This week in our Summer Replay Series, we revisit our conversation from late last year with former MLB pitcher Randy Lerch. Randy's alcohol and drug addition short-circuited what could have been a dominant career. Instead, he's living with a medical death sentence. But through the grace of Jesus Christ, he's defying the doctors and doing wonderful ministry work with his wife, Maria. Check it out!
The Dan Scott Show Podcast
Dan Scott Show, Radio Episode 80 - Randy Lerch (7-14-24)
The following program is a presentation of Grand Slam Ministries. Hi, everybody, and welcome to episode 80 of the Dan Scott show presented by Grand Slam Ministries, our 501c3 nonprofit organization. I am Dan. As always, it is a blessing to have you with us hope that you've had a great week, and we look forward to spending the next hour or so with you. We are in the early stages of our summer replay series. We did it last year to give some of you a chance to catch up on some things. And for many of you actually getting the chance to hear some of these interviews for the very first time if your affiliate that you listen on has joined us after this originally aired or maybe you have joined us after it originally aired. Today, this is one of the favorite ones that I've done so far because of my love of the game of baseball. I was able to connect with former big league Randy Lurch, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies, primarily in his big league career. It's a guy who as you hear his story, you're going to hear a story of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, all kinds of issues that he had, and he's actually living with cirrhosis of the liver. But God has allowed him to continue to live in many ways that probably defies modern medicine. It's an incredible story. His wandering away from coming back to Jesus and what he and his wife Maria are doing now with their personal ministry out in the state of California. It's just an inspiring story. So you know me, I get a chance to talk baseball and Jesus in the same conversation. I'm always a happy guy. We'll take a break. We'll come back and get into the interview with Randy Lurch right after this. Teenage boys and young men today are in crisis. Statistics show that a home without a father or male role model present is the single biggest indicator of poverty, behavior issues, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal activity, and yes, imprisonment. At Grand Slam Ministries, one of our core missions is developing a mentorship program to teach boys how to become strong Christian men, and then teach those men to be the biblical husband's fathers and church and community leaders the Bible calls us to be. We need your prayers, we need your ideas, and we need your support. Visit our website grandslamministries.org to find out more about our mentorship mission and prayerfully consider how you may be able to assist us. Again, that website is grandslamministries.org. Want to see a listing of our affiliates? Check out videos or listen to past shows and explore our archives. It's all available at our website, danscottshow.org. And now, back to the show. Episode 80 of the Dan Scott show, we are rolling on actually just getting into things here. As always, a quick reminder, danscottshow.org is your one stop shop for everything that we do. You can find my bio there. You can find our affiliates and archives page so you can see where you can listen to the show's live or you can go to the podcast archive directly from that page and listen to everything that we've done all the way back to episode number one. Plus, there's some sound cloud bonus info there as well. Danscottshow.org. Let's get right into this because it's a little bit lengthy, Randy Lurch, big league pitcher in the mid to late 70s into the early part of the 1980s, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies, I've told you at the beginning, alcohol problem, drug problem currently living with cirrhosis of deliver. But man, what God has done in this guy's life is simply incredible. And as we normally do with these interviews, I opened up by asking Randy what he's doing now. And I always get a kick out of this. He refers to me as pastor Dan. My dad was the pastor, but Randy, even though I tell him that he still calls me that. I don't know if he knows something I don't or not. But anyway, here's our conversation with Randy Lurch. Well, first of all, pastor Dan is it's an honor to be on your show. And I feel very grateful if you invite me. So I hope I hope I can can to do your show justice. What what I'm doing right now is my best since my cirrhosis, liver cirrhosis diagnosis, about seven years ago, when I'm I was in the midst of a serious alcohol morbidly, morbid alcohol problem. And was diagnosed with cirrhosis. And that day my my daughter my liver specialist put his arm around me and said, you need a liver transplant. And your your situation is you could go into liver failure at any moment. God spirit touched me. And I I told him I didn't need a liver transplant or I didn't want a liver transplant because many times I was told to stop drinking or it was going to kill me. And and I was at that day. So I felt like we need to give the liver to someone that didn't do what I did. And, you know, God took it from there. And where I'm out right now is at that time I was day to day. That was seven years ago. And in the meantime, I've done everything that