Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Faith in the Zone. I'm Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgifrin flying
solo this week. Hoping to get Pastor Ken Keltner from
Brookside Baptist Church back in studio with me next week.
And we're coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and
Cooling Studios, largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
(00:20):
of Wisconsin. Any issues you have with your HVAC system
go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I want to first
and foremost thank for Andy Holland for the introduction to
our special guest. He is John Zeller from Score International.
He is a baseball coach, been a baseball coach long time,
a lot of different places. He's coached a little soccer.
(00:42):
Also the chaplain for the Tampa Yankees, and we'll talk
a little bit about that part of his life here
in the first and probably third segment as well. Hey John,
how are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Doing great? Mine? Thank you so much. I appreciate the
opportunity to talk with you today and share about this
great platform that we have in sports man.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I appreciate that Randy Holland, one of the good guys
out there.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, he's a great guy. You know. I don't know
if many people will know about the Josh Hamilton story,
which I'm sure he told you about it. Yes, he's
probably famous for that and help restoreing and rehabbing Josh
Hamilton back to the big leagues. And then he and
this guy co partner partner, Roy Silvers was part of that,
(01:31):
and Roy now works with the Rangers as a great job,
taking troubled young players and helping them get them back
into the game. And with all the tools and gifts
that God gave him, they can use.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You know, I had a chance years ago. I was
down visiting my brother who introduced me to my brother,
Tim introduced me to Randy into Roy, and I went
over to where he was in Florida and in the
Tampa area and hung out with Roy for a while.
And he what a good guy. He's been a a
former guest on Faith in his own years ago, and
(02:05):
I kind of forgot about Roy. I appreciate you bringing
him up. I need to reach back out to him
and see if we can't have him back on. Hey, John,
let's talk a little bit about your background where you
grew up and where you're living now.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, I grew up in the Amish Country. I was
born in Afrita, Pennsylvania. Grew up outside Lebanon, Pennsylvania. If
you ever had any Lebnon Blogonia in the sixties and seventies,
that probably came from there. But I grew up outside there, Lebon,
pennsylvan Ainia. By the way, trivia question, Uh, everybody asked
us who was the guy drafted ahead of Michael Jordan,
(02:40):
This guy named Sam Bowie.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, I know, I was ready to answer that question,
Sam Bouie.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So he grew up and played high school basketball and
leb in Pennsylvania. Wow, that's where he's from.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Man.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Anyway, he was up there.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
You know what. Hey, he will always be known as
the answer to that trivia question.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know it's sad because they didn't
find out the problem with his fractures and bone problems
until you know, he got into pro basketball. It just
started affecting him. And great guy though, loves the Lord
and a good Christian man. He told me one time.
I know we're supposed to talk about other he told
(03:20):
me one time, he said, John, you're just like my mother.
I said, what are you talking about You're always asking
me if I read my Bible. My mother asked me
every day, Sam, did you read your Bible today? I said, Okay,
then that's kind of bob we all need. But I
grew up there went My dad was a church planner pastor,
(03:42):
so we moved around quite a bit and went to
high school in southern Ohio. UH, played college baseball little
Christian college in Chattanooga, Tennessee called Tennessee Temple University, and
from there got into coaching. And I'm kind of like
the Larry Brown of coaching. I've been in Charlotte at Nooga,
Los Angeles, Baptist Charlotte zeph for Hills here in Tampa
(04:06):
in the last three years. I coached two years in Hilldale, Utah,
among the what they call the fundamentalist Mormons. And then
this past year, and I'll go back this year coaching
in verg rural area southwest Alabama in Utah, Alabama.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
My goodness, how long you been coaching baseball?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, the toll years of coaching is thirty five. I
kind of opted out for about ten years here lately,
and then I got back into it. I realized I
was hooked up with Score International since nineteen eighty four.
I was the executive director appointed there in twenty twelve,
worked as the assistant executive director for five years and
(04:50):
then got put in as executive director. Did that till
twenty twenty two, and then twenty twenty two, I didn't
have to worry about a three and a half million
dollar budget and raising money and everything else, and started
doing what I really wanted to do. And I loved
baseball my life. Started playing when I was in the
(05:12):
Little league, all the way through high school college and
just stra always loved it. So thirty five years is
high school in college?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, you know, my wife's listening to this show. And
I coached basketball for thirty six and I'm still If
I'm watching a game, i'll pause it and I'll grab
a notebook and if they run it out of bounce
play that, I think, wow, that's that man. They got
a wide open look there. I'll start taking notes and
she'll be like, why are you doing that. I'd be like,
what what I thought you were retired. I'm like, I
(05:44):
am retired. She's like, well, why are you taking notes?
I'm like, I don't know, it's just in case and
She's like, I thought you'd be home more now that
you're retired from coaching basketball. I said, no, I'm still
in the I still go into gym's and I run
drills and we cover games on Fox Sports. I'm twenty
where I'm the color analyst. So I'm still really involved
with high school basketball. But it's that grind of every
(06:07):
single day. I don't miss that part. John, After thirty
six years, it's been good to get away from it
for a while.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You got it, and you know I do it now
for a different purpose, and that's the purpose of using
a platform.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And I like to go places where where guys led
me the last three years. Utah, Alabama, which is I
mean well Utah, Alabama, but Hilldale, Utah. If you ever
seen the documentary Stay Sweet, Pray and Obey the Guy
about Warren Jeffson, they ruled that town for fifty years
and these kids were raised up polygamous families and you know,
(06:48):
eighteen twenty kids. They said, well, you guys draw good
crowds out there. We had a beautiful facility, by way,
but they never had a team. So I love going
out the here and of course, being honest, we couldn't
play dead in the Cowboy movie. But I'll tell you what.
We had good crowds because they all got eighteen twenty kids. Hey,
(07:10):
would you pray with fourteen players?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Want a kid? Would you? Would you prayed before the game?
And all that? They do? They know your background, they did.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They yeah, I went out there to do a clinic.
Don Gordon, guy named Rick Robinson, Brian Donahue coached up
in Toledo and other places. We all went out there,
did a camp and I don't know, I guess when
God struck my heart and I really I really went
(07:40):
out there. And it's called Water Canyon High School. It's
all Mormon. Teachers are Mormon. Everybody's Mormon, ad principal, whole works.
But they are public school and out there and I
really saw a lot of girls. Man, these girls are
telling that I never coached girls saw ball and I said, yeah,
I wouldn't mind coach and here someday. Well they add
(08:02):
at the time, said you'd come here and coach girl
somep on we need a coach real bad. I said, yeah,
I pray about it. And then about two weeks later
they called me when I got home here in Florida.
I live in Lithia, Florida, just outside Tampa. They said, hey,
would you consider coming and being our baseball coach? I said, well,
I definitely would consider. But here's some things got to know.
(08:24):
I'm gonna pray before and after every game. We're going
to have a Bible study every Thursday night. I'm going
to coach from a Christian perspective, and uh, you know,
if you're okay with that, I'm I'm I'm okay with it.
And they said, yeah, we can do that. And actually
I told her I'm making two year commitment. So we did.
(08:45):
Got the program up and run and still running. Now
I got to tell you now, we h my coaching
record fast three years. Mike's not two goods three and
forty six. I will say this, both in Hilldale, Utah
and Utah, Alabama, we've seen twenty six players come to Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well that's a winning record, then, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You got that? Straighten?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Amen to that? I the three wins, I don't even
care about that anymore. All of a sudden, I got
a little like, oh that was that's rough. But man,
you were you weren't coaching those teams to win baseball games.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and really just building the program. And that's so
important for the next guy coming in that they have
a program, a process, I mean even simple things. And
in both places, these are very poor kids, very very
poor kids. When Warren Jeff's out there in Hilldale, you
just got put in prison. I had eight two wives,
one hundred and twenty three kids. They are all related.
(09:47):
I mean, it's really a messed up situation. But these
kids have nothing because he controlled everything. They've had to
give one hundred percent of the tie to the church.
We talk about guys, some people talk about percent good
gracious and they talked about one hundred percent. He provided
them homes, food, all the necessities, jobs, trucks. He did
(10:11):
a good job that way. But when they when he
got put in prison and they all went into poverty
deep pop.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Hey John, that had to be you know, being out
there and seeing that different lifestyle than you're used to.
I would have a hard time not being in the
fetal position like every day.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah. Well, you know again, my whole perspective was use
baseball as a platform to share Christ and so I
remember the very first Bible study we had, man, I mean,
all of them fifteen of them, all of them. Couse,
you ever read the Mormon Bible. You know we have
Mormon Bible. We believe in Jesus. I said, yeah, I
(10:55):
heard of it. To be honest, I wouldn't read it.
Let's just we're going to agree to disagree. I'm gonna
teach you truth. You're not going to convince me to
be a Mormon. Let's just get that out of the way.
But I want to give you some truth because there
is some truth in the Bible that you guys don't
study a lot and not who is Who is Jesus Christ,
That he's the Son of God. He was not birth,
(11:18):
he was created. And so we went there and took
about four or five weeks. We would have a little
dinner snack type dinner and then a Bible study.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And all the.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Kids came, but about two that first year. And but
slowly one of those guys, well, first guy came to
Christ who was living in a polygamous home. And here's
the other thing, Mike, that when they came to Christ,
they man many of those kids couldn't tell their parents,
so they'd have been kicked out of their house. I
tell everybody my experience of two years living with Mormons.
