anderson and Tim Salmon
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: and next Time and benjam Molina and Orlando Pomero and personal,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: all those guys, they would all like, look out, We
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: look out for each other, and you know, we'd hold
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: each other accountable if we were something stupid. And here
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I am with the new team, trying to fit in
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: and went out. Uh. You know, they asked me, if
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: you know, when I was traveling with them, if I
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: wanted to have a couple of drinks with them, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: I usually said no, but that night I did, and man,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: you know, I was sipping a couple of beers. They
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: threw a mixed drink in front of me, and you know,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: I think it was a jack and coke or rum
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: and coke, and you know, it went down pretty easy.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Before I could finish that one, they put another one out,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: and uh, and then it just kind of went, you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: from two to to ford to who knows how many,
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: you know, And it became a thing where I was
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: doing it every night, and and I have an addictive personality,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: and and uh, I just went down the wrong road
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: and when I when I drink, I'm a different person.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: We could take a quick break for word from our
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: sponsors and we come back. We'll have more from Scott Spiezio.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: One of the things that I wasn't very good at, well,
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: it's playing Major League Baseball.
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• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Halo Territory with Mike d Giovanna Samblum,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and Scott Spiezio. Scott, did the depression, the anxiety and
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: probably all that downtime contribute and sort of fuel your
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: use And did that eventually lead to your release by
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the Mariners?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, no doubt about it. Yeah.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, uh, you know, I I eventually found a
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: doctor that told me my my spinal cord was thick
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: enough that even if more fluid came out, I could
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: play and and probably not be paralyzed. And because of
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: because of that, you know, I'm hard headed and said,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: all right, I'm gonna do it. He finished that with
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: as long as you can withstand the pain, you can play,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: and probably the worst thing he could have said. So
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: I did whatever I could to try to, you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: get on the field. But I continued to drink, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to to help with the pain and help with the
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: depression still because I knew I wasn't the same person.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: And then once I drank and started making stupid decisions,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: you know, that ended up leading to my my divorce.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: And and then then I then.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Ikept using it to cover up guilt and shame from
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: the stupid decisions I was making. And eventually, you know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: you know, remarried, uh to somebody that probably wasn't the
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: best influence on me. Of course, I made all my
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: own decisions, but uh, you know, I always say show me,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: you know, show me your friends, I'll show your future.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: And it was probably not the wisest decision to go
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: in that direction. And then eventually after my release, and
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I don't blame Seattle at all, you know, I tried
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: to play that year. You know, in two thousand and four,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: I hit two fifteen with ten home runs and the
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: forty eight forty nine RBIs, which in today's game was
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: great but back then is not too good. Cold cold,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: so yeah, and then then eventually, you know, after the
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: next year, they brought in Adrian Beltra and Russie Sexon.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I had nowhere to play got I had him forty
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: something at bats maybe worst the year, worst year in
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: my life. And then I just you know, I knew
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: I was never playing, so I I just went out
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: every night, me and my my new wife went out
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: every night, and it was club time every night.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And then eventually at the end of that season.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Uh, in November that two thousand and five is when
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: I saw my first drug at thirty three years old.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: And I wouldn't say off to the races then because
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I was still I wasn't using it all the time.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: That didn't happen until late in August of two thousand
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: and six, when I went out with some some guys
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: and my wife in Arizona and I used some cocaine.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: I had four lines of cocaine after say and know,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and then went out and hit two home runs the
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: next day. And so then it became a superstition. And uh,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: and I said, at the end of two thousand and six,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: I'd stopped and we won, and I used it to celebrate,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: and then it became not just something recreationally, it became
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: something that I needed physically every day. I think I
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: had already gotten to that point with alcohol. Now all
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, now I'm I'm including the drugs in there,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and it was it was a nightmare. By two thousand
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: and seven, I gave up everything in my life for
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: two things, and that was drugs and alcohol.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: I'm curious, you know, I think going out there and
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: meeting you know, your family was Yeah, I mean to me,
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: I think, you know, when you go through these these horrible, horrible,
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: you know, eras of your life, you know, that's the
