PLEASE GIVE TO ELI: https://www.givesendgo.com/GBMVH
When my grandson Sam Phillips joins the conversation, we don't just talk baseball; we explore the very essence of youth sportsmanship, perseverance, and communal strength. As host Gregg Phillips, I take immense pride in sharing stories from the Vipers' baseball diamond, where teamwork creates champions and our young athletes, like Sam, find the courage to rise above adversity. His tales of drawing positivity from Bible verses and the broader life lessons learned through each pitch, catch, and swing breathe new life into the age-old adage that sports are more than just games.
We delve into the mental gymnastics of competitive sports, where the will to win is as vital as the skills honed in practice. Sam's strategy for maintaining focus – taking a breath or zeroing in on the next play – echoes the tactics I used in my own athletic endeavors, underscoring the universality of these lessons. Beyond the field, this episode encompasses a candid look at a fourth grader's world; from the complexities of schoolyard politics to the hopeful musings of a young mind yearning for a future in Major League Baseball, or perhaps amidst the prehistoric wonders of geology.
In a poignant reflection, we broach topics that shape our very identities: politics, faith, and the importance of community support, especially when rallying for causes close to our hearts, like Eli Barnes' battle against cancer. And as we navigate these heavier musings, we also celebrate the lighter moments – the joys of "Papa's School," the competitive spirit in PE class, and the simple yet profound pride of watching your family grow and thrive. Join us on this touching journey that captures the heart of childhood, the impact of sports, and the lessons that last a lifetime.
PLEASE GIVE TO ELI: https://www.givesendgo.com/GBMVH
When my grandson Sam Phillips joins the conversation, we don't just talk baseball; we explore the very essence of youth sportsmanship, perseverance, and communal strength. As host Gregg Phillips, I take immense pride in sharing stories from the Vipers' baseball diamond, where teamwork creates champions and our young athletes, like Sam, find the courage to rise above adversity. His tales of drawing positivity from Bible verses and the broader life lessons learned through each pitch, catch, and swing breathe new life into the age-old adage that sports are more than just games.
We delve into the mental gymnastics of competitive sports, where the will to win is as vital as the skills honed in practice. Sam's strategy for maintaining focus – taking a breath or zeroing in on the next play – echoes the tactics I used in my own athletic endeavors, underscoring the universality of these lessons. Beyond the field, this episode encompasses a candid look at a fourth grader's world; from the complexities of schoolyard politics to the hopeful musings of a young mind yearning for a future in Major League Baseball, or perhaps amidst the prehistoric wonders of geology.
In a poignant reflection, we broach topics that shape our very identities: politics, faith, and the importance of community support, especially when rallying for causes close to our hearts, like Eli Barnes' battle against cancer. And as we navigate these heavier musings, we also celebrate the lighter moments – the joys of "Papa's School," the competitive spirit in PE class, and the simple yet profound pride of watching your family grow and thrive. Join us on this touching journey that captures the heart of childhood, the impact of sports, and the lessons that last a lifetime.
No matter where you are, you are being watched. In today's world, no one is off the grid. Existing in the modern world has been forever changed. What's out there? Most people don't want to know, but you are about to get clued in. This is patriot games, patriot games. We'll explore different intelligence techniques, spycraft and the latest cutting-edge technology that will blow your mind. We'll introduce you to pros who've spent careers in the Intel community with incredible stories. We'll expose it all. Welcome to Patriot Games. And now your host, greg.
Speaker 2:Phillips, welcome back to Patriot Games. I have a very special show tonight with a very special guest. His name is Sam Phillips. He is my grandson. For those of you who follow me on True Social, you no doubt have seen many of my posts about Sam and follow along with him and his sports activities and things that I call games. Sam plays and Sam doing Sam things. Well, sam's going to join us today on the podcast and we are going to do some of those things with Sam. He's a great kid, a great young man.
Speaker 2:It's been brought to our attention that friends out in California, the Barnes family, especially Eli, a 12-year-old young man, is sick. He has cancer and is being treated at a hospital at UC Davis. The family wanted to be able to get him blood for his condition and they wanted to be able to give it to him directly, but to do that, inexplicably, the Red Cross requires $25,000 for a directed donation and he's going to have to have about four of them. So, while many of the treatments and much of what Eli's going through are being treated by chemotherapy and all of the things that you have to do when you have this kind of advanced situation, it's this blood situation and having to come up with $100,000, which is quite difficult. So Sam has agreed to come on and encourage everyone to consider donating to our friend Eli Barnes.