(11:52):
They're wonderful people. To you mess with their religion. Oh,
I mess with their religion and get they get pretty hostile.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We were talking with John's John. Are you formerly with
Scoring International or are you still doing some things with them?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
No, I'm with Score. I've been with Score since nineteen
eighty four. I was one of the five guys signing
the legal papers back then. I was a young college coach.
I've known what I was put my name to that
I never signed it. But there, young, you're just gong
ho many. But I've been with SCORE since there, and
I'm a full time missionary.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I find it. I find it really interesting. You go
from Utah, where we're talking about, you know, Mormons and
the things you went through, to the Bible Belt in
southwest Alabama where Rich Wingo. We had Rich Wingo and
we replayed a show last week, and you know, we've
had a number of people from that area. And one
(12:46):
of the guys said, look, if you tell somebody in
Alabama that they're not going to Heaven, that's where the
fight's going to start. Whether they whether they're in church,
they're reading their Bible, but in the Bible belt. That's
the toughest part. So you go from from trying to
explain basically who Jesus is to Mormons to Alabama where
(13:07):
you are just right into the Bible belting, and what
a difference that had to be.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I will tell you this on all honestee. And
I'd been going to Utah, Alabama for about fifteen years
on you know, a week or two weeks a year
mission trips. So I knew the kids. I knew a
lot of kids when they were little babies, and I
mean little kids. But I'll tell you this, that's a
town overrun with alcohol and drugs. Ninety six percent of
(13:37):
the towns on government assistance. Oh these kids are in rural,
rural Alabama. They are poor, beyond poor. I'll never forget
the very first game last year, we stopped. We were
on the road. We came. I stopped, told the bus
draft stop McDonald's. Will everybody get out. I got up
to go out of the bus. I said, let's go,
(13:57):
We're going to get eat. We're going to get some neat.
Let you get something heat. One of the kids said,
my junior, he's my catcher. Well he wasn't a catcher.
He was a fetcher. But he said this, He said, Coach,
we ain't got no money. Nobody here's got money. I said, okay,
come on. So I wasn't raised a bunch of money
because it was gonna be one hundred and fifty hundred
(14:19):
and sixty bucks every time we had a road game.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So they didn't have anything. I had to get them shoes, gloves, turf.
And here's the other thing too, I have a desire Minke.
You've been around sports. I want their kids will look good.
I don't want them to look like ragtags. We don't
have the same shirts. We ride together. We got turf
shoes like you know, we got cleats, and I got
(14:43):
a lot of people supporting me. And I tell you
that that's all a part of it building a program.
And those kids are not I'm gonna be honest with
most of those kids don't go to church. They're living
out in such rural poorhouses. If it wasn't for duct tape,
some of these kids's houses wouldn't be standing their doors
and windows for sure, wouldn'y?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And hey, John, do these kids come to practice with
their own gloves and bats? And you know, so you've
you've got to figure out how to get these guys
gloves and cleats and gloves.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Bats, practice painting. I'm gonna tell you some I'll be
honest with you, myke. The kids in Utah we had
to do the same thing. We had to provide practice
gear and everything, gloves. But the kids in Utah, Alabama,
I mean not only that they don't have anything, they
got no prospect of getting anything. It's very poor. That's
(15:39):
where all the catfish farms are. A lot of my
kids on weekends work at horse farms or cattle farms. Wow,
what they do is they gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Hate And you know, John, I asked a question, and
we're going to get to a break here in a second.
I asked a question during another show. I do a
high school sports show. We do a segment called the
Kernel Electric Superhero of the Week, and it's a a
senior from a different high school. Does not have to
be sports related, but a kid in drama, kid in
(16:08):
the band. If it is sports related, that's great kid
who does really well in the classroom, very active in
the school, and has that servant leadership heart and a question.
I ask every one of those kids, and I think
I know the answer you're going to give me. But
we're not born with a servant leadership heart. That's a
learned behavior, and I'm wondering you obviously have it because
(16:28):
your whole life, you know, everything we've talked about this
first fifteen minutes is all about you serving others. And
I'm wondering where that servant leadership heart came from for you?
Where did you learn that from?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Well? I learned that two things. First of all, I
had a mom and dad, and I grew up in
a home. I mean, we were okay, and then we
went into extreme poverty. But I always remember mom and dad.
They'd invite somebody in for dinner, shoe we barely had
enough to eat ourselves. They were always go, I want
to get people, pick up people, serve people. And then
(17:04):
I really when I got the baseball job out at
the Master's College with doctor John MacArthur. He hired me
and he passed just recently, but I remember him. He
taught leadership and he taught it with two words, servant
leadership and man that that changed me too as well.
That impacted me. Listen, this life's too short, and I
(17:27):
tell everybody, and you know this, and your listeners. Life's
too short to live it for yourself. I mean he
talked about a lonely road. Go ahead and live and
do everything you do for yourself, and there's so much joy. Yeah,
we couldn't play like I told you. I had these
two catchers. They weren't catchers, they were fetchers. I said, man,
my dog could do that under the backstop, picked the
(17:49):
ball up. But I tell you this, both those kids
came to christ and they're just one's daddy's about to die.
The other, I mean, he's on his own. I never
saw their day at a baseball game.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I only had two dads show up in sixteen games.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Ma ain't no dad, ain't no leader.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Wow. And our special guest for the entire hour, he
is John Zeller, score international baseball coach. To this day,
he's been added thirty five years. Took a little time off,
but he's back at He's also the chaplain for the
Tampa Yankees. Married his wife Katie, two sons, Chad and Chip.
Third segment. I already know how we're going to start
(18:29):
the third segment because I believe there's a special place
in heaven for coaches wives. And we're gonna talk a
little bit about Katie because she's been She's been to
a lot more baseball games than I have. I've got
to believe that we'll get to a break. Second segment,
our favorite, we'll ask John Zeller to share his testimony.
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your I Hurt Radio app. Welcome back to
(18:53):
Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty in
your iHeart Radio app. Get on Mike McGivern flying solo
this week Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church. Hopefully
we'll be back in studio with me in the next
couple of weeks, coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios. Our special guest he is John Zeller,
score in International. He's a chaplain for the Tampa Yankees,
(19:16):
and he's been a baseball coach for thirty five years
at different levels, college level, high school level, and it's
his ministry. Guys, if you didn't hear the first segment,
go back, go to Brookside's website Brookside Baptist Church and
listen to that first segment. If you doubt that this
is truly his ministry. Hey, before we get to asking
(19:38):
for your testimony, we talked a little bit about Katie
and your sons. You know, there's a special place in
heaven for coaches wives, and I know that Katie sometimes
gotta roll her eyes at you, going, hold on, we're
going to Utah, Alabama. What are we doing now? And
you've got to believe that the Lord has a special
place for her in heaven.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Exactly. We've been married forty nine years, well I have
of our fiftieth next June twenty six, I met her
in Chattanooga. She actually went to University Tennessee at Chattanooga.
I went to Tennessee Temble and but we were working
in a children's home for kids whose parents were in prison,
both parents, and she was a lifeguard, and I thought,
(20:22):
and I took care of the grounds, and I tell you,
we had the nicest looking swimming pool area you ever saw. Oh,
I bet and I kept out of back of it.
And then we met and she she had been saved,
but she really wasn't walking with God. And her mother
kind of introduced this and wanted us to wanted her
(20:43):
to get me to lighting up a little bit, she said,
But anyway, she grew in Christ disciple, and man, we started,
we got married and started that coaching thing, and she
was there every way. Sacrifice so much, so much. I
can't thank for Enough's for sure. I praise God's greatest
(21:05):
gift other than this salation I've ever had.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You know what I am. You and I are twins
that way. Okay, the greatest gift I ever got was
my wife. And I'm telling you, one day, John, I'll
share my testimony with you. And all I can tell
you is that the pastor I went to see, he said,
I knew you would come, And I said, excuse me.
He said, I didn't know when you would come, but
(21:28):
your wife has been praying for you for years, so
I knew you'd show up one day. And I thank
my wife Terry all the time for that. Hey, John,
the second segment is our favorite. And we asked our
guests to share their testimony and if you would be
so kind, Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Man, I just thank the Laura. It was like yesterday.
I deal with a lot of people, a lot of athletes,
and not to correct you, mind, but I no longer
do the actual Yankees. What I do. I work with
the Yankee Minor League coaches. Now I got white hair.
They didn't want that white haired guy doing it there
with them twenty and twenty one year old guys. But
(22:05):
they I do a lot with the coaches now and
and have I've been doing it twenty seven years. But anyway,
the players and coach. But I meet so many people.
You know, when did you receive Christ? You know, salvation
is kind of a personal intimate decision. I was nine
(22:26):
years old. I'll never forget. We had a special speaker
at my church. And I'm the youngest of I got
four brothers. We're all within eight years of each other.
Three of them are in heaven. But I remember, man,
a guy was preaching and he was preaching on hell,
and I said, man, I don't want to go to Hell.
Now I didn't know everything. Walk that aisle. Now, there's
(22:48):
a couple of things in my house. Don't cry in
front of your brothers. That's I mean, you're in trouble.