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: toughest thing. And you know, we saw your dad in
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: that documentary preview. I know that you lost contact with
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: him for quite a while. I'm curious, you know, you know,
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: losing losing them for the time that you did, and
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: regaining those relationships back. I mean, what has been that
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: process for you? And what does it mean to have
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: your dad? You know, also, you know, Cardinals champion right
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: in your life again, and you know, having these people
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: so close to you and through this journey.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: It's everything. I don't think I could have done it
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: without them. I mean, it would have been a lot harder.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you one big, one big thing that that
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: helped me know that my parents were there. We didn't
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: talk for three years after that, or maybe you know,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: two years or whatever it was.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: It seemed like forever.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I think, like the end of two thousand and four
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: season is when I stopped talking to him. We got
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: an altercation after the two thousand and four season and
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: then I didn't talk to him again until the second
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: day of the season in Saint Louis in two thousand
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: and seven, the Cardinals reached out and asked my dad
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: to come and give me my World Series ring. We
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: were were we were and still are the only father
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: son to win with the same organization and and also
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: to a piece. And so the Cardinals said, hey, we
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: know what's going on. We think that you know, this
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: is bigger than you guys. You know, we really like
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: to celebrate this moment, not only for you guys, but
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: for for the organization and and uh, and my dad
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: said yeah. So without me knowing, my dad came and
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: UH had his old twenty six jersey on. And when
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: when Mike Shannon called him up, I turned around and
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: saw him and start bawling, and I called that the
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Prodigal Sun moment, you know. Afterwards, him and my my
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: mom talked at the at their hotel room for probably
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: three hours.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: And then later that year I told the car.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: The car finally told the Cardinals that I had a
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: real issue, and they sent me to rehab, and my
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: parents came and took thirty pages of notes, not knowing,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: you know, what to do what they could do, because
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: nobody in my family had ever really suffered from any
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: type of addiction, and so.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: It was all new to us.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: It was new to me, and I wish I could
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: say that moment I just boomed, I change, But it wasn't.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: It took you know, it took another uh, you know,
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: twelve years, well eleven years before I was able to
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: get through it and beat it. But you know, the
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: whole the whole course, I knew that they were there.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I eventually I turned my money, you know what. I
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: had left my money and my property over to my
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: parents so that they could save it for me, because
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: I was just burning through cash and burning through selling stuff,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: burning through it, and I knew my only chance to
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: save my property was to hand it over to them.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: And we sold all the cars. We we got rid
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: of those, We got rid of bank accounts and checking
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: accounts so that I had no access to any of that.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: They basically would give me my food.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Now that really helped me, because I had no access
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: to money to to to stop the drug use because
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: it's expensive. Now, I was still able to persuade people
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: to bring me by some vodka every once in a while.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Well although it was much cheaper vodka. It was some
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: great groups to school. But eventually, you know, I think
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: God slapped me on the face and said, hey, man,
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: like you got to wake up, and and uh, you know,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I was Johnnie in the hospital. But having my parents
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: there the whole time, you know, they had they had
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: nursed me, they had brought me food. They would bring me,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: you know, all these gift certificates or things like that
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: to use for food, but a lot of times they
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: just bring food to me and check in on me.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: And you know, I just couldn't imagine what they went
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: through as as parents, you know, not knowing if if
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: they're going to call get a call that you know,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: something was you know, something tragic had happened or you know,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: or I wasn't here anymore. And every time they came
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: over they were probably worried about that. But with their
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: help and my family's help, with my true friends, help
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: from from my community, we made it. And uh, you know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: God God really pulled pulled me out of the pit
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: of despair when when I was at my lowest point.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Scott, you've mentioned, uh that you were drinking a lot
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: of vodka during that sixth season even before games. I mean,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: how the heck do you hit what was it two
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: seventy two with an eight sixty two ops and you
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: helped the Cardinals win a World Series while you're using.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: How did that year even happen?