Speaker 2:So anyway, hope you enjoy the show and thanks so much for your kindness, support and if there's anything you can do to support Eli, we're putting a give, send go link down in the description. We'll also put it in the comments and we appreciate your support and your help with this young man. Thanks so much, sam. Thanks for coming in on your spring break right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Where'd you come back from?
Speaker 3:The Gulf Shores.
Speaker 2:Gulf Shores, you had fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Who'd you go with?
Speaker 3:My friend Rex from my baseball team.
Speaker 2:Y'all came straight from baseball last weekend, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, from Nashville to Gulf Shore it was like a seven-hour drive.
Speaker 2:You won the championship.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:How'd you do?
Speaker 3:Good Won MVP pitcher had like a batting average of 500.
Speaker 2:So you play on a team that is, I think you guys have won like 150 games and lost 15 since you've been playing there, which is crazy I mean at any age, any sport anywhere across multiple years to be that many wins and that winning percentage is really extraordinary. It's like 87% winning. That's just huge. I mean, I think that's better than even Saban and than others. So yeah, it's really, it's really pretty extraordinary. What do you think the secret to the Vipers' success is?
Speaker 3:Try hard, don't give up and be a team player.
Speaker 2:So does Coach Dusty talk about that all the time? Are those the things he talks about? Yes, sir, what makes you guys different than everybody else? I mean, you've obviously got talented kids, but what else?
Speaker 3:We play as a team, we work as a team, we think as a team. If someone gets down like you, get down with them.
Speaker 2:You had a little bit of adversity that you faced the first of the year you guys went out to a tournament out in Houston. But I think one of the things that impressed me most, sam, about you, was that after that situation you really came back, and even the team too, but you in particular, the next time you pitched really came back and did. What do you think about when you're having a tough time out on the mound or after you've had a tough time and you come in and you sit down? What's going through your head?
Speaker 3:what's going through your head. I just try to forget what just happened. If it was bad, if it's good, I'll just try to do it again. Whatever works for me, that inning or game try to do it again the next. There's nothing you can't do what does it say? There's nothing you can't do. It's a Bible verse that's awesome. I also have John 3.16. Right here, oh shoot. It's a Bible verse. That's awesome. I also have John 3.16. Right here, oh shoot.
Speaker 2:We'll be right back. So you've got John 3.16,. And then what's the other one?
Speaker 3:50-4-13. There's nothing you can't do.
Speaker 2:One of JD's friends that he grew up with and played with, davis Daniel um, now pitching for the Angels, which is pretty cool yeah in MLB, uh, but you had a chance to work with him some this offseason, so, uh, first of all, what was that like? Was that cool?
Speaker 3:yeah, davis is my favorite MLB player. Davis is one of my favorite MLB players that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So what'd you learn from Davis? What? What did he teach you?
Speaker 3:He taught me how to throw faster, how to be under control, how to throw more strikes.
Speaker 2:Didn't he talk to you a little bit about how to think through things and if you're say throwing everything low and out, how to fix that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, first you work on where you're looking, if you're aiming, if you're aiming high, you're throwing high, change that to like get middle, like catcher's mitt, or if, like, there is no, if there is not, like, if the catcher doesn't have this, like mid up, just like aim chest, and if you, if you're missing outside and away, try to bring it in. So like middle left, if you're aiming, middle right, and if that's not working, like, change your arm slot, like if you're going here, if you're releasing here and it's going straight down, start here like release here, and it'll go like where you want it.
Speaker 2:You know, sam, the things you're talking about. I mean there are things that I learned as I got older, but I mean one of the cool things about having this chance to work with Davis and really, you know, learn skills that MLB guys are using. That's going to be super meaningful to you in your career. But I can pretty safely say that very few 10-year-olds have had that opportunity. You think made a difference so far this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Davis is just simple. He explains stuff easily. My past pitching coaches they haven't been able to do that like it. They've been like rushing me through stuff that I've learned or like I'm gonna learn in like high school or college right well, that's, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:So I know you love baseball and you're having a great year so far this year and your ERA is coming down. Another few innings this week with no earned runs. I think you gave up two hits. It's pretty impressive. What is it about baseball that makes it your favorite?