the doctors have told me to do by, you know, the way I eat. I the day I was diagnosed by a phone call. After 40 years of, of using alcohol, I, I stopped cold turkey after seeing the tears running down my, my wife, Maria's face. And she said, don't leave me. And I said, well, I won't. And, you know, God be willing. So since then, I'm a I'm a miracle. I'm a walking miracle. And and like I said, I quit drinking. And now God has allowed me to write my book, God in the book and two years after I was diagnosed. And the doctor telling me it looks like you're doing good enough to not be told you're you're gonna die today. But I was told I have more time. I still have cirrhosis. I'm still turning on. But I'm not day today. And so I like to say that I when when my doctor told me looks like you've been given more time. I wanted to I wanted to climb the highest mountain scream. Thank you God. And and be able to tell my story of what alcohol drugs and alcohol can do to you. And what God has done to give me more time and to save me from this horrible disease. So what I'm doing right now after writing my book, God in the book and over four years ago, listening to my doctors, and doing the best I can to share my story and looking for different ways like your your great show is being on the show and and to be able to share my story to help others is what I'm doing right now. And my health I'm day to day and it's in God's hands. That's a sports sports terminology right there day to day because as we know we're all day to day right in a in a in a big sense we are. When you and I connected a couple of months ago and you sent me a copy of your book, God in the bullpen, the Randy Lurch story and and the subtitle is a big leaguer's battle with drugs and alcohol addiction and cirrhosis. And it was written co-written by Harold Lurch, no relation to you. And that's another story, perhaps we'll get into in a bit. But you sent me the book. I was able to read it. And I remember you asking me what I thought about it. And my response to you was I admired the fact that you didn't hold anything back in the book when it came to your not just your baseball career in the big leagues, which we'll get to, but your struggle with alcohol, drugs, the problems that it caused in your family life. You didn't hold anything back in the book. And to me, that's key because if you're not willing to bear your soul in something like this, it's not going to have the desired effect. And obviously, God is using this in a way that is bringing him glory and helping other people because you were willing to be vulnerable and open. And that's truly the way I felt about it, because the book started out in in stages. We talked earlier and we'll probably get into how I came about to write the book. But my, you know, cause or how lurch, we didn't know how we were going to do it. He wanted to be a ghost writer. And I found out that there's just no way the emotion that was involved and what it was going to take to tell the story the right way by me giving him notes and then him trying to put down on paper, what I was trying to tell him. So we went with that and that wasn't working. And, you know, me having no computer skills or nothing. I just started praying. And, you know, I, I, I, I said, Oh, Lord, please help me, please guide me because it would be a test thing, right? I grabbed my iPad and how it told me, you know, just speak into this thing. Well, I found that, you know, that wasn't going to work, because it didn't totally put down what I was trying to that I was telling it ever felt these words. And then finally, I got frustrated with it. And I said, Well, you know, let me let me write it. And then I'll send it to you because he is a Christian writer. And he, he said, then I'll, you know, all edits it and we'll go from there. And that's how it started. So it started with me, first of all asking God to guide me how we were going to do this. And then, and then it came to where I was doing the hunting pec thing they call about on my iPad. And, and then I was sent it to hell. And I mean, let me tell you, it was rough. But I knew when to stop as people that have way more computer skills than me, when my when my iPad was slow down, I knew it was time to shut up and send it to him. Right. So I, I ended up, I would do that and I'd send it to him. And like I said, it was it was pretty rough. But you know, he would put put the words, you know, swap them around, put them together. And, and it started where I was just going to write it, where it was just going to talk about the alcoholism and debate, you know, baseball, my alcoholism and baseball and then how bad it got after I retired. And, and then I started thinking, well, this, why, why don't I go ahead and start from the beginning of my, my upbringing, how I became to be a major league baseball player, people would be interested in that. And then as things progressed, I thought, well, you know, I know a lot of stories that are untold stories, tugging across stories, Steve Carlton stories, people, you know, the 2322 game. And so I started to implement that. And it started flowing in there. And I, it took me a year down. And, and I never never wrote one day without being in prayer first and asking God for guidance. And he started, he started, things started coming to my mind that I I actually had no idea. I mean, I, of course, knew I did it, but I had long forgotten them. And as