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: You know, I've had I had teammates say the same thing.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: You know, even into two thousand and seven. You can look,
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: and it was it was way worse than two thousand
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: and seven. I you know, I would you know two
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: thousand At the end of two thousand six, I was
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: using and drinking, and you know, it got to the
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: point where there were sometimes I didn't go to sleep
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: two thousand and seven, there was sometimes I didn't go
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: to sleep for three four days and would play, you know,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty degrees on the field, sweating your
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: butt off, no sleep, hardly anything to eat, you know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: hardly any water, and I all I would do is
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: just say, you know, God, help me get through this somehow.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: And I'd always say I'm gonna stop. And I just couldn't.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: Like I'd started physically shaking if if I if I stopped,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: and so I thought, there's no way I can keep playing.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: If I'm shaking, so I just would keep doing it,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: you know, and I would just say, all right, see
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: the ball, trust your hands.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I would just fully rely on.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: What I learned my whole career and what you know,
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: what my dad had told me, and and it worked it.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's too bad because I really think,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: you know, two thousands six, for the most part, I
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: was pretty good. I did do a lot of drinking
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: the night before, but usually by game time, I was
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: pretty good.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Until the end of the season.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Well, man, you know two thousand and seven, You know,
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: two thousand and six, I had a really good year.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I think had I not had that stuff in my system,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I would have maybe taken off and had another, you know,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: two or three really solid years after that.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: But you know, everything happens for a reason.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I guess Bella, Bella, Bella where I don't know where
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Bella is, but I know.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: How to take care of my.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: Pupp crats while you find Bella. Today's episode is sponsored
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: by the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program. The ASPCA Pet
• 23:46
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  Speaker 4: not engaged in the business of insurance.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your career ended after two thousand and seven. How
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: did the disease progress after baseball over the next decade?
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: So?
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Oh man, it's just you know, some of it's hard
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: to remember. Some of it, you know, I can remember,
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: but I just don't know where it falls in the schedule.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: That was really tough. When I was writing the book,
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: leslie b like what year was that, and I'm like,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know. You know, it was tough, man, you know,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: I never gave up I just had a feeling that
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: someday I would I would make it. I was going
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: to battle this and make it. You know, some days
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: there was times where you know, I thought, man, I
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: don't know if it's worth it, Like am I hurting
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: people by by being here?
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: You know? Is you know that whole thing.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Would everybody be better off if I wasn't here, you know,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: because you know they wouldn't have to worry about me
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: all the time. You know, they wouldn't have to see
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: me like this. And you know, there was some really
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: tough times like that, but deep down, I really felt
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: like I was gonna make it. You know, I went
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: to eleven rehabs in ten years. Might have bouts of sobriety,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: you know, six months, ten months, twelve months. Sometimes I
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: go to the rehab and relapse within, you know, on
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: the way home.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And so it was.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: It was it was a really tough battle, and the
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: cravings were what got me, like I would be battling
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: them all the time. And the other thing that was
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: tough is you know, in AA or most of these
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: programs this, you have twelve steps, and the first step
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: is to say that you're powerless over alcohol and man,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: It was really hard for me. You know, that's been
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: you know, my dad used to place stuff in my
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: in my room every night, and it would say, you
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: are invincible. The driving purpose of a winter flows through
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: your body. You are great, you are tampion, you are invincible.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: There's no limits to your strength, power, quickness. You have
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: more than enough to win every game. And this went on.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: You know, this would be played over and over. You know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: each one of those eighteen positive affirmations would say things
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: like that, which was great for baseball, was great for
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: you know, my playoff experience and pressure situations not so
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: great when you're supposed to be vulnerable and admit that
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: you're powerless and that you need help. And so man,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: I just kept running into that stumbling block. And then
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: finally I think God, I mean I really literally think
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: God just said, man, like, you're you're close, but you're you're.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Not doing it, like damn.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: And and all of a sudden I woke up yellow
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: man like you know, a number two pencil and and
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: and instead of this time, instead of praying for help,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: I prayed that he took away my cravings. And that
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: That was April sixth, twenty eighteen, and from that day on,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I've had no cravings. As a matter of fact, when
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: I see alcohol, I get I feel physically ill, like
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: like a nausea, which is it's a total blessing, you know,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: because that's what got me in the past, and so
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: I've been totally blessed with that. And not only that,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: he he cured my liver. They told me I needed
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: a liver transplant for sure, and uh and all of
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: a sudden, you know, after you're getting you know, Parson Tiss,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: you know, a needle stuck into my my abdomen and
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: them pulling, you know, to two plus leaders every time,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: and and you know, four months into you know, whatever
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: it was for visits into Northwestern, they've said all your
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: scans are normal and your your your blood work is normal,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: and you don't have to come in anymore. I said, well,
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: there's my second miracle, you know, and and uh so
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: that's why I felt, you know, I still feel, you know,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: that I need to get the story out and and
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: help people that are suffering. And I'm already getting people calling.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: It's it's almost it's a little bit overwhelming, but it's
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: a good problem to.