Speaker 3:Just like the rush, like being under control. I like being a pitcher when you're ready, everyone's ready. I like being a starter because you're the person who starts, and like you're basically you shut down the first three batters, or like let your defense do a little work, I like, just like shutting them down. I like I think it's fun.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a great way to start the game. I mean, and you know, the pitcher controls the game and the pitcher controls the cadence of the game and how fast you pitch or how slow you pitch. You can really change that up. I mean, do you think about those things while you're out on the mound? No, not up. I mean, do you think about those things?
Speaker 3:while you're out on the mound. No, not really. I just think of like throwing strikes and like throwing it hard a little bit.
Speaker 2:So one of the nastiest pitches you have is pretty impossible to hit. So tell me about your pitch selection. What do you have?
Speaker 3:I have a four-seam and two-seam grip as a fastball. I have a four seam and two seam grip as a fastball. I have a change up which is like you put your ring finger and your middle finger on the two laces that same like this, I grip it like this, and then you throw the ball inside and it kind of like it's hard to control, like I haven't really found out the way it moves yet because I just started like throwing it the way. So about what speed is your changeup? 50, 50 and 49.
Speaker 2:And then your fastball these days is 63, 64. That's pretty impressive for a 10-year-old, yeah. So what else do you have?
Speaker 3:What's the nastiest pitch you have? I have like a curveball, but like.
Speaker 2:Let me just tell you right now there are parents everywhere that hear you say those words and they're like flipping out, like wait what? You're letting a 10-, 10 year old throw a curveball?
Speaker 3:so let's talk about it. It's not exactly. It's not thrown like a people would think a curveball would be, where you have a lot of snap twist you, you grab it like this and you throw it like that so it's the same basic motion yeah, you're still and you're kind of, and you're kind of locking up. Yeah, I also have a cutter.
Speaker 2:The cutter, I mean.
Speaker 3:It's nasty. Yeah it's sick. If you have a right-hander and you throw it on their back foot, it's basically impossible to hit. But if it's a lefty up you have to throw it at them and it kind of like it's high and it goes curves and like down the middle and low, so um.
Speaker 2:So who calls your games? Who calls the pitches?
Speaker 3:uh, uh, my catcher and no my coach. I wish I could call your coach.
Speaker 2:One of of the questions that one of the followers on Truth Social somebody that follows you and follows me asked me to ask you was about your eye black. So you have two basic eye black frame or setups. You got the one that's more of a kind of an upside down giant, like a arrowhead or something I don't know like an upside down giant, like a arrowhead or something I don't know like a upside down triangle, and then you have another one that's more like a cross. So what makes you decide to do them differently and what tell me why you uh this past weekend, why you did what you did?
Speaker 3:um, this past weekend I did the cross because it was palm sunday and I decided to be, like, a good one to do and I sometimes I don't do the cross because it's too skinny, like, and it's like really bright. I won't wear it. I won't do it because, like, I'll wear glasses and it looks like a big, long stick.
Speaker 2:So when the glasses cross over the cross or when they cover a part of the cross, it just looks like a line. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I do the triangle because I saw another person do it and I was like that looks cool, so I started doing it.
Speaker 2:I think Tua was the first one that I ever saw do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw Max Clark oh.
Speaker 2:Max Klor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he is an invaluable commit in the first-round draft for Detroit Tigers.
Speaker 2:So what's it like to be on a team that I mean? One of the things I worry about a little bit for you is that you win too much. I mean, whether it's football, you guys went undefeated. I think last year you lost one or two games. Baseball, you guys hardly ever lose. I mean, I worry about you that you're winning too much.
Speaker 3:I guess I'm just like used to it. I'm not used to losing, so like it doesn't matter if it's like wiffle ball or backyard baseball. I want to win, like I'll do whatever it takes.
Speaker 2:That's not a bad thing. You do need to learn how to lose without tears, but there's no crying in baseball.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't cry. I used to cry, dusty started. If you're going to cry, leave. Like just get out of the dugout. So like it ruins. If one person cries because of a strikeout, the other people's like the other people like get emotional. We're like, you're like, oh, that guy's, that guy's out. So like what are we gonna do now?
Speaker 2:what's your mindset like when you, when you're, when you're out on the mound and, let's say, you're facing adversity, right, let's say you gave up a big hit or gave up a couple of runs and you're not throwing strikes?