the story progressed, it started started flowing that way. And so we went through, you know, the start my childhood, but how I had the great idea of how I how I started into the alcoholism, the greenies. And then he so he started it to get people's interest. And it flip flopped into my childhood. And we just started flowing. And believe it or not, I'll kept saying, man, you're starting to get it. I said, well, I bet it's almost been a year, you know, so but we would have had that and, and, you know, the rest is history. Visiting with former big league or Randy Lurch on this week's edition of the dance got show. So let's let's go back. When did you fall in love with the game of baseball? I, I fell in love with baseball. When I was just a little more always, always loved, you know, saw the big leaguers on the TV. But I remember distinctly, it was kind of like a ritual for my dad and I to he was my dad was a big baseball fan, actually a semi play, semi pro baseball player. And we were laying watching the game of the week. I don't know, Tony, too big, Joe Guerra, Joe, something like that. And and I'm laying on the floor. He's in his easy chair behind me. And somebody did something, made a plan. Oh, wow. You know, I said, Dad, are those guys any good? And he had a grand chuckle and says, Hey, he says, Randy, all those guys are good. He goes, I want to do that. I said, I want to do that someday. And so from that point on, as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a major league baseball player. When did you have your initial encounter with Christ? Because this is a recurring theme throughout your entire story. And the ultimate redemption. But but when was your first experience with with Christ and giving your life to him? I love his story. Kind of just give me goosebumps because I must have had just a special place in my heart for Jesus, because my mom and dad at week, I have two other brothers and sister. I was the oldest. And the the that somebody after you said, I guess it was Britannica, encyclopedias came by and my mom and dad thought that that would be a great thing for the children to have and to to have for their upbringing and for their schooling back in the day. And I was slipping through the pages and and I saw all cries thinking about it. I saw Jesus being crucified. And and it just did to me what it's doing to me right now. It broke my heart. And and from that day on, I loved Jesus. And then my mama was a Christian at the local Baptist Church. I tell stories of how she was she was baptized and we watched her being baptized and she was in her a white gown. And yeah, I tell the story how she looked like an angel that day. And and it's funny how my brothers and sisters aren't followers, but I just I peeled off. And of course, I had my my sinful ways as I was growing up. But you know, God never let me go. So that kind of leads into the next question you didn't grow up in a in a Christian home with with a great deal of Christian influence then. No, I didn't. My my father was actually an atheist. And I talk about in the book that that he actually made fun of mom as she was loading the car, the kids in the car, and taking us off the church. And I can't imagine how difficult it was for her, you know, to have her husband to make fun of her when she was taking her children to church. But you know, she persevered and and and she my mom was a follower till the day she died of Louis body dimension at 83 years old about five years ago. And and Maria and I, my wife, me and I always tell we're gonna we're gonna see mom against someday. That's for sure. But she she persevered. And and you know, I remember she would come and visit us and she knew how much I love Jesus. And she would always sit next to me and she goes, Oh, Randy, tell me about Jesus. You know, of course, they have my mother who was the one that led me that direction. You know, she I couldn't wait. And, you know, so I, you know, I love talking about Jesus to my mom until the day she died. That's that's outstanding. So you've talked about how you fell in love with baseball. We've talked about how you met Jesus. And then there's this other aspect of your story. And I don't want to say that you fell in love with alcohol. But there's a beginning of that story as well. Do you remember your first drink? Do you remember the genesis of the of what became the big issue in your life for 40 years? I sure do. I it was amazing is is if there was a good issues on our high school baseball team, it was me. You know, at that age, a lot of the kids go off and you know, go and have their beers and do their partying. And I just couldn't stand it. And not until I, you know, I was drafted when I was barely 18 years old by the Philadelphia Phillies, and went off to play in Auburn, New York. And and even in those days, I wasn't a big drinker. I remember I tell the story after my the year was over. I ended up nine and two as a as a kid in in single A ball and all the college kids got together and decided we were going to party for everybody left. And and I remember I got super drunk on these things called Harvey wall bangers. I like the taste of them, man. But you talk about deathly sick. You know, on my plane ride back from from New York, I remember I couldn't even lift my head off my seat for five hours until I got home. So I wasn't a drinker. And it's amazing. Once once I got to the big leagues, I was around a lot of