June 8, 2026 • 31 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Arry Show is on the air. Generals gathered in
the masses just like witches at Black Mass. Let's pick
(00:26):
it up five o'clock. Yeah, squad Matt mannis we're gonna
have somebody from the Memorial High School squad. And he
was the one I was able to first get. Apparently
he's a star pitcher on there. And uh, are you
going to ut this fall? Yes, sir, on a baseball scholarship?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Are they good in baseball?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, last night they'd just be organ to go to
Omaha for the thirty ninth time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But like, is that, like, is that one of the
better baseball programs in the country.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, I would say so.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Have they ever had anybody go from there to the pros?
Lots lots of guys.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Casey Clemens, he's in the Pros? Are now Roger Clemens
his dad?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, I have to tell you the fact that you
said Casey before Roger.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I know I was trying to think of guys right now.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm just kidding you. But since we're on the subject,
give me some more about Greg Swindell.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, there's a few in the in the miners that
just got out of there.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, it's an amazing I'm being all of the mommies
out there hating me right now because I'm messing with
a kid who's eighteen, who's being so respectful. I know
exactly what the reason I wanted to have you on
is because you're going to ut to play baseball. And
that's a huge deal, son, that's a big, big deal.
I don't tell you that.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Who else gave you an offer? LSU? You didn't want
to go to l SU? Did you a lot?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
A lot of the South schools Mississippi State l s
U and in those types of did.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You see miss this weekend advantage?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that was big upset.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I was big Auburn, yes, yeah, and they weren't even ranked.
And those Auburn, those Auburn.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Players, Auburn was ranked fourth.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, they looked sad, but they looked shocked, like this
didn't just happen.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I think a lot of people when I was watching
the game, I was thinking that too.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So they said, you were your dad was tracking you
down at work? Are you at work?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
You know? So? I was actually asleep earlier work.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I worked later today. What do you do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I work at a batting cage.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh really, which one hitting door.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Off of Campbell? Campbell in Long Point.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Oh, I know exactly where this is. Yeah, okay, what
do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Right now? I just work at the desk, so not
too much. I just checked people in. But once I
get to college and I start coming back, I'll start
doing coaching stuff there and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But you won't use your arm. No, Yeah, what all
do you throw?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I throw a four seam, a two seam, curveball, slider
in a changeup.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What's your best pitch?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I would say my slider? Really, yes, that's probably my
that's my that's my bread and butter right there.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Really who taught you to pitch?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I've had a few pitching coaches over the years. I
would say a mix of my dad, myself, and then
I have this old pitching coaches, the Gary Majuicy he
was in the major leagues for a few years and
team uh no, his kid goes to Jersey Village.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay, yeah, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But I worked with him for a long time. So
those are probably the main three.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I would say, interesting, very interesting. Did you play a
position other than pitcher?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah? So I played when I'm not pitching, I was
either playing first or outfield. When I get to ut,
obviously I'll just pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Are you a right?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Oh? I was still playing a lucky okay?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I was looking at your stats. Very impressive year, my
boy nine and one with a one point three two ERA,
seventy three strikeouts and forty seven and two thirds innings.
For his Memorial High School career, he was twenty four
and four with a one point five ERA two and
twenty nine strikeouts and one hundred and forty two innings.
(04:28):
In playoff games for his career was seven and three
with a one point oh nine ERA. How how are
you gonna have three losses in your era? Was only
one point oh nine. They weren't giving you any runs,
sixty five strikeouts in fifty one and thirty eight. He
also hit this year for the first time when not pitching.
He hit four twenty two for the year and four
hundred in the playoffs. Wow, it's pretty impressive. Thank you.
(04:50):
What is your what is your health regiment? Are you
a workout guy or you a cardio guy? Or you
a stretching guy? You what do you think? What are
you proud of that? You do well.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm big on I'm big on stretching and making sure
my body is prepared for games and trying to stay healthy.
I think a lot of that is just off season stuff.
I worked out a lot in the off season and
really try to prepare my body for the spring. But
I would say working out and probably stretching out of
(05:21):
the two main the main things with me.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
What do you not do as well as you'd like?
Whether it's diet, cardio, sleep.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Probably, I would say probably either my diet or my sleep.
Probably my sleep. My diet isn't that bad. I try
to keep it. My mom makes some pretty good meals,
still really good. Mm. She makes really good just just
some basic grilled chicken with rice. She has some good
seasonings on there, and that's probably my favorite meal of
(05:52):
hers because it's very simple and pretty clean and healthy.
But I think my sleep, probably I got to I
got to bed late sometimes and wake up a little
too early.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, this is a little depressing it because it should
get better with age, but I'm fifty five and I
struggle with that to this day. I mean, if I
have in the course of my career stayed up all
night and then done the show, and nobody other than
my team knew knew it, and that's awful. But I
just like, you know, like if you do you have
a dog? Yes, I do. What kind of dog?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Jeff mostly Cordy.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What's his name? Snowball boy or girl boy? Okay, so
I don't know if snowballs this way, but most dogs,
if you put food in front of them, they will
not stop eating as long as there is food in
that bowl. Right. Well, I am that way with staying
up unless somebody like my wife or even one of
(06:52):
my kids. My kids are graduating. Now come, I hey, dad,
it's three o'clock. You got to be up in three
hours or you know whatever. I struggle to go to bed.
So there's all I'm trying to say is that that's
a that's a natural thing. So do you go up earlier?
Do you just report in August?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So I report August first, so I go about three
weeks before actual school starts.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, what's your major.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I'm majoring in kinesiology and sports management.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What are you going to and where are you going
to stay?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We're staying it. It's in the apartments called the Pearl.
So luckily we don't have to stay in dorm's freshman year,
which will be nice.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah right, yeah. So I have a son who just
finished his sophomore year there. And then I have a
son who just graduated high school and he will be
starting with you at University of Texas. He didn't have
to report two weeks later. He's not playing ball.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah no, I'm really excited to get there.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
How many of y'all from this team are are going
to UT to play ball too.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So there's one that's a year younger than me. So
he'll graduate next year and he'll be playing there. His
name is Grant Sprandio Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I know, Oh it's Grant Spring Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know him.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, and then just me and then we had a
few others going to college, but not UT.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Didn't y'all have some going to and m No, we
had to keep going to Oklahoma State and Air Force. Oh,
Air Forces. Josh is Chris Ernest's kid. Okay, hold just
say man, it's brings key, it's flings key. It's done
for a girl and the boy. I like Ludaberry's show
man Johnny nask him even out dude Dooley Wilson and
(08:35):
as time goes by it and not a lot of people.