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: Have, you know, I think, just you know, the The
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: one of the things you've done really well, in my opinion,
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: is is you don't portray your this is the story's
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: over right, that it's happily ever after, and you dealt
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: with with with still deal with so much, with your family,
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: with your children, with you know, finances, everything. Uh, you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: I'm curious why you felt like you wanted to share
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: the story when you you did, you know, getting moving
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: past the addiction, but also you know, still kind of
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: being through it, still going through all the all the
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: remnants of you know, going you know, having the addiction
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: to begin with.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when when you're when you're an addict or an alcoholic,
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: no matter what it is you're dealing with, it could
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: be gambling. You know you're gonna be that way in
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: the rest of your life. That's just the way you're wired.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: And so I knew my life was never going to
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: be perfect. It was kind of like when people were
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: inviting me to church in the middle of, of, uh,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: you know, my addiction, and I'd be like, well, I
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: got to get I got to get better first before
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: I go in there. Well, no, just go in there,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: got to help you, you know, I knew if I
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: waited until everything was perfect. Before I wrote this book,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: i'd be gone, like I'm not. I'm definitely not saying
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: I'm anywhere near perfect. To man, I've got a lot
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: of flaws.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: I'm just a normal guy, still battling, you know, and
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: and and you know, it used to be used to
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: be a lot easier with money to do things, you know,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: but I was never really happy. And now I have
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: true joy, and I'm you know, I live in month
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: to month and and and I really enjoy it. And
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: I just want people to know that, you know, I'm
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: an everyday normal guy.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I made it.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: I still I still take the steps to make sure
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: that that I keep my sobriety every day. I try
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: to work with as many people as possible, and and
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: even with.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Them, I say, hey, like I'm not perfect.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: I'm still there's still relationships I'm I'm trying to fix,
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: you know, And sometimes you think you got it, and
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: sometimes you know, it ends up not being what you thought.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: And uh, it's it's all part of life, and and
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: it's all it's all for me. It's all blessing, you know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: It's it's part of life. And and I mean, to me,
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: this is like This is like extra innings, you know, like, uh,
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: you know, I thought, man, I was, I was right
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: there on the edge of death. And and to have
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to to share and to I mean, if
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: I can help one person, it's worth it, you know.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: And and and that's what I you know, I've just
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: gained incredible empathy for people that are suffering for any
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: any type of addiction or anxiety, you know, or anything
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: like or depression, because I didn't have any before, and
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: now I have incredible empathy for them and want to
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: help any way I can.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: What is baseball kind of meant to you now? Kind
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: of you know, obviously you know I can't play in
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: the big leagues anymore, but just regaining that, you know,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: you know, having baseball in your life. I know you
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: teach kids. I know you've been back around the Cardinals.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Quite a bit.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: You know what is what is that meant? Kind of
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: getting that back in your life? And we're going to
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: see an Angel Stadium anytime soon.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't think I can come back and get
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: four more hits to get a thousand.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I bet you could.
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: They'll make a movie. Don't make a movie of that.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Too.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Looking at that video of you as a kid, your
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: swing was the same exact swing when you're twelve years
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: old as it was when you hit the home or a
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: naural series that I don't even know how to describe,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: but it's kind of like a chop almost, yeah, and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: a very very abrupt, kind of violent, little downward motion
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and it looked I was I love seeing that video.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe how much this thing Isla is consigned, right, yeah.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: I would love to come back and play, but you know,
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: baseball's it was hard to watch when I was, you know,
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: down and out, and it was hard to because it
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: didn't end the way I wanted it to end, you know,
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: and then I knew it was my fault and that
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: was hard. And then you know, COVID hit and uh
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: there's a local team that asked me to you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: the Jolian Slammers asked me if I wanted to be
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: a part of a four four team season where I
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: would manage and I thought, man, I don't know, you know,
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: it was like it was like two thousand dollars, you know,
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm going to spend more in gas going
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: of the game. But I thought, you know, I thought,
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: this is a chance to see if I still love
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: it and and see if I like to coach, and
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: and I ended up loving it, you know, and it
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: was so worth it, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: It also helped me and my son, Tyler bond because
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: he would come and work out with the team and
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: he'd lift beforehand, and I was actually lifting at that
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: point with him. And then he went back and played
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: two years of college ball as he was played four
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: years of football and two years of college baseball, which.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Was really cool. And then it opened the door to
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: the Cardinals.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: The Cardinals asked me to come back and be a
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: part of their fantasy camp, and then a year later