Speaker 2:I mean, one of the challenges I used to have when I was playing was I was a little wild, and so my first year pitching in high school I was in 10th grade and I was literally pitching a no-hitter. But I had walked seven guys and my coach, coach Lewis, came out to the mound in the last inning. And now I'm pitching a no-hitter, right, yeah, and I wanted to finish the game because I wanted the no-hitter. I mean, I was a 10th grader and I was playing against older kids and he came out to the mound and said, if you walk one more, I'm taking you out. And I remember thinking, yeah, right, you're not going to take me out, I'm pitching a no-hitter man. And sure enough, I walked the next guy and he came out and got me and pulled me out.
Speaker 2:So what's your mindset like when you're struggling? I mean, what's your? What do you think about, like, if you, let's say, you, walk a couple? I think a couple weeks ago you hit a couple of kids, and it was last weekend. You loaded the bases first inning, then struck out the side. What's in your mind when you think about when you got have bases loaded? Nobody out the beginning of the game. You're not really throwing strikes. What do you think about to bring yourself back around?
Speaker 3:uh be calm, uh, don't rush, um, because like, everything's on your side, just try your hardest. If it's not going your way, you can like always like just step off, take a breath, or like call time, like get the catcher to come to you, like tell them what's happening, tell them to like slow down. I think it was in Houston. I gave up two home runs, all of them like right. When they hit the home run, I asked for a ball because, like like I didn't want to just stare at it, like stare at the ball leaving. I just kind of like um asked the ball from the umpire, um, and I got on the mound. By the time I was on the mound with the ball, he was rounding second and didn't look at him. I kind of took a breather. That was a little time I had.
Speaker 2:Well, I think all the parents were shocked, just because the kids were like my height. These kids were like 6'2", 200 pounds, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they also had a horn, which was very annoying. They were just too. I had like a triple. I think that silenced the crowd definitely.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think that's right. So I know you love baseball and you're obviously pretty good at it and I think you have a huge career in it if you want that. But you're also pretty good at football.
Speaker 3:I love football. Football is just fun. I love winning. I think the team's not going to be as good as we were last year, but it's always challenging. I love my offensive coordinator. He calls like perfect plays. My favorite plays are passing. Go to the side.
Speaker 2:Spoken like a true quarterback.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just love like letting go of the ball. I love throwing deep ones like, especially when they're like in the basket. That's just the best feeling ever.
Speaker 2:I think what surprises people. For a 9 or 10-year-old to be able to toss the ball like you do is pretty impressive. Is your mindset different in football as a quarterback than it is in baseball as a pitcher, or do you use some of the same mental tools?
Speaker 3:I use some of the same mental tools, like take a breath, like in football, like when you're on the sidelines, I kind of like sit down on the bench, or I'll like cheer on the team. If, like when you get an interception, it's not the greatest feeling, but you kind of got to overcome that and like be better next time when you get onto the field and one of the things sam's easy to see as an adult and and much harder to see as a kid, because you know your experience is your is.
Speaker 2:You know what you have and you've. You know you've only been alive for 10 years but your experiences athletically go well beyond what anyone my age could even imagine. I mean, you guys have traveled all over the place, you've won an incredible number of games. You win the football championship, you win the baseball championship and I think that you know one of the things I know your parents, you know, worry about you and your health and your arm and you know I think your dad's done a great job of starting to get you into the workout room and that kind of stuff. I mean that's real dedication for a 10-year-old. Is that something that you've experienced in other 10-year-olds or are you doing something different than other kids are doing?
Speaker 3:I guess, Like I try harder than most senior olds, Like I give all my all, Like I love the game, Like if there wasn't baseball, I wouldn't know what I was going to do. You wouldn't know what to do. I guess I would play football, Like if there wasn't football or baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, I think part of that's a respect for the game and you respect the game and that's critically important. As you grow up and really you know at some point it always ends right. Whether you're Davis' age and you know he's going to get five or six years probably as a pitcher in MLB. Some kids it ends when they're in college. Some kids it ends when they're starting in high school. Eventually it will end, but it's the lessons that I think that you take away from team sports that really make a difference.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I meant to pull out was your goals that you set last year during football.
Speaker 2:Some of them were specific, but some of them were specific to the team in football. Some of them were specific, but some of them were specific to the team, and so I think that you're growing up and you're learning things that many kids didn't learn. You know, when your uncle JD went to IMG and played baseball, one of the things that they made him do was go to a class called mental conditioning, and what they did in mental conditioning it was taught by a guy that I think does this for the Boston Red Sox now a guy named Justin Sua, and what they really tried to get the kids to really understand are a lot of the things that I'm hearing from you now right, like slow down, breathe. If you make a mistake, just forget it and move on. You know the kind of things that you're talking about, but I think you're growing up beyond your years, so let's skip sports for a few minutes. Let's talk about school. So if you're like most fourth graders, you're probably going to say I hate school.