I always say that about Houston's own, about Matt Mannus,
he just graduated, they go to the state championship and
his friends are gonna go, oh, you were on the radio. Yeah,
they were playing like my grandparents' music or something. Matt
Manus is our guest. So how many hours a week
are you working the batting cage?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So I was during the season working about team, not
too much, and then probably around the same for the summer.
I can't work too much. I gotta I gotta still
do my workouts and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Wait a second, you were going to school and baseball
season was going on with practice and games and all
that workouts. Yes, and you were still working fifteen hours
a week.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yes. I would work one day during the week, so
I would work on a Monday, so I'd go after practices,
and then I would work on the weekends in the mornings.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You must make a.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Lot of money, Uh, I tend to. I tend to
spend a lot of it, but I try, I try
to say some of it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
What are you spend it on?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Mostly food? Tell me about Valerie Mannis.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That's my mother. She's great she's my favorite person. She
helps me with everything, like what anything from getting up
in the morning to making my food to tell me
where I need to be. She's really like, she's the
person in our family who has the checklist and make
sure everything gets done.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
She's the task master. Yeah, exactly. You know mom's moms
are that's that's my wife in our household, and it's
it's my two sons are graduated now, but it's for
us three boys. We're just we're not as organized. We
don't have the direction, we don't have the you know,
she keeps notes of everything, she keeps everything organized, she
(10:32):
keeps a calendar and all that. And and I jokingly
tell my boys, you know, you're gonna have a few
years out there where you're gonna be unmoored, you know,
like a ship that's not tied down at at at
at bay, at at the dock, and you can be
floating around out there till you find you somebody that
can help you along. And they're like, I know, Dad,
what am I gonna do? Well, she'll probably still call
you every morning, which Valerie will probably still Mom will
(10:55):
probably still call you as a freshman to get you
up in the morning. That's that's quite common, I would hope. So,
who's your best friend in high school?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
My best friend, his name is Gabe Graham. He actually
doesn't go to my high school. He goes to Saint Pias.
Oh yeah, but me and him we went to elementary
school together in middle school and he's my childhood best,
friendly best friend since we were like five.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Where'd you go to elementary? So?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
At first I went to Saint Michael's and then in
third grade I transferred to Western Academy and I went
there till eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Well, how'd you like that?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It was good? I really liked but kund of the
vibes of being, you know, outdoor and everything was just
a bunch of guys kind of hanging around, and it
didn't really feel as much as school as most other schools.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
But it was hard.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
The academics were hard, made you really focused.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
About you and the fifteen hours a week tells me
a lot about some friends of mine, Tim Belton fill
out some other friends were involved in founding that school,
which was their they're open stay Catholics. I don't know
if you're a Catholic or not, but they're open stay Catholics.
They wanted a value based education, and I never believe
they would get it off the ground, but darn if
they didn't. And and they have built something very special
(12:13):
that that's that's been cool. And then you switch to
more freshman year that makes sense. Okay, good student.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
As and b's okay.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Why do you think you don't do better? Do you
not study hard enough? Or you're not a good test taker.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think I'm not a great test taker. I think
once I can, I can understand the individual lessons and
then when it all kind of comes together. It was
mostly math. Math was usually my hardest subject.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, you have brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I have three older sisters.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Oh wow, okay, all right, they come to the games,
most of them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They try all out of state. They're all older and
out of state, so okay, they're kind of doing their
own things. But they try to make stuff same as
I try to make their stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You know, you think you would at this point. You're young.
You should keep your mind open, But do you do
you see do you foresee a career in sports? No
matter how long you continue to play, do you could
foresee a career in sports?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah? I mean I go back to what my parents
always tell me. They tell me, you know, you don't
want to work a job that you don't love, and
sports has kind of been my I'm not I wouldn't
say my life, but a huge part of my life,
or since I can remember walking. So I think I
would definitely want to stay in sports just because I
love it so much. And I think I would be
(13:29):
excited to go to work if I was working in
a sports related field.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah. I saw an interview with a guy, if you
get a chance to check it out named Robert Green
g R E N E. And he talked about how
there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, find your passion.
You know people will tell you. Mike Rowe with Dirty
Jobs says, you know, find your passions only for a
small number of people. Everybody else has to go to work,
pay the bills. But there is something to be said.
(13:56):
I think Steve Jobs, who created Apple, and Elon Musk
who creates sex and test on all these things, I
think there is something to be said for finding a
thing that you love so much. And he said, you
go back to when you're six and seven years old,
and I bet you were a sports nut at six
or seven years old as well.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Definitely, definitely what.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Current major League baseball player would you say I like
his game the most, Probably Terreg Schoogle. I'm not following
major League Baseball like I used to. Who does he play? So?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He was? He was last year, He's on the Tigers.
He was last year Cy Young. He's a lefty and
just the way he pitches is very He pitches very.
I would say the best id to describe him would
be like violent, very in your face. I'm gonna throw you. Well,
I'm gonna throw you and I'm gonna dare you to
hit it. And I kind of like that energy on
the mound from him. And he's just really good as well.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, we talked about Roger Clemmins earlier. That's that's the
way Roger Clemens was too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yes, Yeah, I actually got to last summer. He was
helping coach.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
This but.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Can the summer team that I got to play on,
and it was really cool to get to talk to
him and his sons and they went to Memorials. So
it was kind of a good small world, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
He went to Spring he went to Spring Valley. I
sent him about two months ago a screenshot of his
high school stats and it had been posted somewhere and
I sent him that and he sent back he goes,
that must have been a mistake. He was joking, and
I thought, I'm not sure if he if it was
or not. And I had to go look it up
because his stat line was so over the top. You
(15:32):
couldn't imagine a lot like yours. Yeah, Matt, what a pleasure.