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: asked me to share my testimony at Chapel.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: And then and then the year after that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Asked me to come and speak after Christen daand from
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: three thousand people. And then the Angels asked me to
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: come and and and speak to their prospers facts that
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: at Instructional League. And so I started rebonding with some
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: of my old teammates, some of the old organizations, and
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: I just fell in love with the game again. And uh,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: and then I started doing lessons, and and that was
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: a great opportunity because I'm teaching kids, uh now where
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: there their parents were like at the Assembly, you know,
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: as teenagers when I came back after the two thousand
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: and two World Series.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: So they're telling me stories like, hey, man, you signed my.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: Glove, or man, I was at your camp, you know
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: when you were with the A's at at the high school,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: and and uh, now I'm teaching their kids, so I
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: get to spend time with them, and I get to
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: spend time with their kids. And man, I just had
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: I just had one of my kids that I worked
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: with signing the fifth round, Jimmy Anderson.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah. And and so I've.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: Had a bunch of kids, you know, going to play
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: D one and and uh you know, junior college and
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: D two, D three, an AI and it's it's just
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: been so fun. And I share my story with them too,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: and the parents. And and I had one guy he said, uh,
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: you know, he goes my son is and this we said,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: is writing front of son.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: He goes, my son is.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: At that age where I'm a little afraid that he
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: might go out with his friends and you know, maybe
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: make some not not some great choices, and he would
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: be too afraid to call me. Would it be okay
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: if he called you, you know in that situation? And
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I would be honored. I would help
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: anyway I could. And he goes, you know, about about
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: three or four years ago, I wouldn't even wanted my
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: son to interact with you, you know, And and now
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: I trust you that if he called you, you would
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: do the right thing. And I'm like, absolutely, man, And
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: so it's it's just been a total blessing.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Baseball has been incredible.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Way to use it as a platform, to to share
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: my story and to help others.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: It's time to remind everyone why baseball is glorious, especially
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: nowadays where you could think your team is out of it,
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: but they might be back in it again. Let me
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: introduce you to the American League Wild Card KP, and
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: let's tell everyone why they might need to head back
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: to Sea Geek grab some more tickets for what is
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: a playoff race before the playoffs actually begin.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: Well, speaking about being out of it, I'm an American
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: League East guy and I'm talking to you Toronto fans.
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: I'm talking to you Baltimore fans. A couple of weeks ago,
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: probably not a reason to come out to the games.
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: Look at the standings right now. Both of you teams
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: are right back in this wildcard race.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: Rangers fans, we can go on and on. Mariners fans,
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: you might be feeling a little queasy, but you're still
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: in this thing too. So all of you should head
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: to see Geek and get yourself ten percent off your
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: next set of MLB tickets ten percent off MLB tickets
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: with the promo code Territory ten. Make sure you click
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: the link in the description to download the app and
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: have the code automatically added to your account so that
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: you can use it later.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I was curious beause you first went public with your
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: addictions and the story Sam wrote for The Athletic in
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Was that a premeditated thing or is
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: this kind of a spur of the moment thing. It's
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: like it just started. You blurt it out and just
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: started pouring out, pouring out your soul.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we, Sam.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: I think it was just I had mentioned something at
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: the reunion, right.
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: We had actually spoken, because so Phil Nevin had taken
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: over as the interim manager around that time, and I
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: had done a story on on his like original you know,
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: managerial role at Indie Ball where you had played for him,
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: and you at the time were in the middle of
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: dealing with this addiction and you kind of relayed that
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: and you were talking about it with me, and then
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: I met you at the reunion and talked a little more,
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: and I think I texted you a couple of days
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: after that and we set up a you know, time
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: to go out to visit. And like I said, you know,
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: most most people are aren't like you, right, Like they're
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: not gonna, you know, have somebody want to kind of
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: and invade their privacy in that way, and especially when
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: it comes to like the deepest, darkest secrets and shames
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: of their life. And I think you doing that is
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: like one I so appreciate it. Uh to this day.
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: It's like, by far the most read story I've ever written.
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: And you know, I say that because your story just resonates,
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: right Like, it just resonates in such a powerful way.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: And it's because of who you are. It's because of
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: you know, what you've what you're willing to share, and
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: what that says to people who all over the world
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: deal with whether it's addiction, or something else in their
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: life that you know, your story gives them some hope.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: And I think, you know, whatever you accomplished in your
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: baseball career, I mean this, this succeeds it more than
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: that home run that we watched and more than anything else.