Don't do anything crazy or stupid. But I went that
walked that aisle and my brother next to me. You
that I was the youngest. He was second year. He
was right behind me, and man, I knailed at that
(23:11):
altar that had altars back then, and nobody's got that anymore.
And pastor came and said, what do you want to do.
I said, I want to go to heaven. I want
to know how to get there, and he led me
to christ grew up in a very good Christian home,
and I thought, man, I want to play college baseball.
(23:31):
Is there a Christian school in the Navy. I didn't
know anything. I didn't know anything like that. Found out
Sedablee was just right up about two hours from my house.
But I went to Tennessee Temple. They gave me a
little bit of a scholarship and I was in the
centive and I grew up playing soccer, or not grew up.
My brothers all played soccer there in Pennsylvania and they
(23:54):
didn't have football back And then I played play well.
I went down to college and they said I went
and try it out, and I actually made the team.
I actually made the travel team. You're only allowed to
take fifteen players on the road, and it was a
weird thing. So I got to play college soccer from
my freshman year to my senior year. And the same
(24:14):
thing with college baseball. First game of my freshman year,
the last game my senior year, and God's been good
to me. That salvation changed my life. I had a
burden to get into coaching, but used coaching as a
platform and God blessed me to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You know, if Pastor was here and at nine years old,
he talks about how brilliant God is, right, I mean,
he makes it so easy that a nine year old
could understand it. Yeah, and John, I envy you because
I'm one hundred percent Irish and I was very stubborn.
I did the Catholic schools. They told me, hey, carry
(24:52):
the Bible. You don't have to open it. We'll tell
you what's in it. But this is how you carry it.
And somebody gave me this line years ago on Faith
in his own who went to Catholic schools as well.
He said, I knew everything about Jesus Christ. I knew
him the same way I knew Abraham Lincoln, right, I had.
I knew all the stories, but I had no relationship
with him. And look, it's so easy that a nine
(25:15):
year old boy, who's you look be the youngest of
five boys. My daughter has four boys and be the
youngest of five. I'm sure you know your first thought was, well,
I don't want them making fun of me. But that
idea of walking down the isle and having your brother
be right behind you, My goodness. The fact that you
(25:36):
can still remember that feeling of walking down the aisle, John,
that just tells me a lot. And I love the
fact that as a nine year old he said I
don't want to go to hell. And I whoever that
speaker was well done, man, well done right to be
able to have a nine year old go ahead.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, he ran a boy's home and he just was
dynamic speaker to this day. I don't know who he
I don't know his name. I just remember who he
was and why he was there. He spoke about raising
children and are raising boys in a orphanage boys home
out of boy Or Town, Pennsylvania. I remember that, and
(26:16):
uh man, it was so dynamic, you know. And the
other thing I tell people to my just two days ago, well,
no yesterday, guy in my office Irish, by the way,
I just remember that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh lord, it took us an hour to get through
all that stuff. But the point of it is, you know,
I tell everybody, Hey, salvation is a dynamic, intimate, personal decision.
If I gave you a million dollars. Would you ever
forget that day?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Absolutely not, No, you wouldn't. Huh huh.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Well, if I got eternal life, you think I'm gonna
forget that day?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
No chance? Come on now, no chance you can't. Hey,
when we talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago,
I brought up the name Tom Roy, and yeah, he is.
He has been such a blessing to this show. John,
just such a blessing. And he's such a good guy. Look,
he he talks to a lot of people on a
(27:13):
daily basis, but anytime you're talking to him, he makes
you feel like you're the most important guy in his life.
And he has been such a good blessing to this
show anytime that we're struggling finding guests. And that's the
most difficult part of Faith in his own is find
guys like you, John, that are willing to give us
forty forty five minutes, because not everybody's willing to do that.
(27:33):
And Tom Roy has always been great. And look, when
I read your bio about traveling overseas on mission trips,
utilizing baseball to spread the word, I mean that is
that's exactly what Tom Roy is all about.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Oh. Man. I met him as a college coach in
nineteen eighty six. We took our kids. I was coaching
out in California, so we took him to the East coast.
Most of the kids has never been, you know, east
of the Mississippi, and Tom Roy was the speaker. There
was a sixteen team tournament and Tom Roy was a speaker.
(28:09):
I remember meeting him. We've been friends ever since. Great guy,
great heart for God started UPI still going today. Major
impact on the high level of baseball, for sure.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, no doubt. And I always tell him, you know,
next time you're in town, if you want to throw
a batting practice, man, I'll take you deep. You better
bring a whole bucket. And he goes, look, I can't
throw anymore, but I could get you out. And I go,
I don't know about that. And he goes, you can't
even hit a softball anymore. I said, yeah, you're right,
you are correct with that. We were talking to John Zeller.
(28:42):
He's still working with Scoring International and doing a bunch
of stuff through the game of baseball. Hey, John, do
you still travel on mission trips with Scoring International?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Oh? Yeah, I've been to I took a high school
baseball team first week of June from Venice, Florida, top
programs in the state of Florida, we traveled down to
the Dominican Republic Santiago. We saw probably about twenty six
kids come to Christ in four days. I've been a
basketball camp in Utah, did some ministry in Louisville. One
(29:17):
of my other heart throbs right now is Harlan, Kentucky.
Sat down there in the east southeast corner of Kentucky
coal mining town. Used to be the number one county
in the country for harvesting coal. Now it's devastated. Drugs
and alcohol all over. There's no jobs. The mines are closed,
(29:38):
and those kids are the same thing. Man, very very
poor live up in those hollers and tough place. Well
it's a tough place.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
You know when you travel there. There are certain parts
of the country, especially if you throw out a couple
of baseballs, a couple of gloves, put a couple of hats,
you're gonna get kids flying in right.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, exactly, you know what I mean. Go to the
Dominican Republic, Panama, Cuba, you go into Columbia, Venezuela, you
go to any of those places. Listen are we going
to have a crowd. We'll just go ahead and start
playing a little pickup game. You'll have about two hundred
of them about fifty five minutes. But those people, that's
(30:19):
what they use, you know. I've learned being with score
and stands for sharing Christ our Redeemer enterprises. That's what
the score stands for. But I remember, there's two things
you can go anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world.
Two things music or sports. You can get in any
country you want to get in. You can go to
(30:40):
the Mormons fundamental as Mormons. They'll let you in sports,
you know. So I use that, and yeah, I still travel.
I'm going to September. I'll be going with a bunch
of ex college basketball out of players here in South Florida.
We're going to Costa Rica. November. We do a big
baseball all outreach scored US every November. Guys like Dann
(31:03):
McDonald from Louisville and oh, we've had all kinds of coaches,
Keith Madison, Don Gordon, you know him, Yes, Randy, all
these guys. We go down there and have about a
one hundred and twenty guys and go out do clinics
every day and share the Gospel, and then we do
ministry and anthony. I'll be doing that going back to
Costa Rica in November, and then I speak at a
(31:25):
lot of mission conferences and chapels and stuff like them.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Man, I love that he is John Zeller again, scoring
International baseball coach for a long time, chaplain for some
of the coaches for the Yankees. What part of Florida
do you live in.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I live in Tampa, little area called Lithia, but you'd
never know you're out of Tampa. It's kind of like
you Loo and New York or I'm in Brooklyn's now.
I don't know the c Lithia which is on your
way to Sarasota or Bradenton.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Hey, when you're watching the news, keep your eye out
for Kylie McGivern. She's a newscaster on one of the
TV stations in Tampa. Won a bunch of Emmys, just
just won a big Ralph Mura Award, a national award.
But she does she's out of Tampa. Kylie McGivern, when
you're watching the news, that is my niece. Very proud
(32:19):
of her, very very proud of her. Man. He is
John Zeller again, scorer International. We're going to get you
a break. On other side of the break, we're to
talk a little bit about forty nine years being married
to Katie, talk a little bit about his boys, and
fourth segment, we'll ask him that same question we ask
everybody all the uniforms he's ever put on. He gets
to pick one out to get one more game with
(32:41):
that team, and we'll find out what his answer is
in the fourth segment. This is Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports ninety twenty in your I Hurt Radio App.
Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports
nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Coming from the
Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Cooling studios. Man, this has
been a really fun show. In fact, I just sent
(33:01):
a text to Tom Roy let him know that John
Zeller from scoring in the National is our guest. He
sent me a text right back said please say hello
to John for me, and again very similar. John Zeller
and Tom Roy are doing some great things when it
comes in, and they have done throughout their their life
great things through the game of baseball to spread the
(33:24):
word and spread the Bible and get people to make
that decision to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Hey, John,
either chat or Chip baseball guys or they get involved.
Were they players?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh yeah yeah, Chip Chad played college baseball at the
Masters College. I wouldn't say he was a front line player,
but hey, it was a great experience he played. And
he now is very dynamic youth speaker here in the
Tampa area. Run some Bible studies with high school athletes,
just man fully full at it, plus runs an embroidery business.
(34:00):
Other son, Chip, he played high school sports, high school
baseball and everything, but kind he kind of is a
He went to school and he went to Boys College,
which is the undergraduate program at Southern Seminary, was in
youth ministry, and then God led him into mental health counseling.
