SAX IN THE MORNING

Today I wrap up our salute to the military with the story of Mo Berg who might be the most interesting man in the history of baseball. 

Berg was fluent in seven languages and was familiar with another five. He played 16 years in the Major Leagues and traveled to Japan with a MLB All-Star team that included Babe Ruth and Lou Gerig. While there he snuck to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo and took pictures of the ...

Today I want to continue to salute our military a day after Memorial Day and so today I am focusing on the famous flying squadron The Purple Foxes. This is the squadron that my son John was a part of. 

The Purple Foxes are famous for flying in to rescue a platoon of Marines who were stuck under heavy fire during the Vietnam War. When they landed a soldier remarked “We thought you flyboys didn’t give a shit!” To which the crew c...

Today on Memorial Day I wanted to give my thanks to all the men and women who have given their lives to defend this country. Since I love World War II history I wanted to focus a little bit on D-day and some of the other breakthroughs that helped us win that war. 

What does D-day mean? How did code breaking help win the war and lead to the modern personal computer? I answer these questions and give my gratitude to anyone who ha...

Sometimes you hear people say things like “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” or “you had better have a back up plan.” The truth is that most people who accomplish difficult goals don’t have a “plan B.” I was going to play Major League baseball, period, end of story. If I failed I would have figured it out then but I didn’t need and I didn’t want to think about not achieving my goal. 

Listen to interviews with actors, music...

I have good news for you today and that is that if you have a lot of struggles and a lot of problems there's a good chance that a major part of the problem is YOU! And you are the only person, place or thing you really have any control over, which means you have more agency than you think to solve your problems. 

You may have serious hardships and circumstances but that doesn’t change the fact that you are the only thing y...

It’s time for another MLB update where I give my thoughts on how the season is going and what the biggests surprises and disappointments are so far. 

The Tampa Bay Rays just keep on rolling! Crummy stadium, low payroll and they cannot be stopped. Unlike the Oakland A’s who seem to have zero interest in putting a competitive team on the field. 

The Dodgers continue to rein over the National League West despite the belief of ...

You know I love to share inspirational sports stories with you and today is a whopper! It's about the Florida Athletic High School Hall of Famer Carl Joseph. 

Joseph was a star athlete in high school in football, basketball and track and field. At 6’1” he could dunk the ball with authority, routinely blocked shots into the crowd, played on the defensive line in football, could throw a shot put 40 feet and won the high jump...

Jamie Moyer pitched in four different decades as a Major League pitcher and won 269 games. He was never the most talented guy, he didn’t throw hard and his “stuff” wasn’t impressive, but he got the very most out of his ability by knowing his strengths. 

He knew he could use hitters' aggressiveness to his advantage and he did so for 25 seasons. But Moyer also knew he should get the most out of his influence and stature as a...

Today I’m talking about how working on a team creates a positive environment with better outcomes for everyone. It’s tempting to want to “go it alone” but the rewards of being backed up by a team bear out in the research and by people’s experiences. 

Being on a team reduces stress, reduces mistakes and creates better decision making. I know that playing a team sport made our failures less painful and our successes way more fun....

We all have negative thoughts sometimes that put us down or make us doubt ourselves. That’s normal, but when those thoughts become chronic and intrusive it can lead to a sad lonely life of blaming the world and other people for our problems. 

Looking back over my own experience and reading how others have overcome negative thoughts I wanted to share with you some ways to overcome that pattern. 

1. Acknowledge the thoughts ...

We all do it. We all get a fear in our head that we know what someone is thinking about us, or we get a feeling and know that something terrible is going to happen, or we read a headline and we know the whole awful story. But do we? Or are we just jumping to conclusions based on feelings or false information?

Jumping to conclusions can cause us to act in irrational ways and upend our day or our lives because we reacted to situa...

Today I’m talking about another pandemic that is happening in our world as the COVID-19 crisis winds down and that is the crisis of loneliness. It’s worse for you than smoking, it causes mental health problems, lifestyle disorders and all sorts of public health problems. 

All this started even before COVID and it continues to get worse. So what can we do? Well, it's a big complex problem with simple solutions. We have to c...

There are many things in life which never get old. Jeans and a t-shirt, a good chocolate chip cookie and treating people with class and respect. That’s what today’s short is all about. 

During my career many different people showed class, guiding me with their example of kindness and service. Acts of class and respect are experiences that have stuck with me for the rest of my life and they are reminders of how I should strive t...

Today I’m taking a look at the baseball season again to see where things stand after the first month. 

This is a time for players and teams to reevaluate where they are, how the season is going and what changes might need to be made. It’s a great example for our own lives. Every few months we should all be evaluating our lives and our performance to figure out where we can do better and what changes we could make to improve. 

Today we officially open the Captain John J. Sax foundation which will raise money to support people who want to pursue a passion for flying. Our foundation’s mission statement is: 

In continuing to honor the life of a devoted flyer, the Capt. John J. Sax Foundation serves to support those who choose to further their education, exploration and passion for flight dwelling within the hearts of future aviators within the United St...

Today on our full length episode I had the pleasure of talking with the great Nick Swisher. Nick is a ball of energy and positivity and he had so many great things to say about how to choose happiness and how to look forward and the future while living in the present moment. 

Nick was a phenomenal baseball player playing 12 seasons in which he hit 20 or more home runs in nine straight seasons and won a world series with the New...

To finish this week of people overcoming the odds to succeed in sports I wanted to highlight the great Muggsy Bogues, who played 14 years in the NBA despite being a mere 5’3”. That’s short for your average person but for professional basketball players that is unheard of. And he was one of a kind and still is, because he is the shortest NBA player ever. 

And yet he wasn’t just a cute story, Muggsy Bogues was an outstanding play...

Yesterday’s story was about a boy who almost lost his legs and today’s story is about a boy who lost his arms. Ibrahim Hamadtou lost his arms in a train accident as a little boy. Luckily in the village he grew up in in Egypt they loved soccer and table tennis. 

Naturally, you would assume a kid with no arms would play soccer, which he did, but Ibrahim was also enamored with table tennis. Unfortunately, a prerequisite to play th...

Today I share the story of Glenn Cunningham who was one of the best distance runners of all time. He held the world record in the mile for three years. He held several Olympic and NCAA records at one point. But as a child, doctors told him he would never walk. 

Cunningham had both legs terribly burned in a fire, and he barely survived and nearly had his legs amputated. Doctors said he would never walk, but never underestimate the wi...