Speaker 3:School's fine.
Speaker 2:All right, that's a good answer. That's probably a dad coached answer. So what's your favorite class?
Speaker 3:Math.
Speaker 2:How come?
Speaker 3:It's challenging, but I love it. I like division, multiplication, addition, decimals, fractions.
Speaker 2:What do you want to be when you grow up? Mlb player. If you don't make it to MLB, what do you want to do? What do you want your college experience to be?
Speaker 3:Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2:You want to go to Vanderbilt?
Speaker 3:Because I like the baseball facility. They have good coaching. They have good grades. Everyone on their team has A's their academics. Good coaching, I like they have good grades.
Speaker 2:Like everyone on their team, has like A's.
Speaker 3:Their academics. Yes, their academics is very good.
Speaker 2:What do you want to study? What do you want to learn about in college?
Speaker 3:I like to study rocks.
Speaker 2:You like to study rocks, so geology.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, geology is cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like how. I also like dinosaurs.
Speaker 2:You like dinosaurs yeah dinosaurs are cool. Anthropology, geology.
Speaker 3:Anthropology yeah.
Speaker 2:If Andy craps out, you can always go to Alabama. We have great. Both of those programs are great. Well, that's very cool. So I'm going to ask you the dreaded girl question what's up with girls?
Speaker 3:Girls. Girls are a lot these days.
Speaker 2:They're a lot to worry about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot these days. They're a lot to worry about yeah, they a lot of drama, a lot of drama at my school.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure that that's been around for a while, true but like it's worse it's worse now. Yeah, what makes you say that?
Speaker 3:they talk a lot about each other behind their back they talk a lot about each other. Yeah, I like the simple ones. I don't get worried about a lot.
Speaker 2:Let's see what else can we talk. Let's talk about Hollis. Hollis, so you have a little sister, my granddaughter. So if you say anything ugly about her, I'm going to punch you no, please. You have a great little sister. A lot of boys don't have good little sisters, but you have a great little sister. She goes to every single one of your games. I mean she has sat through more baseball. She's sat through like 200 baseball games already because she loves you.
Speaker 3:My sister's the best. She's also crazy.
Speaker 2:She's not really crazy.
Speaker 3:She's not crazy. She's not like crazy, she's like goofy. She knows, not really crazy, she's not crazy. She's not like crazy, she's like goofy.
Speaker 2:She knows how to get under your skin.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, she loves sports like tennis. While we were at the beach we were playing loop-a-ball. We needed one more player, so we played with my sister. We were throwing soft toss because, like we thought, she like we thought we had to go easy. We were using this racket thing and it had a big barrel. It was basically like a tennis racket. She can hit the tennis ball far and first pitch went into the ocean.
Speaker 2:Hollis hit first pitch into the ocean.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:It was insane, everyone was hyped, so her team won the basketball championship. The ocean, yeah Nice.
Speaker 2:It was insane, like everyone was hyped, so her team won the basketball championship this year.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, hollis, she's. It's her first year playing, so like I didn't expect her to be like real good, but like she's good. She's good on defense. She misses a couple shots on offense, but like we haven't really worked on her with that yet, but she made me want to play basketball.
Speaker 2:So let's skip over and let's talk about politics. So who do you think ought to be the president?
Speaker 3:Donald Trump.
Speaker 2:Why.
Speaker 3:Donald Trump's the GOAT.
Speaker 2:He's the GOAT.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So why do you think America needs somebody like President Trump?
Speaker 3:Because he knows how to be a leader. He's obviously done this before. He's a nice guy sometimes.
Speaker 2:What about Biden? Biden annoys me.
Speaker 3:I mean, he annoys you yeah he's a good man Like I like him. But you just think President Trump would be better for America. He annoys you. Yeah, he's a good man. I like him.
Speaker 2:But you just think President Trump would be better for America.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's probably right. Let's talk a little bit about church. I posted the video of you speaking when you guys did the play this year, the Christmas play. I posted the video and thousands of people liked it and whatnot. So, um, one of the things people don't know about you is that this that you and your sister pray every single night yeah is that? Is that something that you don't even think about it anymore, right? I mean, that's just something that's become part of your life yeah, routine routine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's the most important thing of what you're learning about your faith?