Went to University of Kentucky, got a master's degree and
(34:23):
certified and as a counselor. And now he's actually living
down here with us and he works in the Hillsborough
County school system as a counselor. But what a platform, unbelievable,
so many kids that you know, I'll just give you
this short little snippet. I mean, he deals with kids
all the time. He says, Dad, you know what the
(34:43):
number one problem is with high school and middle school kids.
I said, I don't know. Tell me. He said, loneliness
and anxiety is killing these kids.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Wow. And I you know my brother down in, my
brother in Harbin Springs. That's what he does. He owns
his own company and he's a counselor, family counselor. And
I got to tell you this story, John, years ago,
when my kids were little. They are now growing. I
got six grandkids. But when my daughter Katie was like
(35:14):
ten or nine and Matthews four or five, I was
reading all these books about how to be a better parent.
And one book would tell me to do it one way,
and one book would tell me to do it another way.
And I called him, and he always wants to talk
about how the bucks are doing, packers bers. He wants
to talk sports all the time. And I said, hey, look,
I need to talk to you about work here. I
(35:35):
need some help. And he goes, yeah, I know whatever,
how the packer's going to be. I said, look, man,
I'm telling you I'm reaching out to you right now.
I need a little guidance. He said, what's going on?
And I said, I don't think I'm a good parent.
I don't think I'm a good father, and I don't know.
I don't know if I'm doing this writer or not.
And he goes, well, this can be a really quick conversation.
And I go, look, the first time in their lives,
(35:57):
I'm asking you for some guidance here. And he goes,
do you remember the feeling you had in your gut
when dad's car drove up in front of the house
when he got out for work. And our father was
a bricklayer and a mason, and he didn't like kids
a whole lot. He's a tough, tough guy, right, And
I go, yeah, I know exactly how I felt. He goes,
you remember that feeling, that pit in your stomach. I go,
(36:18):
one hundred percent. I have it right now just talking
about it. He goes, what happens when you come home
from work? I go, what do you mean? He goes,
what is Katie and Matthew? What happens? I said, Katie
hugs me and Matthew throws a ball at me. He goes,
you're doing it right. How the packer's going to be?
I go, that's it. He goes, that's it. I go,
that's it. He goes one hundred percent. Katie hugs you.
(36:39):
Matthew wants to play catch, er goes shoot buckets. I go, yeah,
he goes, you're do whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
Let's move on. I said, hey, I'm not paying you
for this. He goes, Oh, you're getting an invoice. Boy,
you are getting an invoice. Well, I love the fact.
You know what's funny to me is chit Chad and Chip.
You want to talk about two kids that learned that
(37:00):
leadership heart like their dad did and their mom did,
And they're doing it in two different areas, but doing it.
They're doing it because where they learned it. They watched
their father. And I love the fact that they're both
giving back and trying to help people.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh, man, it blesses my heart. Mike and uh, yeah,
we're still in baby Bye. We got a big baseball weekend.
We're going to New York in September. See I'm a
die hard Yankee fan, die hard, and uh we're going
to see the Yanks and Orioles and take everybody up,
their grandkids, everybody, and uh, we still do it. When
they were in high school, we would do these baseball vacations.
(37:39):
Now my wife was a good sport, and I know
she got tired of it. As long as she was
with the boys, didn't matter. But when we went to Pittsburgh,
New York, the Mets, the Yankees, the Orioles, the Nationals,
the Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, the Cubs, White Sox, Cincinnati, Atlanta,
(38:00):
take these baseball vacations, and uh, it was really great,
a good time. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I got to get you back to Milwaukee, got to
get you into Milwaukee and you and I go see
a game, and Chad and Chip or Katie, anybody want
to come and come on over. And fam Field is
rocket right now. A lot of excitement in this market
for the Brewers. I got to tell you this that
after the last couple of years, when when they got
(38:25):
knocked out of the playoffs, I said to my wife,
I said to my son and my daughter, Look, I'm
gonna be a Brewer fan the rest of my life.
But I can't give them my heart anymore. They keep
breaking my heart. And you know what I have given them.
I've given this team my heart. I don't miss a
game on TV. I mean I've been out to am
fan Field a couple of times, and my wife loves
watching Brewer baseball. She loves Christian Yelich love big yell.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
You had you had a guy with the Brewers back
in our Yeah, with Milwaukee, but I got, uh, there
were there were some good solid guys. But when I
went to Milwaukee, they were playing the Houston Astros and
Lance Berkman was on there. When I was doing baseball
chapel with the with the minor league players, I did
(39:10):
a chapel we were playing. Uh it was over in
Saint Pete at the time, and here come here come
to Astros, and uh, they introduced me to this guy,
Lance Berkman. Because usually you go to the coach and says, hey,
who's I go talk to that guy out there. That's
the where they all were, and go out there. It's
Lance Berkman. Just got out of Rice, got out of
(39:33):
the College World Series, and I said, hey, when can
we do chapel? He said, Man, right after we're done hitting.
There's forty five minutes love to I said, honey, guys,
think could come. He said, what do you mean. I said, honey, guys,
you think will come. He said, we got a lot
of believers, but we don't have a lot of receivers
John Wow, and it was me and him and I
(39:55):
had him that year was unusual. I had him three
different times Lansberg. So when I went to Milwaukee, they're
playing Astros. He got his tickets and blah blah blah.
Man there was a coach from Tampa on that he's nastro,
John Tomargo. His son played with the Mets. But anyways, well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
You can you any chance you're gonna be in the Midwest,
you let me know because I'll grab his tickets and we'll, uh,
we'll have a good time. Our special guest is John Zeller.
He's with Scoring International chaplain for the Yankee Coaches Baseball coach.
Baseball has been a big part of his life, but
he's also done some things in soccer. So we're gonna
(40:34):
get to a break. That last segment, we'll find out
what uniform he pulls out, and we'll do that on
the other side of the break. This is Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart
Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. As always,
coming from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling studios,
(40:55):
our special guests. Man, he's he's been great. We could
do about three shows with him. John Zeller score international
chaplain for some of the Yankee coaches. He's been a
baseball coach thirty five years, college level, high school level.
But when I tell you that that's his ministry, trust
me coaching. He loves coaching baseball, but it's not about baseball.
(41:17):
He didn't get a lot of wins nowadays, but he
sure gets a lot of wins by bringing these young
student athletes to christ Hey. John our favorite, one of
our favorite segments, and there was a throwaway question that
we asked in the last segment, all the uniforms you've
ever put on and coaching baseball a long time, at
playing baseball, playing soccer. You put him in a closet.
(41:37):
You get to pick one uniform out to get one
more game with that team, either as a coach as
a player. What uniform do you pull out? Who do
you play against? And why?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Well, I'll tell you I grew up in Nemmstown, Pennsylvaniaan
is the only sport we had in our town. It
was baseball and we had a really good little league program.
You know that back in those days, it was you
played against towns and we were the Newmanstown Marauders. And
to this day that program from from they have teams
(42:08):
from Little all the way up through x X pro
Gays and the newman'stein Riders. I'd wear that uniform one
more time and I'd be so happy. That'd be great.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Man, Let's play with all your neighborhood boys.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Huh yeah, she yeah, Man, what was a great time?
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Joe? What position did you play?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Well? It started out as a second basement, but very
quickly I would play short and third. When I got
to college, I played a couple of years in center
field and then went back to third. Uh, started out
at third.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So that time, what'd you normally what'd you normally hit
in the lineup?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
First?
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, you had some wheels. Huh.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Well, I could run a little bit, and I was
left handed, and I could bunt forty good. I could bunt.
I could get you six eight ten hits a year
off bunning for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Hey, are you you're still a Yankee fan? Obviously? You
know I about every third question if you listen to
ESPN Radio, they want to know if if the coach
of the Yankees on the hot seat or now what
do you think?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Uh, well, I gotta be careful because I deal with
you know what, don't answer with them, Aaron Boone, don't
answer that question.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I don't want to get you in trouble.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Nah, You're not gonna get me in trouble. You know,
the Yankees are a team that just needs they just
need a little boost. And I don't know if that's
from I know Aaron Boone. I recruited his brother, Brett,
who has Their daddy was Bob Boone. Sure, and Bob
used to help me at the Master's College with my
catchers and stuff and come out and help, you know,
(43:51):
two three times a year. But Brett was a great player.
But Aaron's a great guy and he's a born again believer.
The whole family is. And know, it's just man, it's
just tough, you know. You know, here's an old saying,
and I'll end it with this. If you keep doing
what you're doing, you're gonna keep getting what you getting.
If you don't like what you're getting, then you got
to stop what you're doing. And that's that's pretty good philosophy.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah, and I think I look after as many years
as he's been managing there. I think they get they
get used to that voice and they might need a
new voice. You never know.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Go ahead, can we bring loopel on Mike? I want
you to ask him that question.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Oh I will. I won't lead, I'm not gonna lead
with it, but I'm gonna ask him that our special guys. Man,
this has been so fun for me. He's John Zeller
scoring international and and look when when you talk baseball,
him and I could talk baseball a long time when
he talked about it. He was a pretty good bunch
back in the day. I don't see too many good
bunchers in the game of baseball anymore. So I love that. John.
(44:58):
Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Please say hello to Katie, chat and Chip for me
and anything I can do for you in the city Milwaukee.