You're an impressive young man, which a lot of credit
for that's due to your coaches and especially your parents.
You're on the right track, my boy. Keep it up.
Look forward to watching you do great things. Thank you.
Damn when you're listening to the Michael Berry Show. I
(15:52):
don't know if you know this, but when you take testosterones,
you have to take an estrogen blocker. I learned this year.
Years ago. I had a trainer named Frank robson the
Texas Tornado. He was number three in the country for
his age group. And Frank was you. He was a
(16:18):
shorter squatter Ronnie Coleman. He was a black guy, still
his black guy from San Anton and he was about
five seven tall and five seven white, And I mean
he was distracted how big he was, his thighs, his arms.
(16:41):
I would say his his arms were bigger than my thighs.
But that's not even saving though, like just monstrously big.
And when he would be getting ready for a show,
it was like he was an inflatable balloon. You'd see
him and just like you know, like you go camping
and you put the things, you pump it up, boo
(17:02):
boo boo book and I'll go, Frank, what is going on,
Like in the last week, your muscles just got huge,
like like you've you've put air into them. And he goes,
what I have to do when? When it's when? It's
when it's showtime, because he would perform in these shows, right,
and so the whole point was just to get the
muscles as big as you could, as fast as you could.
(17:24):
And he would tell me about this estrogen blocker that
he had to take because his testosterone level. He would
take so much testosterone level, like very unhealthy levels of
testosterone level. But that doesn't shock anybody and knows anything
about bodybuilders. That's a very unhealthy sport sport because your body,
(17:49):
when you artificially introduce testosterone, your body, even for men,
tries to match with trailing lagging levels of estrogen, so oh,
you don't want that, and with women it's the reverse.
That's why I like women. Bodybuilders take a limited amount
of testosterone, but you gotta be careful and you, you know,
(18:10):
grow hair on your boobs.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Anyway, you have to take these estrogen blockers. Well then
I started after that on testosterone and my guy was
Kenny Smith at the time, and Kenny said, uh, all right,
I'm gonna give you this first round and then you're
gonna need to pick it up at the at the pharmacy.
You know, this is called katubu, lubi, nostrustra and astrosol
(18:34):
I think, or something like that. And I said, okay, well,
I like to know what what is it? He's as
an estrogen blocker. Dude, I'm not having a period. I'm
full on dude. I was born a dude. I'm still
a dude. I got the dude thing down. He said, no,
your estrogen levels will rise and you're not careful, you'll
end up growing a boob. But what he goes, Oh, yeah, yeah,
(18:56):
I tell people you're gonna take this estrogen blocker. They
don't take the estrogen blocker, you'll start seventh grade girl boobs.
Before you know it. I said, Damn, that's something to
think about anyway, this song. I go home, get my
estrogen blockers. I'm not shining. I'll be another just pick
you up kind of got you shat. Dude wears his hair, Dude,
(19:19):
I just don't understand having man not get his hair straighten.
I don't think you ought to date a girl that
wants that song to play while y'all are mating. You
know what I'm saying. If she don't want Mickey Gilly,
the girls all get pretty at closing time, you don't
want her. You don't want her. She's been pasted around.
(19:40):
I not to go on right there. I'll tell you what.
I'm blown away by that kid, that mat madness. I
am blowed a Oh Matthew, Oh you know what his
dad's mad. You know what I feel bad about that.
I would not have done that on per I will
I will jack with people. I came in, I came
in hot, messing with him at the beginning. But he
was such a good sport about it. He must have thought, man,
(20:03):
what has Kyle Te's so his dad and Kyle Ts,
who's a good friend of mine. Kyle used to own Danton's.
You remember Danton's Seafood over on Montrose at fifty nine,
Real good Louisiana seafood. But what they were kind of
known for, Danton Knicks was his chef. What they were
(20:23):
known for was their Sunday brunch. You couldn't get in
on Sunday brunch. It would just be packed. They were
in that Chelsea market right there. You don't talk about,
just south of how do you know? Oh yeah, okay,
just south of fifty nine right there, that red brick builder.
I think they tore it down. But anyway, they had
the whole first floor of that thing, and they had
a Sunday brunch that was just amazing, and it was
(20:44):
a New Orleans style Sunday brunch. And he had wasn't
Lightning Hopkins. It was his cousin. What's lightning in Hopkins
cousin's name. No, it's not thunder Williams. That's Thunderhead. You
tell me, hank Way, it's Unior Gosh. I can't remember.
But anyway, they used to do a blues Sunday deal. Anyway,
(21:07):
he owns Eugenes now. And when I posted, I can't
remember if I posted late last night or early this
morning that I wanted to track down the Tom ball
head coach and somebody from the Memorial team, because we
have a lot of friends that the kids are at
Memorial and a lot of guys that I know that
live in Memorials. So I knew that wasn't going to
(21:28):
be hard to do. So I asked for just a
kid or a coach, somebody from that team. And I
knew I knew mike'sprandio whose son, Grant is on that team.
I think I said Michael earlier, but I know the
dad who's a who's just a phenomenal athlete. The kid's
been an athlete. I saw him start playing ball when
he was probably eight years always been a superstar ever since.
(21:50):
But I asked for somebody on that team, and the
first one I got was Kyle, who went to school
with Matt mannis that he said, I can get you
Matthew his son, and I had already heard that he
was one of the stars on that team. I mean, look,
if you're going to ut to play baseball on a scholarship,
you're one of the best pitchers in the entire country.
(22:12):
I mean, you're probably my estimate would be your top
ten in the country to get that. That's not you're
going to the local school and playing baseball, you're a superstar.
But I was very impressed that the kid goes from
winning the state championship to gets up and goes to
work at the batting cage, and that he was working
fifteen hours a week during I mean, I just had
(22:35):
a kid graduate and then I had another kid graduate
two years before, a high school senior playing sports. You know,
between studying playing sports, you probably got a girlfriend somewhere
in there, a little socializing and going to Cabo Bob's
or Chipotle, which is what kids that age do. The
fact that he still carved out time for fifteen hours
(22:59):
of work, I think that's fantastic. When people tell me
their kid is working in high school, I always say, bravo,
that's fantastic. I think that's wonderful. At the working in
college wonderful. Hello, no matter, this is Nikki Giody and
you're listening to the season radio Michael Berry. So back
(23:20):
to the point, what happens to organizations who lose the camaraderie,
the spirit. If you played sports, coach sports, watch sports,
you saw the difference between you played on a team.