Speaker 3:I mean, god is good, nothing else it's coming up close to Easter. I've always been a big Christian but I kind of like took it up a notch. Like my school, we have this thing called uh, first priority, which is basically every tuesday. We go, we I get to school early and we learn like something new and like everyone prays at each day and it's like really good. My class also prays every day before lunch like I learned like a new story, like jo, job, jeremiah, all the great ones have you guys studied any of the Gospels, like John and those.
Speaker 2:Have you gotten to that?
Speaker 3:yet yeah, we did that at Sunday school.
Speaker 2:Sunday school.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So one of the things I want to talk to you a little bit about is a friend of ours, a family friend of ours, out in California. A 12-year-old boy, eli, has been sick. I talked to you about it already and one of the things that's really inexplicable is that Eli's family has cancer and he's got to get new blood occasionally. And one of the things that's really inexplicable is that Eli's family has cancer and he's got to get new blood occasionally, and one of the things that he has to do they wanted to do was be able to get blood from his family. It'd be like if you got sick, you know your mom and dad are hollis and you know everybody in our family would want to give you blood. Well, the Red Cross that collects the blood has this crazy deal that if you want to direct it, in other words, if your dad wanted to say I want to give my blood to Sam, the Red Cross charges $25,000 for that and he's got to have four of them. Eli's got to have four of these and you know, for adults to kind of look at that, it's like what in the world is going on. But it also, you know, is is, you know, brings back some, you know, sort of big biblical thoughts. Romans 12, eight says this giving with generosity, leading with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness. And I was thinking about knowing you were coming in today and I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about this, and you know you're going to have thousands of people watching this show, thousands, so there will be let's just say that there were 20,000 people watch this show. If we could just get 2,000 of them, 10% of them, to give $10 or $20, we could raise enough to get one of these blood transfers paid for. So I know it's hard, because you know you're healthy and you know I'm not I've struggled with the cancers and stuff too so but this is something that I think is really important and one of the things that I like I like most about you, sam, is that is that you're, you're thoughtful and and and you have diligence and you show mercy and you're, you know, cheerfulness and and all the things that were in Romans.
Speaker 2:The book of Romans was written by Paul, one of the leaders of Rome. Ancient Rome basically banned Christianity from Rome, and so they basically kicked all the Christians out of Rome and kicked all the Jews out of Rome, and so by the time five years later, when they all got to come back, things had sort of morphed and changed and they stopped learning how to do right and how to really follow the commandments, learning how to do right and how to really follow the commandments. And so he wrote these letters to Rome saying hey guys, you're not doing this right anymore. But if you think about that, you know, you think about, you know giving with generosity. I want to be able to help Eli. So if I said I want you to give some money to Eli to help pay for this blood situation that they're dealing, his family's dealing with you think 10 bucks would you be willing to do that?
Speaker 3:Like 20 or 15.
Speaker 2:20 bucks. Yeah, yeah, that'd be, that's great. Well, here's what I think we ought to do, sam, I think, I think, I think if you would just tell everybody that's watching, you know, when we're trying to get, let's just say we're trying to get 2000 people to get, say, we're trying to get 2,000 people to give $20. That's $40,000. Well, that'll pay for nearly two of these treatments, which would be phenomenal.
Speaker 3:So look at the camera and ask all the adults out there to step up and help Eli. If you can donate a couple, like $20 or whatever you can put out, we're going to put the Give, send, go link below into the description so you can donate $20 to Eli and his family so they could afford for his cancer treatments. That money would mean so he could be a regular boy and not have to worry about, like just pray for him he doesn't even ever know when it's going to be his last day Just going to have a regular life like do the things that he loves again. Children deserve to have a good life.
Speaker 2:I think it's really unfair, honestly, sam, that the Red Cross is doing this, but that's an adult problem. And I think that's really unfair, honestly, sam, that the Red Cross is doing this, but that's an adult problem. And I think that me, catherine, your dad, others are going to be pretty aggressive and Papa can be aggressive sometimes and I think we're going to be aggressive in our approach of this situation with the Red Cross. It's really just unfair, right. I mean, you've got a little kid that we really just want to be able to support him and help him, you know, not just financially, but with prayer and, sam, I hope that you and Hollis will add Eli to your prayer list at night until we get past this.