Please please let me know.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Man, that was a pleasure, and thank you for letting
me speak about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Amen to that. This is faith in the Zone. I'm
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome to Faith in the Zone. I'm Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgifrin flying
solo this week. Hoping to get Pastor Ken Keltner from
Brookside Baptist Church back in studio with me next week.
And we're coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and
Cooling Studios, largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
(00:20):
of Wisconsin. Any issues you have with your HVAC system
go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I want to first
and foremost thank for Andy Holland for the introduction to
our special guest. He is John Zeller from Score International.
He is a baseball coach, been a baseball coach long time,
a lot of different places. He's coached a little soccer.
(00:42):
Also the chaplain for the Tampa Yankees, and we'll talk
a little bit about that part of his life here
in the first and probably third segment as well. Hey John,
how are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Doing great? Mine? Thank you so much. I appreciate the
opportunity to talk with you today and share about this
great platform that we have in sports man.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I appreciate that Randy Holland, one of the good guys
out there.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, he's a great guy. You know. I don't know
if many people will know about the Josh Hamilton story,
which I'm sure he told you about it. Yes, he's
probably famous for that and help restoreing and rehabbing Josh
Hamilton back to the big leagues. And then he and
this guy co partner partner, Roy Silvers was part of that,
(01:31):
and Roy now works with the Rangers as a great job,
taking troubled young players and helping them get them back
into the game. And with all the tools and gifts
that God gave him, they can use.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You know, I had a chance years ago. I was
down visiting my brother who introduced me to my brother,
Tim introduced me to Randy into Roy, and I went
over to where he was in Florida and in the
Tampa area and hung out with Roy for a while.
And he what a good guy. He's been a a
former guest on Faith in his own years ago, and
(02:05):
I kind of forgot about Roy. I appreciate you bringing
him up. I need to reach back out to him
and see if we can't have him back on. Hey, John,
let's talk a little bit about your background where you
grew up and where you're living now.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, I grew up in the Amish Country. I was
born in Afrita, Pennsylvania. Grew up outside Lebanon, Pennsylvania. If
you ever had any Lebnon Blogonia in the sixties and seventies,
that probably came from there. But I grew up outside there, Lebon,
pennsylvan Ainia. By the way, trivia question, Uh, everybody asked
us who was the guy drafted ahead of Michael Jordan,
(02:40):
This guy named Sam Bowie.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, I know, I was ready to answer that question,
Sam Bouie.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So he grew up and played high school basketball and
leb in Pennsylvania. Wow, that's where he's from.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Man.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Anyway, he was up there.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
You know what. Hey, he will always be known as
the answer to that trivia question.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know it's sad because they didn't
find out the problem with his fractures and bone problems
until you know, he got into pro basketball. It just
started affecting him. And great guy though, loves the Lord
and a good Christian man. He told me one time.
I know we're supposed to talk about other he told
(03:20):
me one time, he said, John, you're just like my mother.
I said, what are you talking about You're always asking
me if I read my Bible. My mother asked me
every day, Sam, did you read your Bible today? I said, Okay,
then that's kind of bob we all need. But I
grew up there went My dad was a church planner pastor,
(03:42):
so we moved around quite a bit and went to
high school in southern Ohio. UH, played college baseball little
Christian college in Chattanooga, Tennessee called Tennessee Temple University, and
from there got into coaching. And I'm kind of like
the Larry Brown of coaching. I've been in Charlotte at Nooga,
Los Angeles, Baptist Charlotte zeph for Hills here in Tampa
(04:06):
in the last three years. I coached two years in Hilldale, Utah,
among the what they call the fundamentalist Mormons. And then
this past year, and I'll go back this year coaching
in verg rural area southwest Alabama in Utah, Alabama.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
My goodness, how long you been coaching baseball?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, the toll years of coaching is thirty five. I
kind of opted out for about ten years here lately,
and then I got back into it. I realized I
was hooked up with Score International since nineteen eighty four.
I was the executive director appointed there in twenty twelve,
worked as the assistant executive director for five years and
(04:50):
then got put in as executive director. Did that till
twenty twenty two, and then twenty twenty two, I didn't
have to worry about a three and a half million
dollar budget and raising money and everything else, and started
doing what I really wanted to do. And I loved
baseball my life. Started playing when I was in the
(05:12):
Little league, all the way through high school college and
just stra always loved it. So thirty five years is
high school in college?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, you know, my wife's listening to this show. And
I coached basketball for thirty six and I'm still If
I'm watching a game, i'll pause it and I'll grab
a notebook and if they run it out of bounce
play that, I think, wow, that's that man. They got
a wide open look there. I'll start taking notes and
she'll be like, why are you doing that. I'd be like,
what what I thought you were retired. I'm like, I
(05:44):
am retired. She's like, well, why are you taking notes?
I'm like, I don't know, it's just in case and
She's like, I thought you'd be home more now that
you're retired from coaching basketball. I said, no, I'm still
in the I still go into gym's and I run
drills and we cover games on Fox Sports. I'm twenty
where I'm the color analyst. So I'm still really involved
with high school basketball. But it's that grind of every
(06:07):
single day. I don't miss that part. John, After thirty
six years, it's been good to get away from it
for a while.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You got it, and you know I do it now
for a different purpose, and that's the purpose of using
a platform.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And I like to go places where where guys led
me the last three years. Utah, Alabama, which is I
mean well Utah, Alabama, but Hilldale, Utah. If you ever
seen the documentary Stay Sweet, Pray and Obey the Guy
about Warren Jeffson, they ruled that town for fifty years
and these kids were raised up polygamous families and you know,
(06:48):
eighteen twenty kids. They said, well, you guys draw good
crowds out there. We had a beautiful facility, by way,
but they never had a team. So I love going
out the here and of course, being honest, we couldn't
play dead in the Cowboy movie. But I'll tell you what.
We had good crowds because they all got eighteen twenty kids. Hey,
(07:10):
would you pray with fourteen players?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Want a kid? Would you? Would you prayed before the game?
And all that? They do? They know your background, they did.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They yeah, I went out there to do a clinic.
Don Gordon, guy named Rick Robinson, Brian Donahue coached up
in Toledo and other places. We all went out there,
did a camp and I don't know, I guess when
God struck my heart and I really I really went
(07:40):
out there. And it's called Water Canyon High School. It's
all Mormon. Teachers are Mormon. Everybody's Mormon, ad principal, whole works.
But they are public school and out there and I
really saw a lot of girls. Man, these girls are
telling that I never coached girls saw ball and I said, yeah,
I wouldn't mind coach and here someday. Well they add
(08:02):
at the time, said you'd come here and coach girl
somep on we need a coach real bad. I said, yeah,
I pray about it. And then about two weeks later
they called me when I got home here in Florida.
I live in Lithia, Florida, just outside Tampa. They said, hey,
would you consider coming and being our baseball coach? I said, well,
I definitely would consider. But here's some things got to know.
(08:24):
I'm gonna pray before and after every game. We're going
to have a Bible study every Thursday night. I'm going
to coach from a Christian perspective, and uh, you know,
if you're okay with that, I'm I'm I'm okay with it.
And they said, yeah, we can do that. And actually
I told her I'm making two year commitment. So we did.
(08:45):
Got the program up and run and still running. Now
I got to tell you now, we h my coaching
record fast three years. Mike's not two goods three and
forty six. I will say this, both in Hilldale, Utah
and Utah, Alabama, we've seen twenty six players come to Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well that's a winning record, then, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You got that? Straighten?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Amen to that? I the three wins, I don't even
care about that anymore. All of a sudden, I got
a little like, oh that was that's rough. But man,
you were you weren't coaching those teams to win baseball games.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and really just building the program. And that's so
important for the next guy coming in that they have
a program, a process, I mean even simple things. And
in both places, these are very poor kids, very very
poor kids. When Warren Jeff's out there in Hilldale, you
just got put in prison. I had eight two wives,
one hundred and twenty three kids. They are all related.
(09:47):
I mean, it's really a messed up situation. But these
kids have nothing because he controlled everything. They've had to
give one hundred percent of the tie to the church.
We talk about guys, some people talk about percent good
gracious and they talked about one hundred percent. He provided
them homes, food, all the necessities, jobs, trucks. He did
(10:11):
a good job that way. But when they when he
got put in prison and they all went into poverty
deep pop.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Hey John, that had to be you know, being out
there and seeing that different lifestyle than you're used to.
I would have a hard time not being in the
fetal position like every day.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah. Well, you know again, my whole perspective was use
baseball as a platform to share Christ and so I
remember the very first Bible study we had, man, I mean,
all of them fifteen of them, all of them. Couse,
you ever read the Mormon Bible. You know we have
Mormon Bible. We believe in Jesus. I said, yeah, I
(10:55):
heard of it. To be honest, I wouldn't read it.
Let's just we're going to agree to disagree. I'm gonna
teach you truth. You're not going to convince me to
be a Mormon. Let's just get that out of the way.
But I want to give you some truth because there
is some truth in the Bible that you guys don't
study a lot and not who is Who is Jesus Christ,
That he's the Son of God. He was not birth,
(11:18):
he was created. And so we went there and took
about four or five weeks. We would have a little
dinner snack type dinner and then a Bible study.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And all the.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Kids came, but about two that first year. And but
slowly one of those guys, well, first guy came to
Christ who was living in a polygamous home. And here's
the other thing, Mike, that when they came to Christ,
they man many of those kids couldn't tell their parents,
so they'd have been kicked out of their house. I
tell everybody my experience of two years living with Mormons.