(23:43):
Let's take baseball. Great example, you played on a team
that was your team. Let's say what school ball. Well,
of these most of these kids are playing year round,
so they're playing select, they're playing Marucci with Adam Dunn
and those sorts of things. But you play on your
team that is your school team. Your classmates come out
and root for you. You play year after year. You
(24:03):
grow up with those kids, and then there is some
team you play that's like for a tournament. It's a
tournament ball team, and a coach calls and needs a player,
and it's almost like an exhibition game. You ever watch
a game played by a guy that plays on a
team where you've seen him, and then it's like a
(24:24):
pickup game. There's something that's lost, some essence to what
made it special. It's like the preseason versus a regular season,
except even more so. Or you watch a preseason game,
you know, the NFL reduced the number of preseason games
and extended the regular season because the numbers showed that
(24:47):
people didn't want Four preseason games was too much. Because
nobody wanted to watch preseason it was no brag factor.
You were watching some of the players who would be
the starters on your team, some of their players, and
nobody cared if you won. You weren't trying to win,
you were just I don't know what you were trying
to do. And so when you're not trying to win,
(25:11):
there's no competition, there's there's something is lost in the mix.
That is what has happened to so much of American life.
A church where the pastor cannot get up and preach
the gospel, the gospel will make some people feel uncomfortable.
You are supposed to have conviction when you get up
(25:35):
and preach health and wealth and everybody's happy, and there
is no sin, and there is no standard, and there
is no striving, and there is no sacrifice, and there
are no works to go with your faith. You are
pleasing no one by attempting to please everyone. And that
(25:56):
is the model for the televangelist church today. We've all
seen it. We all know who I'm talking about. When
you preach that going to church is kind of a
B twelve shot, everybody feels good, that is not what
the gospel says. The gospel is very clear. Now I've
seen people take the gospel the other way. I don't
(26:16):
think you have to be Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the
hands of an angry God, and a sense of conviction
that frightens everybody to death, and nothing but sin, sin sin.
I think it can be love, mercy, compassion, kindness, charity.
But I do think there is a strict standard, a code,
and I think people need that, and especially boys. My
(26:40):
wife used to say, well, she still says, but it
doesn't come up as much now. She would see something
that our boys had done, and yes, I'm patting myself
in the back here. And I don't think I'm a
super parent. Don't get me wrong. You do some things right.
You do something's wrong. But it is nice when you
feel like you've done something and you did it right,
because you know you only get one shot at this.
So when our boys would make a good decision, and
(27:01):
they still do, my wife would say, you know, I
always thought you were too hard on the boys, and
now they talk about how Dad was really hard on us,
and I'm glad he was. Wow. I expected to hear
that when you were thirty, if I lived that long,
I expect to hear that when you're eighteen or nineteen.
Michael t has said from college to my wife not
(27:23):
to me. If you say it to me, it might
just be Pandry might need something, they say. You know,
Dad was very hard on me about X, and I'm
really glad he did because I realize now that made
me better. Dad would tell me I couldn't do this,
or I had to do this, or disassociate from this.
I was watching this video of this guy Robert Green
(27:44):
that I mentioned to Matthew manis is Matthew not matt
By the way he goes by Matthew. I feel bad.
I love the young people's chain by calling the wrong
name or whatever. But he's Matthew, not Matt because his
dad's Matt. So that's just a mistake I made that
wasn't intentional. So I mentioned this guy Robert Green g
R E E N E. And there's a viral video
that's going around of him talking about the six keys
(28:08):
to kind of life and strategy, and I think it
was him, might have been somebody else who said that
the most important part of your health, mental and physical
will be your social circle, and that is so true.
I was interviewed by a magazine college I think it's
called Strategy magazine. Years ago. A woman was in Houston
(28:29):
getting cancer treatment at M D Anderson. And she heard
me talking about the fact that my friends are not
my friends because they live next door, went to high
school with me, went to college with me, work with me,
we're in a fraternity without infraternities. But my friends are
people that I choose. I choose them because I consider
them to be very good at what they do their
chosen career. I consider them to be someone with admirable
(28:53):
traits that I want to learn from, and I want
to learn from their highs and lows and successes and failures.
And if that sounds to you artificial or uncomfortable, that's okay.
That's a life I have chosen for myself. My friends are,
in some way or other mentors that make me better
in this path that I'm on. And this woman heard
(29:14):
me say that, so she did an interview on it
because she wanted She thought that was a kind of
interesting way to go about life. Well, that's what Robert
Green talks about in this lecture. He says, if you
want to know whether you're going to be healthy in
every aspect and which will result in success, it is
all based on your circle. And I will tell you
one of the things that I was hardest on with
(29:35):
my kids is I do not want you associating with
that kid. I'm not going to pick your friends for you,
but I'm going to tell you who you're not going
to hang around because that kid is. I saw that
kid speeding, you know, down I ten at one hundred
miles an hour, throwing a beer bottle out the window.
I don't want any part of that, and I don't
want you to have any part of that. And my
own parents did that for me. And it's funny because
(29:58):
a parent said that, you know, we had kids together
both years. A parent said that to my wife the
last few weeks. She said, you know what was interesting
is that Michael would leave when we'd have a party.
Michael would leave at ten forty five when the party
was kind of just getting going. And Molloy said, yeah,
Michael's rule is you had to be home by eleven.
(30:19):
She'd say. She and her husband said, we betted that,
we bet that that was probably the case. She said,
you know, those parties would go on until two, and
I said, yeah, he doesn't believe it. Seventeen year old
kid ought to be out. I don't have any regrets
on that, I don't have any regrets over encouraging my
kids to seek out friends, girls, boys, friends who are
(30:42):
people with admirable traits. And I will say that to anybody,
regardless of the age. If you have friends who are
a constant mess and somehow that makes you feel better
about yourself, you're not a better person because well, I'm
the only one can save them. You go out when
somebody's drowning and you're not a strong swimmer, You're gonna
drown me, not gonna save them.