the lot of players that I on the Phillies in those days were had been in the big leagues quite a while. And the starting pitchers had their routine, which I was a starting pitcher to where you know, you you got ready to pitch. But in the meantime, you know, every fifth day you pitch, but you went and had your beers and stuff like that. And a lot of times too many. And you know, the guys wanted me to be a part of that that deal. And I had, I made the I made in 1977, I made the Phillies, actually puts 26 score those innings in in spring training, hit a homerun and made the team as the first, the third in the lines of five starting pitchers. And and I had one of the players after I went five or six and two, my first games in the big leagues. And I'd be San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, I beat some real good teams. And I had, I was getting ready to pitch in Houston and had one of my teammates who was a very successful starting pitcher. Tell me he says, Well, you know, I want to give you some advice. You know, and he had these greenies in his hand and Vietnamese and told me that I'll never be successful unless I take these. And I remember that I was, I always got super, super nervous almost to the point where I was nauseous before I would start. But that was, that was something that was that helped me because it made me careful out there and made me pitch out there. And it also gave me a lot of adrenaline to throw really hard being my best. And but I tried what he said, I took one of the greenies. And and I found that those made me feel super confident. But they took away that anxiety. And it also made me feel like I was so much better than the guy I was pitching against, which you should. But you also should know that he could hurt you if you don't pitch against him. Well, hit the spots and stuff. And I went up and fit against the Houston Astros after taking the greenies. And I gave up back to back to back home runs. I was a mess. But boy, did I like the way I felt out there. So, and also I liked the way it felt because in order to sleep that night, I drank lots and lots of alcohol that, you know, was able for me to sleep. And, you know, I feel like I was should have probably I was taking dummy pills too. Because I didn't realize the dumbness in me as a kid to realize that what that did is that was the start of me doing something disastrous. I left handed picture that through 96 miles, 97 miles an hour 95 around that area. A kid with so much talent, it took that all away. And, you know, it was and I with the point is I just kept because I like the feeling I took those greenies and started drinking more and more and more alcohol to the end of my my career in 1986. What is interesting about your story and the era in which you played and it goes back even before your era because I'm a huge baseball fan have been on my life. Love the history of the game. So, I've read both of Jim Brosnan's books and of course, read Jim Boughton's book, ball four in every update that he did on that multiple times. And when Brosnan was writing about his seasons in 1959 and 1961, the prevailing theme when he wasn't on the mound was going out and drinking with the boys and taking what they call bombers, which was the greenies. And Boughton's book, ball four, it was going out and drinking with the boys and it was the greenies and trying to figure out how to get them because I think by that time, Major League Baseball had tried to start clamping down on them a little bit. It just was part of the lifestyle of a Major League Baseball player. And I'm not offering that as an excuse. That's just what it is. And I can just imagine the peer pressure that a young impressionable kid who's coming into the big leagues must have been under to do what all these other successful players are doing to say no to that would have taken some great internal fortitude. Exactly. And, you know, it wasn't just the starting pictures. It was, you know, the everyday pictures, the ones that pictures the everyday players, the ones that needed them, you know, it was a long haul season, 162 games. And I remember one of the sayings was is, you know, if you got them, take them, if you need them, get them, you know, and even before that, they tried to put a damper on taking the amphetamines, they actually used to have greenies. And then before that, they called it red juice on the trainers table. And they were right there for you to take because it wasn't a no no on those days. And, you know, I know that once I took the greenies, it made me feel invisible, invincible. I was invisible. And then, and then, you know, I just what it did is it, you know, you could, you could drink tons and tons of alcohol. And then it would keep you could stay up all night long. And then if you had a bad hangover the next day, or she did take a take a greenie and go to the ballpark. So it was it was just basically it just snowballed. And if someone now I look back on it with my family history of alcoholism, you know, I'm sure I had the gene. And by God's great grades, you know, I'm I'm still here after and boy, I'd tell you I, you know, as you we might touch in the book, but I, you know, be through, you know, the rehabs and near death experience and all that stuff. I think I'm here for a reason down to to share my story and to help others. We know the one thing that that just kind of struck me a moment ago is as we were getting