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: I mean, your story is just so amazing.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that, you know. I I think.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: You know, it's great that that you took the time
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: to do that, and and and the way you wrote it,
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: and you you you helped me. You convinced me like,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: hey man, we got to put some of the stuff
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: that's ugly in there, you know. And and Sosa just that,
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: Mike Sosa sent me a message saying, hey man, I
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: read your book. I'm so proud of you. You're a
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: true champion. Now, you know, I love that you put
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: your story in their warts and all, and and I
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: think that's you know, it's so easy nowadays with social
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: media to see act like everything is perfect. You know,
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: I'm on a trip here, I'm doing this here. But
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: to put the things that you struggle with, I think
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: it makes it more real. And I think that, you know,
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: for a long time, and I think my dad really
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: realized this in the course of writing the book and
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: and doing the documentary interviews that maybe my purpose wasn't
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: baseball all along. Maybe, you know, maybe my purpose was
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: was to help people, you know, that are struggling and
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: give them hope, you know, And so for that, I'm
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: I'm super grateful.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Was there any part you mentioned the warts? Was there
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: any part of your story that was particularly or especially
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: hard to share, and if so, why do you felt
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: that thing was important to share?
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, there's a lot of them.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, uh, incidents where I got arrested,
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, physical physical things with with my
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: girlfriend at the time that were just stopped me, you know,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: of course d UIs. You know, stuff with my my children,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: you know, altercations with my father. Man, There's there's just
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: so many that that are really tough. You know, getting
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: paised never a fun thing to talk about, you know.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: But you know what, what's even crazy about that is
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: I went in and I'm planning to do a live
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: interview here on on August twenty ninth and right outside
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: of my hometown, and two of the police officers that
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: actually arrested me for d u I are going to
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: be there and they're going to be interviewed too, and
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: so it'll get of people and insight of to what
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: my mind was like at that point. And and the
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: guy that talls me, I got a Facebook message, he's
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: an Illinois State trooper. I got a message I'd spoken
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Illinois.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I get a.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: Message a couple of days later, and this guy's like, hey,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: we met on a on a dark, uh you know, hazy,
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: cold brist night in blank.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, where's this guy going with this?
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: And he goes and that was the first day that
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: I in my twelve years as an Illinois State trooper,
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: that I deployed and used my paper and I'm like, whoa,
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: you know, And and he just went on to say
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: like how proud he was of me, and that I
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: shared my story, you know, at the high school where
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: his daughter goes to school, and that he was so
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: happy that I turned my life around. And you know,
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: I started, I started crying, you know, and then I
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: started sharing that story. That's something you know, you know,
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: the whole thing, you know, take lemons and make lemonade. Sometimes,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: you that's what you got to do, you know, and
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: to and to let people know that it's it's real.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: You got to include those things, and and it's it's
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: not fun sometimes, but it's part of my story.
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: I kind of remember you telling that story and like
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: inviting the tasing right, like you were like, come, you
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: were daring him, if I recall, yeah.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, And we actually talked about meeting up
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: to have dinner, and so I will someday I will
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: go to dinner with him, and and I want to
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: hear his side of it, because you know, I did
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: talk to some police officers later and they're like, you know,
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: you're lucky he had a taser. If he didn't have
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: a taser, you're a big dude, and like whether you
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: were thinking you were joking around or not, he doesn't
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: know that, and it could have easily been a you know,
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: a horrific story of you know, I resisted the rest
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: and boom I was. I was, you know, so I
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: was very fortunate, you know that he had a taser.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: It didn't feel good. I'll tell you that I still
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: got scars. I don't know, there's still stars on my
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: arm here from the taser going in, but man, yeah
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: it was. And then I told him that afterwards, I said, man,
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: that hurt.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: It's supposed to hurt.
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, you're talking about this, do you do you?
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: How fortunate do you? I mean, it seems like you
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: were kind of like at the possibility of dying, like
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: time and time again. You know, whether it be from
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: like being jaundiced, whether it be from getting tased or
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: getting shot or you know, d u I or just
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: the addiction, whatever it may be. Like, how fortunate do
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: you feel just to be alive right now? And and
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: and like is it? Is it something you think about regularly?