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Arry Show is on the air. Generals gathered in
the masses just like witches at Black Mass. Let's pick
(00:26):
it up five o'clock. Yeah, squad Matt mannis we're gonna
have somebody from the Memorial High School squad. And he
was the one I was able to first get. Apparently
he's a star pitcher on there. And uh, are you
going to ut this fall? Yes, sir, on a baseball scholarship?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Are they good in baseball?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, last night they'd just be organ to go to
Omaha for the thirty ninth time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But like, is that, like, is that one of the
better baseball programs in the country.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, I would say so.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Have they ever had anybody go from there to the pros?
Lots lots of guys.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Casey Clemens, he's in the Pros? Are now Roger Clemens
his dad?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, I have to tell you the fact that you
said Casey before Roger.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I know I was trying to think of guys right now.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm just kidding you. But since we're on the subject,
give me some more about Greg Swindell.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, there's a few in the in the miners that
just got out of there.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, it's an amazing I'm being all of the mommies
out there hating me right now because I'm messing with
a kid who's eighteen, who's being so respectful. I know
exactly what the reason I wanted to have you on
is because you're going to ut to play baseball. And
that's a huge deal, son, that's a big, big deal.
I don't tell you that.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Who else gave you an offer? LSU? You didn't want
to go to l SU? Did you a lot?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
A lot of the South schools Mississippi State l s
U and in those types of did.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You see miss this weekend advantage?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that was big upset.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I was big Auburn, yes, yeah, and they weren't even ranked.
And those Auburn, those Auburn.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Players, Auburn was ranked fourth.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, they looked sad, but they looked shocked, like this
didn't just happen.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I think a lot of people when I was watching
the game, I was thinking that too.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So they said, you were your dad was tracking you
down at work? Are you at work?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
You know? So? I was actually asleep earlier work.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I worked later today. What do you do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I work at a batting cage.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh really, which one hitting door.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Off of Campbell? Campbell in Long Point.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Oh, I know exactly where this is. Yeah, okay, what
do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Right now? I just work at the desk, so not
too much. I just checked people in. But once I
get to college and I start coming back, I'll start
doing coaching stuff there and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But you won't use your arm. No, Yeah, what all
do you throw?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I throw a four seam, a two seam, curveball, slider
in a changeup.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What's your best pitch?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I would say my slider? Really, yes, that's probably my
that's my that's my bread and butter right there.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Really who taught you to pitch?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I've had a few pitching coaches over the years. I
would say a mix of my dad, myself, and then
I have this old pitching coaches, the Gary Majuicy he
was in the major leagues for a few years and
team uh no, his kid goes to Jersey Village.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay, yeah, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But I worked with him for a long time. So
those are probably the main three.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I would say, interesting, very interesting. Did you play a
position other than pitcher?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah? So I played when I'm not pitching, I was
either playing first or outfield. When I get to ut,
obviously I'll just pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Are you a right?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Oh? I was still playing a lucky okay?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I was looking at your stats. Very impressive year, my
boy nine and one with a one point three two ERA,
seventy three strikeouts and forty seven and two thirds innings.
For his Memorial High School career, he was twenty four
and four with a one point five ERA two and
twenty nine strikeouts and one hundred and forty two innings.
(04:28):
In playoff games for his career was seven and three
with a one point oh nine ERA. How how are
you gonna have three losses in your era? Was only
one point oh nine. They weren't giving you any runs,
sixty five strikeouts in fifty one and thirty eight. He
also hit this year for the first time when not pitching.
He hit four twenty two for the year and four
hundred in the playoffs. Wow, it's pretty impressive. Thank you.
(04:50):
What is your what is your health regiment? Are you
a workout guy or you a cardio guy? Or you
a stretching guy? You what do you think? What are
you proud of that? You do well.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm big on I'm big on stretching and making sure
my body is prepared for games and trying to stay healthy.
I think a lot of that is just off season stuff.
I worked out a lot in the off season and
really try to prepare my body for the spring. But
I would say working out and probably stretching out of
(05:21):
the two main the main things with me.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
What do you not do as well as you'd like?
Whether it's diet, cardio, sleep.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Probably, I would say probably either my diet or my sleep.
Probably my sleep. My diet isn't that bad. I try
to keep it. My mom makes some pretty good meals,
still really good. Mm. She makes really good just just
some basic grilled chicken with rice. She has some good
seasonings on there, and that's probably my favorite meal of
(05:52):
hers because it's very simple and pretty clean and healthy.
But I think my sleep, probably I got to I
got to bed late sometimes and wake up a little
too early.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, this is a little depressing it because it should
get better with age, but I'm fifty five and I
struggle with that to this day. I mean, if I
have in the course of my career stayed up all
night and then done the show, and nobody other than
my team knew knew it, and that's awful. But I
just like, you know, like if you do you have
a dog? Yes, I do. What kind of dog?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Jeff mostly Cordy.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What's his name? Snowball boy or girl boy? Okay, so
I don't know if snowballs this way, but most dogs,
if you put food in front of them, they will
not stop eating as long as there is food in
that bowl. Right. Well, I am that way with staying
up unless somebody like my wife or even one of
(06:52):
my kids. My kids are graduating. Now come, I hey, dad,
it's three o'clock. You got to be up in three
hours or you know whatever. I struggle to go to bed.
So there's all I'm trying to say is that that's
a that's a natural thing. So do you go up earlier?
Do you just report in August?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So I report August first, so I go about three
weeks before actual school starts.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, what's your major.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I'm majoring in kinesiology and sports management.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What are you going to and where are you going
to stay?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We're staying it. It's in the apartments called the Pearl.
So luckily we don't have to stay in dorm's freshman year,
which will be nice.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah right, yeah. So I have a son who just
finished his sophomore year there. And then I have a
son who just graduated high school and he will be
starting with you at University of Texas. He didn't have
to report two weeks later. He's not playing ball.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah no, I'm really excited to get there.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
How many of y'all from this team are are going
to UT to play ball too.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So there's one that's a year younger than me. So
he'll graduate next year and he'll be playing there. His
name is Grant Sprandio Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I know, Oh it's Grant Spring Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know him.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, and then just me and then we had a
few others going to college, but not UT.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Didn't y'all have some going to and m No, we
had to keep going to Oklahoma State and Air Force. Oh,
Air Forces. Josh is Chris Ernest's kid. Okay, hold just
say man, it's brings key, it's flings key. It's done
for a girl and the boy. I like Ludaberry's show
man Johnny nask him even out dude Dooley Wilson and
(08:35):
as time goes by it and not a lot of people.