ready to do this in your story, because I was looking at something in the book right before you popped on the zoom call with me. And it talked about, I think it was one of how Lurch's authors notes. But it talked about how every time you stumbled and fall or stumbled and failed, God was there when you asked for forgiveness and he picked you up and then the cycle would start over again. And I thought, man, this sounds an awful lot like the the Israelites. In in in the Old Testament, how they they would stray from God and God would bring judgment on them and they would, they would repent and he would restore them. And then the cycle would start over again over and over and over. I mean, people, if they read this book, there are so many opportunities if God wanted to say to Randy Lurch, that's it. I've had enough of you. There were plenty of opportunities for him to do that, but he never did. Exactly. And you know, it's funny. Marie and I talked about it about exactly that. You mean God stiff neck people, right? And you know, we've talked about, you know, I kind of like the Israelites, where I just didn't get it. But I look back on it. Things in the book, it was only about me talking about my alcoholism and stuff. But there was so much more in the journey of near death experiences. And looking back on it, I truly believe that this was God's way of getting me ready for what I'm doing right now. Because I feel with the exception of a few things that the trials and tribulations I've been through, that now I can, I can sit in front of many people or one, to whatever. And you know, whatever issue comes up, you know, I'll be able to say, I've done that. I've been there. And you know, first of all, I'm going to tell them, first of all, you need to realize that the only way you're going to get rid of that, you know, be able to get through your terrible addiction is by the love of God. And I tried that too. I tried to do everything on my own. So I could explain that to someone else. I could explain what it's like to lose your family, what it's like to lose everything you ever had. And to sit with someone and first of all, to share God's love. And and that's what I'm doing right now. And I'm just looking for opportunities to share with more Randy Lurch joining us, former big league pitcher. You're you're a bit older than me. I graduated high school in 1985. So my baseball education growing up was was the the 70s and 80s. I was an eight year old that fell in love with the big red machine in 1970 in 1975. So that that's the generation I became a fan in. And I remember this left hander for the Philadelphia Phillies named Randy Lurch as the you know, the Reds would be on the radio. And I hear Marty Brennan doing the game and and talking about Randy Lurch is on the mound today. The pinnacle for any professional athlete is to get to play in and win a world championship. And in 1980, the Phillies with by the way, with the help of Pete Rose, we wouldn't want to let that go who had signed it had signed a free agent the the year before after leaving the Reds. The Phillies got there. And it was a huge moment in in Philadelphia sports history. But it's a moment that you didn't get to experience because you were left off the postseason roster. So here's the thing that is the pinnacle for an athlete. And it's right there within your grasp and and in God's providence. And we can talk about what that's like looking back, I guess, but you didn't get you didn't get to grasp the golden ring. I mean, what was that like at that moment? Yeah, first of all, shout out to your big red machine boy, you know, rose, bench, you know, Morgan going on. But did that was some of the most heartbreaking things of my of my life. Dallas Green and I didn't get along at all the manager. But also, I earned that right. I started out in 1978, I hit two home runs against Pittsburgh Pirates with four games left in a season. But when I started that game, we had a one game lead with two left in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh was on a roll. And I ended up giving up a grand slam to Willie Stargill in the in the first inning. And then I hit two home runs of my own and led the Phillies to the win. So my point, what the reason for saying that is that I was a very center part of that Phillies pitching staff. 1979, I was 10 and 13, but with a three, seven year run average. And I think I fits 215 or 20 innings or something like that, which will be which will be worth about $22 million a year of these days. Yeah, left and exactly. So but then so I was I was looked on by the Phillies. I started out the year really, really good in 1980. And then I just I just floundered and floundered and ended up for him 14. We had some young we had Dickey Knowles and Marty Bystrom come up Bob walk come up and it was a good, good reason for doubt, I was screaming to leave me off the roster. I remember the day that Herman Stratt told me the pitching coach told me that I wasn't going to be on on the playoffs team. We of course, we didn't know we were going to make it to the World Series. I was so heartbroken, because it was just such a shock to me. But they told me, well, you can, you know, a little bit, I know my ego, my pride, I basically told the Phillies where they could do with it. And, you know, in these days, now the guys actually travel with the team, they said you can travel with the team, you can be a part of the team