(11:52):
They're wonderful people. To you mess with their religion. Oh,
I mess with their religion and get they get pretty hostile.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We were talking with John's John. Are you formerly with
Scoring International or are you still doing some things with them?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
No, I'm with Score. I've been with Score since nineteen
eighty four. I was one of the five guys signing
the legal papers back then. I was a young college coach.
I've known what I was put my name to that
I never signed it. But there, young, you're just gong
ho many. But I've been with SCORE since there, and
I'm a full time missionary.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I find it. I find it really interesting. You go
from Utah, where we're talking about, you know, Mormons and
the things you went through, to the Bible Belt in
southwest Alabama where Rich Wingo. We had Rich Wingo and
we replayed a show last week, and you know, we've
had a number of people from that area. And one
(12:46):
of the guys said, look, if you tell somebody in
Alabama that they're not going to Heaven, that's where the
fight's going to start. Whether they whether they're in church,
they're reading their Bible, but in the Bible belt. That's
the toughest part. So you go from from trying to
explain basically who Jesus is to Mormons to Alabama where
(13:07):
you are just right into the Bible belting, and what
a difference that had to be.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I will tell you this on all honestee. And
I'd been going to Utah, Alabama for about fifteen years
on you know, a week or two weeks a year
mission trips. So I knew the kids. I knew a
lot of kids when they were little babies, and I
mean little kids. But I'll tell you this, that's a
town overrun with alcohol and drugs. Ninety six percent of
(13:37):
the towns on government assistance. Oh these kids are in rural,
rural Alabama. They are poor, beyond poor. I'll never forget
the very first game last year, we stopped. We were
on the road. We came. I stopped, told the bus
draft stop McDonald's. Will everybody get out. I got up
to go out of the bus. I said, let's go,
(13:57):
We're going to get eat. We're going to get some neat.
Let you get something heat. One of the kids said,
my junior, he's my catcher. Well he wasn't a catcher.
He was a fetcher. But he said this, He said, Coach,
we ain't got no money. Nobody here's got money. I said, okay,
come on. So I wasn't raised a bunch of money
because it was gonna be one hundred and fifty hundred
(14:19):
and sixty bucks every time we had a road game.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So they didn't have anything. I had to get them shoes, gloves, turf.
And here's the other thing too, I have a desire Minke.
You've been around sports. I want their kids will look good.
I don't want them to look like ragtags. We don't
have the same shirts. We ride together. We got turf
shoes like you know, we got cleats, and I got
(14:43):
a lot of people supporting me. And I tell you
that that's all a part of it building a program.
And those kids are not I'm gonna be honest with
most of those kids don't go to church. They're living
out in such rural poorhouses. If it wasn't for duct tape,
some of these kids's houses wouldn't be standing their doors
and windows for sure, wouldn'y?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And hey, John, do these kids come to practice with
their own gloves and bats? And you know, so you've
you've got to figure out how to get these guys
gloves and cleats and gloves.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Bats, practice painting. I'm gonna tell you some I'll be
honest with you, myke. The kids in Utah we had
to do the same thing. We had to provide practice
gear and everything, gloves. But the kids in Utah, Alabama,
I mean not only that they don't have anything, they
got no prospect of getting anything. It's very poor. That's
(15:39):
where all the catfish farms are. A lot of my
kids on weekends work at horse farms or cattle farms. Wow,
what they do is they gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Hate And you know, John, I asked a question, and
we're going to get to a break here in a second.
I asked a question during another show. I do a
high school sports show. We do a segment called the
Kernel Electric Superhero of the Week, and it's a a
senior from a different high school. Does not have to
be sports related, but a kid in drama, kid in
(16:08):
the band. If it is sports related, that's great kid
who does really well in the classroom, very active in
the school, and has that servant leadership heart and a question.
I ask every one of those kids, and I think
I know the answer you're going to give me. But
we're not born with a servant leadership heart. That's a
learned behavior, and I'm wondering you obviously have it because
(16:28):
your whole life, you know, everything we've talked about this
first fifteen minutes is all about you serving others. And
I'm wondering where that servant leadership heart came from for you?
Where did you learn that from?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Well? I learned that two things. First of all, I
had a mom and dad, and I grew up in
a home. I mean, we were okay, and then we
went into extreme poverty. But I always remember mom and dad.
They'd invite somebody in for dinner, shoe we barely had
enough to eat ourselves. They were always go, I want
to get people, pick up people, serve people. And then
(17:04):
I really when I got the baseball job out at
the Master's College with doctor John MacArthur. He hired me
and he passed just recently, but I remember him. He
taught leadership and he taught it with two words, servant
leadership and man that that changed me too as well.
That impacted me. Listen, this life's too short, and I
(17:27):
tell everybody, and you know this, and your listeners. Life's
too short to live it for yourself. I mean he
talked about a lonely road. Go ahead and live and
do everything you do for yourself, and there's so much joy. Yeah,
we couldn't play like I told you. I had these
two catchers. They weren't catchers, they were fetchers. I said, man,
my dog could do that under the backstop, picked the
(17:49):
ball up. But I tell you this, both those kids
came to christ and they're just one's daddy's about to die.
The other, I mean, he's on his own. I never
saw their day at a baseball game.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I only had two dads show up in sixteen games.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Ma ain't no dad, ain't no leader.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Wow. And our special guest for the entire hour, he
is John Zeller, score international baseball coach. To this day,
he's been added thirty five years. Took a little time off,
but he's back at He's also the chaplain for the
Tampa Yankees. Married his wife Katie, two sons, Chad and Chip.
Third segment. I already know how we're going to start
(18:29):
the third segment because I believe there's a special place
in heaven for coaches wives. And we're gonna talk a
little bit about Katie because she's been She's been to
a lot more baseball games than I have. I've got
to believe that we'll get to a break. Second segment,
our favorite, we'll ask John Zeller to share his testimony.
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your I Hurt Radio app. Welcome back to
(18:53):
Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty in
your iHeart Radio app. Get on Mike McGivern flying solo
this week Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church. Hopefully
we'll be back in studio with me in the next
couple of weeks, coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios. Our special guest he is John Zeller,
score in International. He's a chaplain for the Tampa Yankees,
(19:16):
and he's been a baseball coach for thirty five years
at different levels, college level, high school level, and it's
his ministry. Guys, if you didn't hear the first segment,
go back, go to Brookside's website Brookside Baptist Church and
listen to that first segment. If you doubt that this
is truly his ministry. Hey, before we get to asking
(19:38):
for your testimony, we talked a little bit about Katie
and your sons. You know, there's a special place in
heaven for coaches wives, and I know that Katie sometimes
gotta roll her eyes at you, going, hold on, we're
going to Utah, Alabama. What are we doing now? And
you've got to believe that the Lord has a special
place for her in heaven.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Exactly. We've been married forty nine years, well I have
of our fiftieth next June twenty six, I met her
in Chattanooga. She actually went to University Tennessee at Chattanooga.
I went to Tennessee Temble and but we were working
in a children's home for kids whose parents were in prison,
both parents, and she was a lifeguard, and I thought,
(20:22):
and I took care of the grounds, and I tell you,
we had the nicest looking swimming pool area you ever saw. Oh,
I bet and I kept out of back of it.
And then we met and she she had been saved,
but she really wasn't walking with God. And her mother
kind of introduced this and wanted us to wanted her
(20:43):
to get me to lighting up a little bit, she said,
But anyway, she grew in Christ disciple, and man, we started,
we got married and started that coaching thing, and she
was there every way. Sacrifice so much, so much. I
can't thank for Enough's for sure. I praise God's greatest
(21:05):
gift other than this salation I've ever had.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You know what I am. You and I are twins
that way. Okay, the greatest gift I ever got was
my wife. And I'm telling you, one day, John, I'll
share my testimony with you. And all I can tell
you is that the pastor I went to see, he said,
I knew you would come, And I said, excuse me.
He said, I didn't know when you would come, but
(21:28):
your wife has been praying for you for years, so
I knew you'd show up one day. And I thank
my wife Terry all the time for that. Hey, John,
the second segment is our favorite. And we asked our
guests to share their testimony and if you would be
so kind, Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Man, I just thank the Laura. It was like yesterday.
I deal with a lot of people, a lot of athletes,
and not to correct you, mind, but I no longer
do the actual Yankees. What I do. I work with
the Yankee Minor League coaches. Now I got white hair.
They didn't want that white haired guy doing it there
with them twenty and twenty one year old guys. But
(22:05):
they I do a lot with the coaches now and
and have I've been doing it twenty seven years. But anyway,
the players and coach. But I meet so many people.
You know, when did you receive Christ? You know, salvation
is kind of a personal intimate decision. I was nine
(22:26):
years old. I'll never forget. We had a special speaker
at my church. And I'm the youngest of I got
four brothers. We're all within eight years of each other.
Three of them are in heaven. But I remember, man,
a guy was preaching and he was preaching on hell,
and I said, man, I don't want to go to Hell.
Now I didn't know everything. Walk that aisle. Now, there's
(22:48):
a couple of things in my house. Don't cry in
front of your brothers. That's I mean, you're in trouble.