I always say that about Houston's own, about Matt Mannus,
he just graduated, they go to the state championship and
his friends are gonna go, oh, you were on the radio. Yeah,
they were playing like my grandparents' music or something. Matt
Manus is our guest. So how many hours a week
are you working the batting cage?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So I was during the season working about team, not
too much, and then probably around the same for the summer.
I can't work too much. I gotta I gotta still
do my workouts and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Wait a second, you were going to school and baseball
season was going on with practice and games and all
that workouts. Yes, and you were still working fifteen hours
a week.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yes. I would work one day during the week, so
I would work on a Monday, so I'd go after practices,
and then I would work on the weekends in the mornings.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You must make a.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Lot of money, Uh, I tend to. I tend to
spend a lot of it, but I try, I try
to say some of it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
What are you spend it on?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Mostly food? Tell me about Valerie Mannis.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That's my mother. She's great she's my favorite person. She
helps me with everything, like what anything from getting up
in the morning to making my food to tell me
where I need to be. She's really like, she's the
person in our family who has the checklist and make
sure everything gets done.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
She's the task master. Yeah, exactly. You know mom's moms
are that's that's my wife in our household, and it's
it's my two sons are graduated now, but it's for
us three boys. We're just we're not as organized. We
don't have the direction, we don't have the you know,
she keeps notes of everything, she keeps everything organized, she
(10:32):
keeps a calendar and all that. And and I jokingly
tell my boys, you know, you're gonna have a few
years out there where you're gonna be unmoored, you know,
like a ship that's not tied down at at at
at bay, at at the dock, and you can be
floating around out there till you find you somebody that
can help you along. And they're like, I know, Dad,
what am I gonna do? Well, she'll probably still call
you every morning, which Valerie will probably still Mom will
(10:55):
probably still call you as a freshman to get you
up in the morning. That's that's quite common, I would hope. So,
who's your best friend in high school?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
My best friend, his name is Gabe Graham. He actually
doesn't go to my high school. He goes to Saint Pias.
Oh yeah, but me and him we went to elementary
school together in middle school and he's my childhood best,
friendly best friend since we were like five.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Where'd you go to elementary? So?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
At first I went to Saint Michael's and then in
third grade I transferred to Western Academy and I went
there till eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Well, how'd you like that?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It was good? I really liked but kund of the
vibes of being, you know, outdoor and everything was just
a bunch of guys kind of hanging around, and it
didn't really feel as much as school as most other schools.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
But it was hard.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
The academics were hard, made you really focused.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
About you and the fifteen hours a week tells me
a lot about some friends of mine, Tim Belton fill
out some other friends were involved in founding that school,
which was their they're open stay Catholics. I don't know
if you're a Catholic or not, but they're open stay Catholics.
They wanted a value based education, and I never believe
they would get it off the ground, but darn if
they didn't. And and they have built something very special
(12:13):
that that's that's been cool. And then you switch to
more freshman year that makes sense. Okay, good student.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
As and b's okay.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Why do you think you don't do better? Do you
not study hard enough? Or you're not a good test taker.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think I'm not a great test taker. I think
once I can, I can understand the individual lessons and
then when it all kind of comes together. It was
mostly math. Math was usually my hardest subject.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, you have brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I have three older sisters.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Oh wow, okay, all right, they come to the games,
most of them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They try all out of state. They're all older and
out of state, so okay, they're kind of doing their
own things. But they try to make stuff same as
I try to make their stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You know, you think you would at this point. You're young.
You should keep your mind open, But do you do
you see do you foresee a career in sports? No
matter how long you continue to play, do you could
foresee a career in sports?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah? I mean I go back to what my parents
always tell me. They tell me, you know, you don't
want to work a job that you don't love, and
sports has kind of been my I'm not I wouldn't
say my life, but a huge part of my life,
or since I can remember walking. So I think I
would definitely want to stay in sports just because I
love it so much. And I think I would be
(13:29):
excited to go to work if I was working in
a sports related field.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah. I saw an interview with a guy, if you
get a chance to check it out named Robert Green
g R E N E. And he talked about how
there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, find your passion.
You know people will tell you. Mike Rowe with Dirty
Jobs says, you know, find your passions only for a
small number of people. Everybody else has to go to work,
pay the bills. But there is something to be said.
(13:56):
I think Steve Jobs, who created Apple, and Elon Musk
who creates sex and test on all these things, I
think there is something to be said for finding a
thing that you love so much. And he said, you
go back to when you're six and seven years old,
and I bet you were a sports nut at six
or seven years old as well.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Definitely, definitely what.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Current major League baseball player would you say I like
his game the most, Probably Terreg Schoogle. I'm not following
major League Baseball like I used to. Who does he play? So?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He was? He was last year, He's on the Tigers.
He was last year Cy Young. He's a lefty and
just the way he pitches is very He pitches very.
I would say the best id to describe him would
be like violent, very in your face. I'm gonna throw you. Well,
I'm gonna throw you and I'm gonna dare you to
hit it. And I kind of like that energy on
the mound from him. And he's just really good as well.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, we talked about Roger Clemmins earlier. That's that's the
way Roger Clemens was too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yes, Yeah, I actually got to last summer. He was
helping coach.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
This but.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Can the summer team that I got to play on,
and it was really cool to get to talk to
him and his sons and they went to Memorials. So
it was kind of a good small world, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
He went to Spring he went to Spring Valley. I
sent him about two months ago a screenshot of his
high school stats and it had been posted somewhere and
I sent him that and he sent back he goes,
that must have been a mistake. He was joking, and
I thought, I'm not sure if he if it was
or not. And I had to go look it up
because his stat line was so over the top. You
(15:32):
couldn't imagine a lot like yours. Yeah, Matt, what a pleasure.
You're an impressive young man, which a lot of credit
for that's due to your coaches and especially your parents.