in the whole bit. My, my ego, my hurt was so bad that I told him, no, I don't want to be a part of it. I remember when the Phillies beat Houston, when Pete made that, that catch went jumped out of Bob Boone's glove and he caught it and they wanted. And one of the things I was close to talking with Grohane, he said how much he missed me being there. And you know, again, I could have been there. I got a full I got a full share. In those days, it was 35,000. Believe it or not, for winning the World Series and, and, and, but I, the hurt that went along with, I got a trophy, I got a ring a whole bit, you know, you know, all the other stuff that goes with it, except for being there. And that was the greatest hurt in my life. And one of the, one of the greatest. Right. And yet, years later, they invited you back for a reunion celebration. And, and you went back to that ease any of that, the any of those ill feelings at all. It did because I wasn't going to go there. And it was again, the hurt was so deep. I mean, it was, I made sure that I went when they were playing in Philadelphia, when they're playing the Royals, I sat in the stands, you know, sometimes tears rolling down my cheeks, wish, and I was part of that. You know, I saw the team run out there, the celebration. And, you know, the terrible pain that went with it. The reason I went there is to make sure that I never let that happen to me again. You know, that, you know, make sure you're out there and you're doing the things you should be doing to, to, you know, to qualify to be on that team. It was hurtful. You know, there's so much in this book and, and we could go on for forever. But I actually would like for people to buy a copy of it. So we don't want to tell them every single thing that's in it. But there's just a pattern. You mentioned it a moment ago, losing everything you had. And you had some former teammates who stepped up to help you out financially when you were going through some of those times, you had the opportunity to go play in the old senior professional baseball league down in Florida back in the late 80s and early 90s, I believe, and, and, and fell right back into those old habits and those old patterns. And I've experienced this in my own life when it comes to the grip that sin has on you, Randy, you can have seasons, short seasons of success. With me, it was alcohol and not quite to, to your extent, but pornography, infidelity, all of those other things that I battled for so long. And I swore at times I would never do it again. And I would have a little bit of success. And then the devil yanks you right back into it. That was a pattern that consistently repeated itself in your life. You would stumble, you would fall, God would pick you back up. He would provide people to help you. You would have small seasons of success. But the, the, the pull of, of that alcohol, the pull of sin, let's call it what it is, was so strong that that humanly speaking, you just can't break those bonds, can you? You can't break those bonds and, and the sin is so great. And then one of the things that I do share when, when I talk to people is the power of addiction. You know, I mean, the devil through the alcohol is constantly talking, you know, well, you can do this. You're cured now. I talk about this a lot in the book. I mean, I, I went and I was, I was attacked by 170 pound great Pyrenees dog and ripped apart and spent, I actually had them at the top of my arm bone. I forget the name that torn right off. I almost bled to death hours on the operating table along with running my car off of side of the hill and hit the tree. It goes on and on. And I now look back on this as we do. When, when, when God has healed us from this addiction and take it, take and wrap his arm around us and just fill this full of his spirit. I, I look back on it. And, and I just realized that these things I went through was for a reason. Because the thing that stopped me finally was when I got that phone call that you have cirrhosis and that, you know, I knew it cirrhosis meant I knew it was a death sentence. At that time, I was carrying an extra 80 pounds of fluid on me. I couldn't even sit in my car. My precious wife Maria looked at me with tears rolling down her face when we found out that that that I had cirrhosis. And as we, as we sat together, held each other on my my easy chair, she looked up and she says, don't leave me. And, and as I was crying, it just, I guess that's what it took for God to say, look at, I, I almost killed you with a dog, the car, and all these other things. And you know what, you didn't get it. So let's, let's try it. Why don't you try out cirrhosis for a little while here and for the rest of your life. And you know, and now it's given me time to glorify him. So, so inside of that, then when did your relationship with Christ finally become real? Because he'd been trying to get your attention and trying to get your attention and trying to get your attention. And now as you said, in effect, your hand at a death sins. So when, when did, when did the relationship with Christ finally become real? I can say it, I would call it real, but I was still in drinking way too much. I knew we're gonna get out on my rehab, and had drank for the first time in 30 days, because they had me locked up. And, and, and I got on a plane and what we always did when I was in the big leagues is we, we, you know, we had our cocktails