Speaker 2:I don't know a lot of kids that have have the dedication to sports that you have. I can remember when you were little, like going out. You'd be out in the in during COVID even. I think you were in like first or second grade or something and you were out in the, in the garage, you know, pounding baseballs into the net. A lot of kids have been there on their video games or doing whatever, but you do that, and even even this summer and in between, even this winter you do things that not every kid does Quarterback practice, I mean. You really train hard. So what are some of the things that you're doing that you think are making a difference in your body and how you approach the game?
Speaker 3:I go to workouts upper body. Mostly I do sleds.
Speaker 2:Sleds, kind of lower body though right In sled kind of drive. Yeah, you do plyometrics and things like that. Box jumps and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, well, like this winter, our team does like workouts, like team workouts. We do like stuff for our arms, we do. We throw medicine balls at walls. We do lunges, bear crawls, a lot of stuff to like help our body and like be healthy.
Speaker 2:So what do you do at the gym? What are the kind of things you do at the gym? What are the kind of things you do at the gym? What's your least favorite thing?
Speaker 3:My least favorite, sleds.
Speaker 2:Sleds are your least favorite. Yeah, I think bear crawls was always my least favorite.
Speaker 3:We do bear crawls at my practice.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a few things that are more important for you than pressing that lower body and learning how to drive, and so um so sleds make all a huge amount of difference, not just in football but in baseball when we break it down we say like win on me, one on three, one, two, three, one so, uh, vipers, breaks it down a little bit differently, right yeah, what's your Viper breakdown?
Speaker 2:Dominate, dominate. Yeah so at your workouts it's win, with the Vipers it's dominate. What about football? Team, team, yeah so win, team and dominate are your main breakdowns for your different sports in your workouts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we pray before each workout. We also give a prayer request if we have anyone we want to pray for.
Speaker 2:So maybe say a prayer for Eli. Yeah, ask a prayer request. Sam, thanks for coming in. You have anything else you want to talk about? We didn't cover oh, I know what we didn't cover. We didn't cover Papa's school, all right. So back during COVID everybody that follows me knows this Occasionally I would come over. I was actually going through cancer treatment myself at the time, I don't know if you even knew that, but I would come over and you were obviously homeschooling and and we would do public school. So we set up in the, in the guest room, we set up a desk Remember, your parents set up a desk at the table, the whiteboard, the whiteboard, the whole thing and we would do Papa School. So I was the best teacher you've ever had, right.
Speaker 3:I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 2:It's okay, you don't have to answer. So what was the best part about Papa's school? Man, we learned so much. Sam, I let you off the hook so many times.
Speaker 3:I mean, I like running Papa's PT.
Speaker 2:Papa's PT? Yeah, but you didn't like the push-ups. No, you were good at the push-ups, you just didn't like them. No, because you were what too young. Yeah, but you were cranking them out though. You know what we ought to do we ought to create a Papa's PT for PE at school.
Speaker 3:No, I don't know. So what do you all do at PE at school? On Mondays we do cardio day, which is like basically like catch up with your friends from the weekend. Tuesday we have like I think this month we're doing like basketball, which is like learning how to play the game, and Wednesday is like station day. We have a stage, we have a basketball court in our gym and behind that is the stage, and on the stage there's like workout equipment, like treadmills, that bike thing where you like pedal your feet, and there's also like yoga balls, medicine balls and yeah so what then?
Speaker 2:what do you do on Thursdays?
Speaker 3:uh, same thing we do on Tuesday and on Friday. We do like fun. Friday we have to run four laps around, are?
Speaker 2:you, you, the fastest.
Speaker 3:One of them, yeah.
Speaker 2:One of the fastest? Yeah, do you dominate everything in PE?
Speaker 3:Yeah, like sharks and minnows.
Speaker 2:Sharks and minnows yeah.
Speaker 3:I get numbers in sharks and minnows.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you Sam. So, sam, your mom and dad really control your social media image and what gets pushed out there on you, whether it's videos or the graphics and posts of all types. But what is it you want people to know about you that they don't see in the videos or they don't see in the graphics?
Speaker 3:I'm calm most of the times, sometimes crazy. I like to have fun. I play really hard. So like I play really hard in the game, like I tried my hardest in games, and like after the games I go like um, like give them high fives, like tell them good game, and then I'd have fun with my teams afterwards sometimes. And yeah, basically I like to have fun.