You're on the right track, my boy. Keep it up.
Look forward to watching you do great things. Thank you.
Damn when you're listening to the Michael Berry Show. I
(15:52):
don't know if you know this, but when you take testosterones,
you have to take an estrogen blocker. I learned this year.
Years ago. I had a trainer named Frank robson the
Texas Tornado. He was number three in the country for
his age group. And Frank was you. He was a
(16:18):
shorter squatter Ronnie Coleman. He was a black guy, still
his black guy from San Anton and he was about
five seven tall and five seven white, And I mean
he was distracted how big he was, his thighs, his arms.
(16:41):
I would say his his arms were bigger than my thighs.
But that's not even saving though, like just monstrously big.
And when he would be getting ready for a show,
it was like he was an inflatable balloon. You'd see
him and just like you know, like you go camping
and you put the things, you pump it up, boo
(17:02):
boo boo book and I'll go, Frank, what is going on,
Like in the last week, your muscles just got huge,
like like you've you've put air into them. And he goes,
what I have to do when? When it's when? It's
when it's showtime, because he would perform in these shows, right,
and so the whole point was just to get the
muscles as big as you could, as fast as you could.
(17:24):
And he would tell me about this estrogen blocker that
he had to take because his testosterone level. He would
take so much testosterone level, like very unhealthy levels of
testosterone level. But that doesn't shock anybody and knows anything
about bodybuilders. That's a very unhealthy sport sport because your body,
(17:49):
when you artificially introduce testosterone, your body, even for men,
tries to match with trailing lagging levels of estrogen, so oh,
you don't want that, and with women it's the reverse.
That's why I like women. Bodybuilders take a limited amount
of testosterone, but you gotta be careful and you, you know,
(18:10):
grow hair on your boobs.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Anyway, you have to take these estrogen blockers. Well then
I started after that on testosterone and my guy was
Kenny Smith at the time, and Kenny said, uh, all right,
I'm gonna give you this first round and then you're
gonna need to pick it up at the at the pharmacy.
You know, this is called katubu, lubi, nostrustra and astrosol
(18:34):
I think, or something like that. And I said, okay, well,
I like to know what what is it? He's as
an estrogen blocker. Dude, I'm not having a period. I'm
full on dude. I was born a dude. I'm still
a dude. I got the dude thing down. He said, no,
your estrogen levels will rise and you're not careful, you'll
end up growing a boob. But what he goes, Oh, yeah, yeah,
(18:56):
I tell people you're gonna take this estrogen blocker. They
don't take the estrogen blocker, you'll start seventh grade girl boobs.
Before you know it. I said, Damn, that's something to
think about anyway, this song. I go home, get my
estrogen blockers. I'm not shining. I'll be another just pick
you up kind of got you shat. Dude wears his hair, Dude,
(19:19):
I just don't understand having man not get his hair straighten.
I don't think you ought to date a girl that
wants that song to play while y'all are mating. You
know what I'm saying. If she don't want Mickey Gilly,
the girls all get pretty at closing time, you don't
want her. You don't want her. She's been pasted around.
(19:40):
I not to go on right there. I'll tell you what.
I'm blown away by that kid, that mat madness. I
am blowed a Oh Matthew, Oh you know what his
dad's mad. You know what I feel bad about that.
I would not have done that on per I will
I will jack with people. I came in, I came
in hot, messing with him at the beginning. But he
was such a good sport about it. He must have thought, man,
(20:03):
what has Kyle Te's so his dad and Kyle Ts,
who's a good friend of mine. Kyle used to own Danton's.
You remember Danton's Seafood over on Montrose at fifty nine,
Real good Louisiana seafood. But what they were kind of
known for, Danton Knicks was his chef. What they were
(20:23):
known for was their Sunday brunch. You couldn't get in
on Sunday brunch. It would just be packed. They were
in that Chelsea market right there. You don't talk about,
just south of how do you know? Oh yeah, okay,
just south of fifty nine right there, that red brick builder.
I think they tore it down. But anyway, they had
the whole first floor of that thing, and they had
a Sunday brunch that was just amazing, and it was
(20:44):
a New Orleans style Sunday brunch. And he had wasn't
Lightning Hopkins. It was his cousin. What's lightning in Hopkins
cousin's name. No, it's not thunder Williams. That's Thunderhead. You
tell me, hank Way, it's Unior Gosh. I can't remember.
But anyway, they used to do a blues Sunday deal. Anyway,
(21:07):
he owns Eugenes now. And when I posted, I can't
remember if I posted late last night or early this
morning that I wanted to track down the Tom ball
head coach and somebody from the Memorial team, because we
have a lot of friends that the kids are at
Memorial and a lot of guys that I know that
live in Memorials. So I knew that wasn't going to
(21:28):
be hard to do. So I asked for just a
kid or a coach, somebody from that team. And I
knew I knew mike'sprandio whose son, Grant is on that team.
I think I said Michael earlier, but I know the
dad who's a who's just a phenomenal athlete. The kid's
been an athlete. I saw him start playing ball when
he was probably eight years always been a superstar ever since.
(21:50):
But I asked for somebody on that team, and the
first one I got was Kyle, who went to school
with Matt mannis that he said, I can get you
Matthew his son, and I had already heard that he
was one of the stars on that team. I mean, look,
if you're going to ut to play baseball on a scholarship,
you're one of the best pitchers in the entire country.
(22:12):
I mean, you're probably my estimate would be your top
ten in the country to get that. That's not you're
going to the local school and playing baseball, you're a superstar.
But I was very impressed that the kid goes from
winning the state championship to gets up and goes to
work at the batting cage, and that he was working
fifteen hours a week during I mean, I just had
(22:35):
a kid graduate and then I had another kid graduate
two years before, a high school senior playing sports. You know,
between studying playing sports, you probably got a girlfriend somewhere
in there, a little socializing and going to Cabo Bob's
or Chipotle, which is what kids that age do. The
fact that he still carved out time for fifteen hours
(22:59):
of work, I think that's fantastic. When people tell me
their kid is working in high school, I always say, bravo,
that's fantastic. I think that's wonderful. At the working in
college wonderful. Hello, no matter, this is Nikki Giody and
you're listening to the season radio Michael Berry. So back
(23:20):
to the point, what happens to organizations who lose the camaraderie,
the spirit. If you played sports, coach sports, watch sports,
you saw the difference between you played on a team.