Don't do anything crazy or stupid. But I went that
walked that aisle and my brother next to me. You
that I was the youngest. He was second year. He
was right behind me, and man, I knailed at that
(23:11):
altar that had altars back then, and nobody's got that anymore.
And pastor came and said, what do you want to do.
I said, I want to go to heaven. I want
to know how to get there, and he led me
to christ grew up in a very good Christian home,
and I thought, man, I want to play college baseball.
(23:31):
Is there a Christian school in the Navy. I didn't
know anything. I didn't know anything like that. Found out
Sedablee was just right up about two hours from my house.
But I went to Tennessee Temple. They gave me a
little bit of a scholarship and I was in the
centive and I grew up playing soccer, or not grew up.
My brothers all played soccer there in Pennsylvania and they
(23:54):
didn't have football back And then I played play well.
I went down to college and they said I went
and try it out, and I actually made the team.
I actually made the travel team. You're only allowed to
take fifteen players on the road, and it was a
weird thing. So I got to play college soccer from
my freshman year to my senior year. And the same
(24:14):
thing with college baseball. First game of my freshman year,
the last game my senior year, and God's been good
to me. That salvation changed my life. I had a
burden to get into coaching, but used coaching as a
platform and God blessed me to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You know, if Pastor was here and at nine years old,
he talks about how brilliant God is, right, I mean,
he makes it so easy that a nine year old
could understand it. Yeah, and John, I envy you because
I'm one hundred percent Irish and I was very stubborn.
I did the Catholic schools. They told me, hey, carry
(24:52):
the Bible. You don't have to open it. We'll tell
you what's in it. But this is how you carry it.
And somebody gave me this line years ago on Faith
in his own who went to Catholic schools as well.
He said, I knew everything about Jesus Christ. I knew
him the same way I knew Abraham Lincoln, right, I had.
I knew all the stories, but I had no relationship
with him. And look, it's so easy that a nine
(25:15):
year old boy, who's you look be the youngest of
five boys. My daughter has four boys and be the
youngest of five. I'm sure you know your first thought was, well,
I don't want them making fun of me. But that
idea of walking down the isle and having your brother
be right behind you, My goodness. The fact that you
(25:36):
can still remember that feeling of walking down the aisle, John,
that just tells me a lot. And I love the
fact that as a nine year old he said I
don't want to go to hell. And I whoever that
speaker was well done, man, well done right to be
able to have a nine year old go ahead.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, he ran a boy's home and he just was
dynamic speaker to this day. I don't know who he
I don't know his name. I just remember who he
was and why he was there. He spoke about raising
children and are raising boys in a orphanage boys home
out of boy Or Town, Pennsylvania. I remember that, and
(26:16):
uh man, it was so dynamic, you know. And the
other thing I tell people to my just two days ago, well,
no yesterday, guy in my office Irish, by the way,
I just remember that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh lord, it took us an hour to get through
all that stuff. But the point of it is, you know,
I tell everybody, Hey, salvation is a dynamic, intimate, personal decision.
If I gave you a million dollars. Would you ever
forget that day?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Absolutely not, No, you wouldn't. Huh huh.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Well, if I got eternal life, you think I'm gonna
forget that day?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
No chance? Come on now, no chance you can't. Hey,
when we talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago,
I brought up the name Tom Roy, and yeah, he is.
He has been such a blessing to this show. John,
just such a blessing. And he's such a good guy. Look,
he he talks to a lot of people on a
(27:13):
daily basis, but anytime you're talking to him, he makes
you feel like you're the most important guy in his life.
And he has been such a good blessing to this
show anytime that we're struggling finding guests. And that's the
most difficult part of Faith in his own is find
guys like you, John, that are willing to give us
forty forty five minutes, because not everybody's willing to do that.
(27:33):
And Tom Roy has always been great. And look, when
I read your bio about traveling overseas on mission trips,
utilizing baseball to spread the word, I mean that is
that's exactly what Tom Roy is all about.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Oh. Man. I met him as a college coach in
nineteen eighty six. We took our kids. I was coaching
out in California, so we took him to the East coast.
Most of the kids has never been, you know, east
of the Mississippi, and Tom Roy was the speaker. There
was a sixteen team tournament and Tom Roy was a speaker.
(28:09):
I remember meeting him. We've been friends ever since. Great guy,
great heart for God started UPI still going today. Major
impact on the high level of baseball, for sure.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, no doubt. And I always tell him, you know,
next time you're in town, if you want to throw
a batting practice, man, I'll take you deep. You better
bring a whole bucket. And he goes, look, I can't
throw anymore, but I could get you out. And I go,
I don't know about that. And he goes, you can't
even hit a softball anymore. I said, yeah, you're right,
you are correct with that. We were talking to John Zeller.
(28:42):
He's still working with Scoring International and doing a bunch
of stuff through the game of baseball. Hey, John, do
you still travel on mission trips with Scoring International?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Oh? Yeah, I've been to I took a high school
baseball team first week of June from Venice, Florida, top
programs in the state of Florida, we traveled down to
the Dominican Republic Santiago. We saw probably about twenty six
kids come to Christ in four days. I've been a
basketball camp in Utah, did some ministry in Louisville. One
(29:17):
of my other heart throbs right now is Harlan, Kentucky.
Sat down there in the east southeast corner of Kentucky
coal mining town. Used to be the number one county
in the country for harvesting coal. Now it's devastated. Drugs
and alcohol all over. There's no jobs. The mines are closed,
(29:38):
and those kids are the same thing. Man, very very
poor live up in those hollers and tough place. Well
it's a tough place.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
You know when you travel there. There are certain parts
of the country, especially if you throw out a couple
of baseballs, a couple of gloves, put a couple of hats,
you're gonna get kids flying in right.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, exactly, you know what I mean. Go to the
Dominican Republic, Panama, Cuba, you go into Columbia, Venezuela, you
go to any of those places. Listen are we going
to have a crowd. We'll just go ahead and start
playing a little pickup game. You'll have about two hundred
of them about fifty five minutes. But those people, that's
(30:19):
what they use, you know. I've learned being with score
and stands for sharing Christ our Redeemer enterprises. That's what
the score stands for. But I remember, there's two things
you can go anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world.
Two things music or sports. You can get in any
country you want to get in. You can go to
(30:40):
the Mormons fundamental as Mormons. They'll let you in sports,
you know. So I use that, and yeah, I still travel.
I'm going to September. I'll be going with a bunch
of ex college basketball out of players here in South Florida.
We're going to Costa Rica. November. We do a big
baseball all outreach scored US every November. Guys like Dann
(31:03):
McDonald from Louisville and oh, we've had all kinds of coaches,
Keith Madison, Don Gordon, you know him, Yes, Randy, all
these guys. We go down there and have about a
one hundred and twenty guys and go out do clinics
every day and share the Gospel, and then we do
ministry and anthony. I'll be doing that going back to
Costa Rica in November, and then I speak at a
(31:25):
lot of mission conferences and chapels and stuff like them.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Man, I love that he is John Zeller again, scoring
International baseball coach for a long time, chaplain for some
of the coaches for the Yankees. What part of Florida
do you live in.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I live in Tampa, little area called Lithia, but you'd
never know you're out of Tampa. It's kind of like
you Loo and New York or I'm in Brooklyn's now.
I don't know the c Lithia which is on your
way to Sarasota or Bradenton.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Hey, when you're watching the news, keep your eye out
for Kylie McGivern. She's a newscaster on one of the
TV stations in Tampa. Won a bunch of Emmys, just
just won a big Ralph Mura Award, a national award.
But she does she's out of Tampa. Kylie McGivern, when
you're watching the news, that is my niece. Very proud
(32:19):
of her, very very proud of her. Man. He is
John Zeller again, scorer International. We're going to get you
a break. On other side of the break, we're to
talk a little bit about forty nine years being married
to Katie, talk a little bit about his boys, and
fourth segment, we'll ask him that same question we ask
everybody all the uniforms he's ever put on. He gets
to pick one out to get one more game with
(32:41):
that team, and we'll find out what his answer is
in the fourth segment. This is Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports ninety twenty in your I Hurt Radio App.
Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports
nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Coming from the
Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Cooling studios. Man, this has
been a really fun show. In fact, I just sent
(33:01):
a text to Tom Roy let him know that John
Zeller from scoring in the National is our guest. He
sent me a text right back said please say hello
to John for me, and again very similar. John Zeller
and Tom Roy are doing some great things when it
comes in, and they have done throughout their their life
great things through the game of baseball to spread the
(33:24):
word and spread the Bible and get people to make
that decision to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Hey, John,
either chat or Chip baseball guys or they get involved.
Were they players?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh yeah yeah, Chip Chad played college baseball at the
Masters College. I wouldn't say he was a front line player,
but hey, it was a great experience he played. And
he now is very dynamic youth speaker here in the
Tampa area. Run some Bible studies with high school athletes,
just man fully full at it, plus runs an embroidery business.
(34:00):
Other son, Chip, he played high school sports, high school
baseball and everything, but kind he kind of is a
He went to school and he went to Boys College,
which is the undergraduate program at Southern Seminary, was in
youth ministry, and then God led him into mental health counseling.