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: I think about it all the time. That's why I
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: feel like I'm in extra innings. You know, I feel
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: that I've had I don't even know how dozens of times.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's time I was flipped my four wheeler
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: over and hit my head on a tree and was
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: almost pinned under the creek.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: I luckily got out of that, you know.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: I at one time drove my car and hit a
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: Luckily I went into a dance instead of hitting a
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: cover or a tree. I jumped from the eleventh or
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: tenth story balcony to the ninth story balcony one time.
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: You know, that's that's in the book. And then the
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: story I mean, well, there was there was nine tops
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: at my at my door. So I was trying to
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: I was trying to run, and uh yeah, I thought
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: I thought I was Spider Man, you know.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: And luckily, I mean I I had I put my
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: foot on a laundry event. That's what kept from falling
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: ten stories down. And I was naked as well at
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: that point. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a crazy story.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Well, before I ask my last question, Scott, I want
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: you to tell listeners where they can get your book,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: where they can see the movie.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the book, you get a heart autograph copy
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: of the hardcover at scottspeezio dot com. You can get
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: an Amazon, Bornes and Noble wherever books are sold.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: The movie.
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: Will be airing in eighteen theaters around Central Illinois area
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: and Saint Louis area on September tenth, that night of
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: September tenth, and then it'll be on Rediscover TV streaming
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: for a while. We're also trying to get it to
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: MLB Network and they've shown some incredible interests with it.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: Hopefully we won't have a work stoppage, but if we do,
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: they're going to be looking for content.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: They'll have this on a loop.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I wanted to end with a quote you
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: gave USA Today a couple of weeks ago, and they
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: ended their their story with this. It says, you know,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: I had millions and millions of dollars at one time
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: in my life, I had everything. Now I don't even
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: have a credit card. But you know what, after everything
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I've been through, I could live in a cardboard box
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and be happy. I mean that. I was just hoping
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: maybe you could just elaborate a little on what sort
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: of fuels those feelings right now. Gratitude. You hear it
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: a lot in twelve step programs. I'm sure I have
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: a hunch that gratitude is fueling your life right now.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm grateful for every second, even sometimes the
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: hard stuff.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: The FAM's been, FAM's been to my cardboard box.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: It's not I mean, definitely nothing fancy, you know, And
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: I'm cool with that. You know, I've had the huge houses,
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: the gigantic condos, you know, the seven cars, the BMW's Mercedes,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: the you know, the the sixty sixty nine Camaro and
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: Corvettes and stuff like that, and really all that stuff
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: owned me.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: I didn't really own it.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: You know, it was somebody who always wanted to borrow
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: one of them, and I'd have to get oil changes
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: or the tires fixed, or you know, pay for pay
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: taxes on stuff. And now life is much simpler. I
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: really I really cherished the simple things, you know, like uh,
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: taking my son fishing, or getting to lift with with my.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: My older two boys, or or going out for pizza.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: You know, I told my dad the other day, I said,
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: you know, like going out to eat is kind of
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: like my vacations now.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: And he goes, you, god like an older He says,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: you sound like an old person.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: But that's it man, that you know, I'm like getting
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: when somebody sends me a text now that says, hey, man,
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: I got I just wanted to know I got thirty
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: days sober a day. That's like it just made my
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: hair stand up like that. That's the same feeling I
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: got when I hit the home run in the World Series.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: You know, it's there's just nothing like that to know that.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: Or somebody says, man, hey, you help me save my marriage.
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: Like I stayed with my wife because of your story
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: where you were out at our place and Morris and
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: you were you were trying to make that decision like,
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: that's the stuff that that fuels me today, and I
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: think that's and then you know my faith also, you
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: know that that gives me true joy. You know you're
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: not happy every day, but I have true joy, and
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: you know I'm so grateful for that.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: All right, well, Scott Spizio, we really appreciate you joining
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: us today. We're so happy you found recovery and have
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: been willing to share your story. Remember the book. The
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: movie's coming out in September. It looks outstanding, Scott Speedio,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: World Series Hero, biggest home run in Angel's history. We'll
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: never forget that. Speaking of goosebumps, still get them every
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: time I watch that clip. And when Reggie Sanders have
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: caught that ball, if he didn't run.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Onto the wall, no way, no way.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: I think that wall surprised him though, kind of like
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: a taser. Maybe you came up on.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: Him really quick. I think so too, man, I was
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: super happy. I think I think trooped him up man
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: for sure.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks again for joining us, Scott, really appreciate it. Please
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: like and subscribe and we will see you next time
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: on Halo Territory