when we, when we were flying and I hadn't drank in 30 days. And, and here comes the bloody Mary's really in the morning. And I think I had about 20 of them before I got back to California that day. But I had, I had stopped enough to be able to, because I had to find a job, major league baseball, and tug McGraw and Larry Christensen, they had helped me but I helped me with some finances. But that was never enough. Among the last forever. And even though I was insane from the drinking, I found a job with the company as a, you know, as a backhoe operator, a company that I worked my way up to, to a management position, to where I was making over six figures. And then I was still drinking my alcohol, but was, you know, I was, what I call it, I maintained my, you know, my job and my life, but I was still a drunk. And until I did that, but every single day I was in prayer. I love Jesus to the point where, you know, I knew is, you know, he was my, my savior, my, my redeemer. But when I finally, finally, just really let me myself all the way, it was seven years ago. And when, when God saved me from, from the, you know, all the alcohol and the cirrhosis. Yeah, it isn't an interesting, sometimes what it takes. And I've done so many of these interviews with people who, you know, had had the relationship with Christ from the time they were a small child and, and had had different things happen and some who came to Christ later in life. In some ways, you and I have a similar story from the standpoint of, for me, it was the point where my behavior was about to cost me everything, everything that I had more importantly, everyone that I loved, my wife, my daughters, all of that. That's when I realized, what in the world are you doing? And that's when I made my, my commitment to Christ 11 and a half years ago. He will use anything that it takes to get our attention, won't he? And, and with you, it was cirrhosis. It was, it was a cirrhosis. And, and every time I go and see my liver specialist, he just shakes his, his head and says, you're not supposed to be here. But, you know, that's, that's not what God's plan was. You know, I'm, I'm waiting one day at a time. And, you know, through he used my love of my wife Maria. And, and we, our relationship with Christ is just wrong. We, we, but so close, you know, we, we worship together. We go, you know, obviously go to church together. And, and we've, we've grown with, with our walk every single day. And, you know, I look back, man, you know, that was his plan. And now I'm excited, you know, doing shows like yours and, and, and getting out like just like the other day, you know, I'll do AA meetings and stuff like that. My AA is, is, you know, doing what I do by helping others, but I just walk, went down and found another rehab place. And I go, I love to hand the books, go to common ground where we were Maria and I, we helped the homeless and stuff like that. And people that have alcoholism. And God told me, you know, you know, these people can't afford to buy this book. So, you know, Hannah, if they got a San Francisco giant hat on or, you know, go get one of your giant's baseball cards. Ask him, I, you know, I, here's your San Francisco Giants card. And, and oh, by the way, you might like my book too. Only about two or three minutes left. God is obviously extended your time on this earth for a reason. And, and you just touched on it. And you're, you're getting an opportunity to tell your story and, and, and share that, that story. Now, what is the the central message that you want people to understand when you get a chance to talk to them? If they don't hear anything else that you say, what's the one point that you want to drive home? That, that there's no way that we can make it in this world, especially the way it is now without without God or Jesus Christ in your life. And my message to the alcoholics is I've tried every single way to do it on my own. And without God's help, forget it. You, you need to walk with him and let him do the rest. Do, do you find that the kids used to use the, the phrase street cred? I don't know if they do anymore or not. But do you find that you've got that, that credibility when you go into these facilities and talk with people, not just because you're Randy Lurch, former big league ballplayer, which has some attraction to it. But because you've been in their shoes, are they more apt to listen to what you have to say than they are somebody else coming in and preaching to them? Absolutely. And I feel like I've walked the walk and I'm talking to talk now. So, you know, it's not, it's like somebody that never played in the big leagues, try to tell somebody what it's like to do that. Well, I've been there. And I know what it feels like. And I know what you have to do to get yourself, get yourself, let's put it free, clean, sober. Absolutely. Who was the toughest hitter you faced? You want me to see a Cincinnati red? No, I want you to say who it was. I'm going to say no, no, I'm being actually, I'll tell you the story of Pete Rose. I when with the Reds, I couldn't get Pete out. And Jim Momberg, who was a a long time, you know, he won a Cy Young with the Boston Red Sox. And yeah, I was a starter with the Phillies. I said, great guys. You know, I said, Lonnie, I said, you know, how do you get Rose on? I said, you know, I everything I do. I said, he hits it. He just hits it wherever it's pissed or whatever. And he