Went to University of Kentucky, got a master's degree and
(34:23):
certified and as a counselor. And now he's actually living
down here with us and he works in the Hillsborough
County school system as a counselor. But what a platform, unbelievable,
so many kids that you know, I'll just give you
this short little snippet. I mean, he deals with kids
all the time. He says, Dad, you know what the
(34:43):
number one problem is with high school and middle school kids.
I said, I don't know. Tell me. He said, loneliness
and anxiety is killing these kids.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Wow. And I you know my brother down in, my
brother in Harbin Springs. That's what he does. He owns
his own company and he's a counselor, family counselor. And
I got to tell you this story, John, years ago,
when my kids were little. They are now growing. I
got six grandkids. But when my daughter Katie was like
(35:14):
ten or nine and Matthews four or five, I was
reading all these books about how to be a better parent.
And one book would tell me to do it one way,
and one book would tell me to do it another way.
And I called him, and he always wants to talk
about how the bucks are doing, packers bers. He wants
to talk sports all the time. And I said, hey, look,
I need to talk to you about work here. I
(35:35):
need some help. And he goes, yeah, I know whatever,
how the packer's going to be. I said, look, man,
I'm telling you I'm reaching out to you right now.
I need a little guidance. He said, what's going on?
And I said, I don't think I'm a good parent.
I don't think I'm a good father, and I don't know.
I don't know if I'm doing this writer or not.
And he goes, well, this can be a really quick conversation.
And I go, look, the first time in their lives,
(35:57):
I'm asking you for some guidance here. And he goes,
do you remember the feeling you had in your gut
when dad's car drove up in front of the house
when he got out for work. And our father was
a bricklayer and a mason, and he didn't like kids
a whole lot. He's a tough, tough guy, right, And
I go, yeah, I know exactly how I felt. He goes,
you remember that feeling, that pit in your stomach. I go,
(36:18):
one hundred percent. I have it right now just talking
about it. He goes, what happens when you come home
from work? I go, what do you mean? He goes,
what is Katie and Matthew? What happens? I said, Katie
hugs me and Matthew throws a ball at me. He goes,
you're doing it right. How the packer's going to be?
I go, that's it. He goes, that's it. I go,
that's it. He goes one hundred percent. Katie hugs you.
(36:39):
Matthew wants to play catch, er goes shoot buckets. I go, yeah,
he goes, you're do whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
Let's move on. I said, hey, I'm not paying you
for this. He goes, Oh, you're getting an invoice. Boy,
you are getting an invoice. Well, I love the fact.
You know what's funny to me is chit Chad and Chip.
You want to talk about two kids that learned that
(37:00):
leadership heart like their dad did and their mom did,
And they're doing it in two different areas, but doing it.
They're doing it because where they learned it. They watched
their father. And I love the fact that they're both
giving back and trying to help people.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh, man, it blesses my heart. Mike and uh, yeah,
we're still in baby Bye. We got a big baseball weekend.
We're going to New York in September. See I'm a
die hard Yankee fan, die hard, and uh we're going
to see the Yanks and Orioles and take everybody up,
their grandkids, everybody, and uh, we still do it. When
they were in high school, we would do these baseball vacations.
(37:39):
Now my wife was a good sport, and I know
she got tired of it. As long as she was
with the boys, didn't matter. But when we went to Pittsburgh,
New York, the Mets, the Yankees, the Orioles, the Nationals,
the Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, the Cubs, White Sox, Cincinnati, Atlanta,
(38:00):
take these baseball vacations, and uh, it was really great,
a good time. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I got to get you back to Milwaukee, got to
get you into Milwaukee and you and I go see
a game, and Chad and Chip or Katie, anybody want
to come and come on over. And fam Field is
rocket right now. A lot of excitement in this market
for the Brewers. I got to tell you this that
after the last couple of years, when when they got
(38:25):
knocked out of the playoffs, I said to my wife,
I said to my son and my daughter, Look, I'm
gonna be a Brewer fan the rest of my life.
But I can't give them my heart anymore. They keep
breaking my heart. And you know what I have given them.
I've given this team my heart. I don't miss a
game on TV. I mean I've been out to am
fan Field a couple of times, and my wife loves
watching Brewer baseball. She loves Christian Yelich love big yell.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
You had you had a guy with the Brewers back
in our Yeah, with Milwaukee, but I got, uh, there
were there were some good solid guys. But when I
went to Milwaukee, they were playing the Houston Astros and
Lance Berkman was on there. When I was doing baseball
chapel with the with the minor league players, I did
(39:10):
a chapel we were playing. Uh it was over in
Saint Pete at the time, and here come here come
to Astros, and uh, they introduced me to this guy,
Lance Berkman. Because usually you go to the coach and says, hey,
who's I go talk to that guy out there. That's
the where they all were, and go out there. It's
Lance Berkman. Just got out of Rice, got out of
(39:33):
the College World Series, and I said, hey, when can
we do chapel? He said, Man, right after we're done hitting.
There's forty five minutes love to I said, honey, guys,
think could come. He said, what do you mean. I said, honey, guys,
you think will come. He said, we got a lot
of believers, but we don't have a lot of receivers
John Wow, and it was me and him and I
(39:55):
had him that year was unusual. I had him three
different times Lansberg. So when I went to Milwaukee, they're
playing Astros. He got his tickets and blah blah blah.
Man there was a coach from Tampa on that he's nastro,
John Tomargo. His son played with the Mets. But anyways, well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
You can you any chance you're gonna be in the Midwest,
you let me know because I'll grab his tickets and we'll, uh,
we'll have a good time. Our special guest is John Zeller.
He's with Scoring International chaplain for the Yankee Coaches Baseball coach.
Baseball has been a big part of his life, but
he's also done some things in soccer. So we're gonna
(40:34):
get to a break. That last segment, we'll find out
what uniform he pulls out, and we'll do that on
the other side of the break. This is Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart
Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. As always,
coming from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling studios,
(40:55):
our special guests. Man, he's he's been great. We could
do about three shows with him. John Zeller score international
chaplain for some of the Yankee coaches. He's been a
baseball coach thirty five years, college level, high school level.
But when I tell you that that's his ministry, trust
me coaching. He loves coaching baseball, but it's not about baseball.
(41:17):
He didn't get a lot of wins nowadays, but he
sure gets a lot of wins by bringing these young
student athletes to christ Hey. John our favorite, one of
our favorite segments, and there was a throwaway question that
we asked in the last segment, all the uniforms you've
ever put on and coaching baseball a long time, at
playing baseball, playing soccer. You put him in a closet.
(41:37):
You get to pick one uniform out to get one
more game with that team, either as a coach as
a player. What uniform do you pull out? Who do
you play against? And why?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Well, I'll tell you I grew up in Nemmstown, Pennsylvaniaan
is the only sport we had in our town. It
was baseball and we had a really good little league program.
You know that back in those days, it was you
played against towns and we were the Newmanstown Marauders. And
to this day that program from from they have teams
(42:08):
from Little all the way up through x X pro
Gays and the newman'stein Riders. I'd wear that uniform one
more time and I'd be so happy. That'd be great.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Man, Let's play with all your neighborhood boys.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Huh yeah, she yeah, Man, what was a great time?
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Joe? What position did you play?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Well? It started out as a second basement, but very
quickly I would play short and third. When I got
to college, I played a couple of years in center
field and then went back to third. Uh, started out
at third.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So that time, what'd you normally what'd you normally hit
in the lineup?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
First?
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, you had some wheels. Huh.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Well, I could run a little bit, and I was
left handed, and I could bunt forty good. I could bunt.
I could get you six eight ten hits a year
off bunning for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Hey, are you you're still a Yankee fan? Obviously? You
know I about every third question if you listen to
ESPN Radio, they want to know if if the coach
of the Yankees on the hot seat or now what
do you think?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Uh, well, I gotta be careful because I deal with
you know what, don't answer with them, Aaron Boone, don't
answer that question.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I don't want to get you in trouble.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Nah, You're not gonna get me in trouble. You know,
the Yankees are a team that just needs they just
need a little boost. And I don't know if that's
from I know Aaron Boone. I recruited his brother, Brett,
who has Their daddy was Bob Boone. Sure, and Bob
used to help me at the Master's College with my
catchers and stuff and come out and help, you know,
(43:51):
two three times a year. But Brett was a great player.
But Aaron's a great guy and he's a born again believer.
The whole family is. And know, it's just man, it's
just tough, you know. You know, here's an old saying,
and I'll end it with this. If you keep doing
what you're doing, you're gonna keep getting what you getting.
If you don't like what you're getting, then you got
to stop what you're doing. And that's that's pretty good philosophy.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah, and I think I look after as many years
as he's been managing there. I think they get they
get used to that voice and they might need a
new voice. You never know.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Go ahead, can we bring loopel on Mike? I want
you to ask him that question.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Oh I will. I won't lead, I'm not gonna lead
with it, but I'm gonna ask him that our special guys. Man,
this has been so fun for me. He's John Zeller
scoring international and and look when when you talk baseball,
him and I could talk baseball a long time when
he talked about it. He was a pretty good bunch
back in the day. I don't see too many good
bunchers in the game of baseball anymore. So I love that. John.
(44:58):
Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Please say hello to Katie, chat and Chip for me
and anything I can do for you in the city Milwaukee.
Please please let me know.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Man, that was a pleasure, and thank you for letting
me speak about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Amen to that. This is faith in the Zone. I'm
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
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