(23:43):
Let's take baseball. Great example, you played on a team
that was your team. Let's say what school ball. Well,
of these most of these kids are playing year round,
so they're playing select, they're playing Marucci with Adam Dunn
and those sorts of things. But you play on your
team that is your school team. Your classmates come out
and root for you. You play year after year. You
(24:03):
grow up with those kids, and then there is some
team you play that's like for a tournament. It's a
tournament ball team, and a coach calls and needs a player,
and it's almost like an exhibition game. You ever watch
a game played by a guy that plays on a
team where you've seen him, and then it's like a
(24:24):
pickup game. There's something that's lost, some essence to what
made it special. It's like the preseason versus a regular season,
except even more so. Or you watch a preseason game,
you know, the NFL reduced the number of preseason games
and extended the regular season because the numbers showed that
(24:47):
people didn't want Four preseason games was too much. Because
nobody wanted to watch preseason it was no brag factor.
You were watching some of the players who would be
the starters on your team, some of their players, and
nobody cared if you won. You weren't trying to win,
you were just I don't know what you were trying
to do. And so when you're not trying to win,
(25:11):
there's no competition, there's there's something is lost in the mix.
That is what has happened to so much of American life.
A church where the pastor cannot get up and preach
the gospel, the gospel will make some people feel uncomfortable.
You are supposed to have conviction when you get up
(25:35):
and preach health and wealth and everybody's happy, and there
is no sin, and there is no standard, and there
is no striving, and there is no sacrifice, and there
are no works to go with your faith. You are
pleasing no one by attempting to please everyone. And that
(25:56):
is the model for the televangelist church today. We've all
seen it. We all know who I'm talking about. When
you preach that going to church is kind of a
B twelve shot, everybody feels good, that is not what
the gospel says. The gospel is very clear. Now I've
seen people take the gospel the other way. I don't
(26:16):
think you have to be Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the
hands of an angry God, and a sense of conviction
that frightens everybody to death, and nothing but sin, sin sin.
I think it can be love, mercy, compassion, kindness, charity.
But I do think there is a strict standard, a code,
and I think people need that, and especially boys. My
(26:40):
wife used to say, well, she still says, but it
doesn't come up as much now. She would see something
that our boys had done, and yes, I'm patting myself
in the back here. And I don't think I'm a
super parent. Don't get me wrong. You do some things right.
You do something's wrong. But it is nice when you
feel like you've done something and you did it right,
because you know you only get one shot at this.
So when our boys would make a good decision, and
(27:01):
they still do, my wife would say, you know, I
always thought you were too hard on the boys, and
now they talk about how Dad was really hard on us,
and I'm glad he was. Wow. I expected to hear
that when you were thirty, if I lived that long,
I expect to hear that when you're eighteen or nineteen.
Michael t has said from college to my wife not
(27:23):
to me. If you say it to me, it might
just be Pandry might need something, they say. You know,
Dad was very hard on me about X, and I'm
really glad he did because I realize now that made
me better. Dad would tell me I couldn't do this,
or I had to do this, or disassociate from this.
I was watching this video of this guy Robert Green
(27:44):
that I mentioned to Matthew manis is Matthew not matt
By the way he goes by Matthew. I feel bad.
I love the young people's chain by calling the wrong
name or whatever. But he's Matthew, not Matt because his
dad's Matt. So that's just a mistake I made that
wasn't intentional. So I mentioned this guy Robert Green g
R E E N E. And there's a viral video
that's going around of him talking about the six keys
(28:08):
to kind of life and strategy, and I think it
was him, might have been somebody else who said that
the most important part of your health, mental and physical
will be your social circle, and that is so true.
I was interviewed by a magazine college I think it's
called Strategy magazine. Years ago. A woman was in Houston
(28:29):
getting cancer treatment at M D Anderson. And she heard
me talking about the fact that my friends are not
my friends because they live next door, went to high
school with me, went to college with me, work with me,
we're in a fraternity without infraternities. But my friends are
people that I choose. I choose them because I consider
them to be very good at what they do their
chosen career. I consider them to be someone with admirable
(28:53):
traits that I want to learn from, and I want
to learn from their highs and lows and successes and failures.
And if that sounds to you artificial or uncomfortable, that's okay.
That's a life I have chosen for myself. My friends are,
in some way or other mentors that make me better
in this path that I'm on. And this woman heard
(29:14):
me say that, so she did an interview on it
because she wanted She thought that was a kind of
interesting way to go about life. Well, that's what Robert
Green talks about in this lecture. He says, if you
want to know whether you're going to be healthy in
every aspect and which will result in success, it is
all based on your circle. And I will tell you
one of the things that I was hardest on with
(29:35):
my kids is I do not want you associating with
that kid. I'm not going to pick your friends for you,
but I'm going to tell you who you're not going
to hang around because that kid is. I saw that
kid speeding, you know, down I ten at one hundred
miles an hour, throwing a beer bottle out the window.
I don't want any part of that, and I don't
want you to have any part of that. And my
own parents did that for me. And it's funny because
(29:58):
a parent said that, you know, we had kids together
both years. A parent said that to my wife the
last few weeks. She said, you know what was interesting
is that Michael would leave when we'd have a party.
Michael would leave at ten forty five when the party
was kind of just getting going. And Molloy said, yeah,
Michael's rule is you had to be home by eleven.
(30:19):
She'd say. She and her husband said, we betted that,
we bet that that was probably the case. She said,
you know, those parties would go on until two, and
I said, yeah, he doesn't believe it. Seventeen year old
kid ought to be out. I don't have any regrets
on that, I don't have any regrets over encouraging my
kids to seek out friends, girls, boys, friends who are
(30:42):
people with admirable traits. And I will say that to anybody,
regardless of the age. If you have friends who are
a constant mess and somehow that makes you feel better
about yourself, you're not a better person because well, I'm
the only one can save them. You go out when
somebody's drowning and you're not a strong swimmer, You're gonna
drown me, not gonna save them.
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