said, you know what? I figured out how to get him out. He says, so right down the middle. And he said, let him hit the heck out of it. And he said, usually he'll hit it so hard. He always hits it to somebody instead of just serving it where he wants it for it. It was Pete Rose. Well, you know, the other side of that years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Randy Jones, former Cy Young award winner. And Randy probably couldn't break a plane of glass with his fastball. But he told the story about Pete Rose. He said that Rose could not hit him. And everybody knows Pete is a is a switch hitter. He said Pete got so frustrated that and Randy was a left hander. He said that Pete actually tried to hit him left handed instead of hitting against him hitting against him right handed, because he couldn't get him. He couldn't get a hit off of him. And Randy's just dying laughing the whole time. He's telling this story. So he got two extremes. You couldn't get him out and and and Randy. Randy had no trouble getting him out Randy Jones all those years ago. Well, that's called that's called respect. That's fantastic. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you spending some time. And I know we've been working on this for a couple of months and you've been going through some things with your health. So please don't think that that I don't have a great appreciation for you carving out this time for me. And your willingness to share your story, I think is going it already has in in your world where you live. But I think bringing it here to our audience, I think it's going to have an effect on so many people because I'm friends with two specifically two former alcoholics who were into the into the lifestyle big time who now both are in ministry to other alcoholics. They're going to love this story. They're going to love this interview. So it's going to have an impact beyond what you could even imagine. And it's all because your willingness to be open. And I thank you so much. You know, this is I believe this is all in God's plan because you know what, being on your show has been real honored, buddy. And I follow you I was I was telling you earlier before we came on that, you know, I just think that you're just doing a wonderful job and and praise the God. You know, I'm 57 years old now. And over the course of my career, I've been blessed to interact with so many different high profile professional athletes and broadcasters that on one hand, it kind of gets to be routine. But on the other hand, when I'm able to develop a friendship with somebody like Randy Lurch. And I've been fortunate to do that with several former big leaguers. That that that kid in me still comes out. I'm like, I remember watching this guy pitch. That's that's pretty cool. All right, we'll step aside. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back. And we will wrap up this week's edition of the Dan Scott show right after this. Every day there are children who leave school on Friday and eat little and sometimes nothing until they come back to school on Monday. It happens in every community, including yours. Many of these children live in circumstances that deprived them of basic needs necessary for a quality life. At Grand Slam Ministries, we want to change that. We want to invest in our children, giving them hope for the future. That investment includes necessity such as food, clothing, school supplies, and a safe environment to play to study to live. Please visit our website, grandslamministries.org to find out more about our ministry and how you can help. We're just getting started. Will you come alongside us for the Children's sake? Again, that's grandslamministries.org. Back with a quick final segment of this week's show. Our thanks again to Randy Lurch for giving us the time he gave us that episode originally aired back in November. So I'm hoping that if you're hearing it for the second time, you were doubly blessed and maybe picked up on something you didn't get the first time if you're hearing it, or you just heard it for the first time. What an incredible story of God's grace, right? Just amazing stuff. Thank you again, Randy Lurch. As we go out, just a couple of quick reminders, continue to pray for us. We need to make a decision on whether or not to have Lee Strobel in for a fundraiser in November by no later than the end of this month. And a lot of that has to do with finances. So please pray that God's will will be done in that and that we will follow that and and not submit to our own selfish desires. And just want to remind you that if this show has had any kind of impact on you at all, we would love to hear some of those stories, just a quick email Dan@danscotchow.org. And we're going to share some of those in an upcoming episode of the show. So let us know if this show has had an impact on you one way or the other. Listen, have a great rest of your week. And we'll be back again next week with another edition of the Dan Scott show. Until then, I'm Dan. God bless you and so long, everybody. Thank you for listening to this week's Dan Scott show. Here it again. Catch up on past shows or find out more about Grand Slam Ministries. Please visit our website Dan Scott show.org. And while they're perfectly consider making a gift to help us in our mission to share the love of Jesus Christ. That's the Dan Scott show.org. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]