Speaker 2:Do you consider yourself a leader on your team?
Speaker 3:One of them.
Speaker 2:yes, On your baseball team? Yes, what about football?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You're a leader. Yes. What do you think makes the what's the good qualities of a leader?
Speaker 3:Time stays with the team, Like if the team's doing something bad, like tell them not to do it, follow the rules and basically don't get in trouble.
Speaker 2:That's probably right. Ask Papa some questions.
Speaker 3:What are your thoughts on Donald Trump?
Speaker 2:trouble. That's probably right. Ask Papa some questions. What are your thoughts on Donald Trump?
Speaker 2:I think that a lot of people consider President Trump, you know, depending on what side you're listening to, I mean a lot of people either. See, you know he can do no wrong and other people, you know, let's say he can do no right. I think that the Democrats and the left broadly, people on the other side have so demonized him and so attacked him. You know they've arrested him multiple times. We were talking about this earlier.
Speaker 2:You know that mugshot is really interesting because of the way he embraced that and his team embraced that and, frankly, how other people embrace it. People now look at that and say, wow, I mean, they did that to the former president of the country. Their way is to talk so badly about him that people might think poorly about him. But my experiences with President Trump he is a very genuine human being. He's very kind, he's tough but is very smart. I think he is challenged by what a lot of leaders are challenged by, and that is, the people around them aren't always the best people, and so you know there were people in his first administration who really didn't have his best interest in mind. So my broad thought is that President Trump is a president for all Americans. He's going to do what's right for America, irrespective of what it is.
Speaker 3:What thing are you most proud of?
Speaker 2:Me, your Uncle, jd, your dad, your mom, emma and Katie, your mom and Emma and you guys.
Speaker 2:I'm proud of my family, I'm proud of who you all are and what you are, and I'm proud that you're you know that you're, you know, just such a good kid. I mean. You know you grow up when you get older, sammy, you'll realize this that really, in the end, your faith and your belief in God and your family and friends to an extent, but your God and your family and your country are really what you have and you have to be willing to fight for all of them. And I'm proud of you and your sister and what you guys are growing up to be and who you're growing up to be. And just you coming in here and sitting down with me today. There's not, you know, not just every 10-year-old on the planet would come in and sit down and talk about this kind of stuff and it's hard, but I'm proud of you guys for that and it makes me happy that my life is turned out in such a way that my family is something that I can be proud of.
Speaker 3:What makes you the happiest?
Speaker 2:What makes you the happiest? What?
Speaker 3:makes me the happiest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love to watch you guys play sports. I love to watch y'all play sports. I love to come to your games, whether it's football, baseball, hollis', basketball, anything. I love watching you kids, and part because I like watching you succeed, I like watching how you deal with adversity, um, and and I believe that team sports is one of the most important things that kids can do and, uh, just watching you grow up in in all of that and turn into the to the are and you know, learning how to think through things on the mound or in the huddle, or even at home or at church or anything else. I mean you're growing up and turning into a young man that not only your mom and dad are going to be proud of, but Papa's super proud of you.
Speaker 3:What was your most favorite sports moment?
Speaker 2:Mine.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Man. This will sound weird, Sammy, because I did get to play a lot of sports when I was younger and don't you face Dale Strawberry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my favorite moment I think, though, Sammy, was not even about me. It was when your dad and Uncle JD were playing, and I had an enormous amount of pride in the way that they conducted themselves on the field and the way that they and now what your dad's grown up into in terms of helping you and coaching you, but my favorite sports moments are watching you and watching Hollis and watching your dad and watching Uncle JD play. I mean, those are the things I remember the most.
Speaker 3:What's something you'd do over again?
Speaker 2:What's something I would do over again.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Man Sammy, I have the most. What's something you'd do over again? What's something I would do over again? Yeah, man Sammy, I have no regrets. I would do it all over again, but I'm satisfied with what I am and who I am and what I've accomplished and I've had a great fortune in my life to work for presidents and governors and senators and those kinds of things We've accomplished so much. I do it all again, but I'm satisfied with the opportunities that God's given me. I look forward to the coming years and watching you grow up and turn into a man and see what you become.
Speaker 3:Thank you for including me in this broadcast.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, Sammy. I'm glad you came. Love you, bro. Love you podcast. You're welcome, Sammy.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you came. Love you, bro. Love you. Please don't forget to join Team. Eli Give sing go.
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