The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Conversation and stories about real athletes and the journey thru sport, faith and life.
Connecting athletes, sports families and the church. Build bridges and telling real stories to help repair, build and grow people.
Hosts Dan Dromarsky and Dave Dawson
The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Jerry Schemmel - Calling the Game, Following the Call
What happens when your greatest fear becomes the catalyst for your life's purpose? For Jerry Schemmel, Colorado Rockies play-by-play broadcaster, surviving a catastrophic plane crash in 1989 wasn't just a traumatic experience—it became the defining moment that led him to faith and transformed his approach to broadcasting.
With raw honesty, Jerry shares how the crash that claimed many lives, including a toddler sitting just in front of him, forced him to question everything about his existence. Having no spiritual foundation at the time, this moment of crisis became his crossroads. The following year, Jerry found Christ and discovered that his broadcasting career wasn't about personal achievement but about using his platform to demonstrate faith in action. From small Kansas radio stations to the major leagues—spending 20 years in NBA broadcasting before securing the coveted Rockies position at age 50—Jerry recognizes each step as divinely orchestrated.
Beyond the broadcast booth, Jerry's faith propelled him into remarkable endurance challenges. What began as therapeutic cycling after the crash evolved into riding across America multiple times for charity. In 2015, he won the two-person division of Race Across America, considered the world's toughest bicycle race, which became the subject of a documentary called "Godspeed." Through these adventures, Jerry found additional avenues to share his story and faith.
Perhaps most powerfully, Jerry offers perspective for anyone facing their own trauma: "Everybody has their own plane crash. We all get knocked down, and what we have to do is turn to God to pick us back up. And when we turn to God and He helps us back up, we are better than we were before we got knocked down." With his Rockies contract ending and his future uncertain, Jerry demonstrates the peace that comes from genuine surrender: "Be as humble as you possibly can be and just let God work in your life."
Join us for this profound conversation about faith, purpose, and finding meaning through life's most challenging moments. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or someone searching for hope amid difficulty, Jerry's journey reminds us that our greatest trials often become our greatest testimony.
Tell us what you think.
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Jerry, if you could go back in time and relive any sports moment within history, where would you go as a fan?
SPEAKER_03:I think I would go to Lake Placid, New York in 1980 when the you guys being Canadians probably don't like this, but uh when the when the United States hockey team beat the Russians to win uh that uh advancement and then win eventually the gold medal in the Olympics, it was David against Goliath. And uh the more I've watched the video, the finish of that, and and the more I've read about it, the more I wanted to be there. So I think if there was one spot I'd go back to, it'd be 1980 in Lake Placid with the U.S. Olympic team.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? I think yeah, Miracle and Ice. And they made a movie about it. I would go back there as well, but I'd only be two and I wouldn't remember it.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I was in college at the time and it was fascinating to me. And Eric Haydn won five Olympic medal, uh, gold medals in speed skating in that Olympics. So I'd love to go back there. That'd be fun.
SPEAKER_02:So interesting to see where you know the sport of hockey is involved, and obviously you're primarily right now involved in baseball, but just sports in America in general is so different. And hockey, that was one of those pinnacle moments that, regardless of how old we are, you go back to and go, wow, that was special.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. And I think it it kind of prompted a whole new uh energy for the sport of hockey. I think kids started that uh even even uh kids of parents who maybe watched that on TV. Uh the parents got into hockey, so the kids did. I did the Minnesota Timberwolves on the TV for a couple of years, and I talked to people there in Minnesota, like, man, that 1980 Olympic team and that gold medal miracle on ice got us more interested in hockey. And we're already a hockey town. So yeah, I think it did it did a lot for the sport, certainly, certainly in America.
SPEAKER_00:It's going, going, gone. Welcome to the Gospel and the Game Sports Podcast, where sports and fake the line.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is uh Gospel Again Light. Dan, what episode are we on now? Episode lots. Episode lots.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? It's exciting as we go into this and we have this adventure, we almost lose count because um uh you and I have commented on this, Dave, as we get bring in guests and we meet new people. Um, I got to meet Jerry Shamel because Jerry was a listener to our podcast when it started out. And Jerry kindly reached out, let us know that he was listening, and Jerry's involved in sport, and Jerry's vocal in his faith. And if you look up Jerry, you're gonna see Jerry's not just a one sport guy either.
SPEAKER_02:So this was Yeah, Jerry's yeah, been Colorado Rockies play-by-play voice for a number of years, Denver Nuggets, uh a well-known individual, and we we pride ourselves on the show, Jerry. That, you know, um, we love to have people of all connections to sport, the gospel in the game, which is so beautiful. Of you know, we've had people who are connected, they've played amateur sports, and we'd have bus drivers and trainers, and we talk about that. So, as a sports broadcaster, a play-by-play guy, also myself a play-by-play guy. Pretty special to have uh that on. So thanks for joining us today. You know, how would you describe yourself as I gave you a bit of an intro there to all of the people listening in 15 to 30 seconds?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I would say that I'm extremely blessed in the broadcasting field I've had. I spent 20 years in the NBA, two with Minneapolis and 18 with the Denver Nuggets. Now just finish up my 14th season doing the Rockies. So um I am living a sports casting dream that every young man thinks about, and I am amazingly blessed that way.
SPEAKER_01:Well, with a lot with that depth of experience within that, I guess you say, world, um, is there a sport that maybe you you look back on and say, you know what? I kind of wish I would have broadcasted that one as well.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I I don't think so. You know, I always thought about hockey. I think it'd be really fun uh to do. I think especially on the radio, and it's a sport you can do probably by yourself as a play-by-play guy, like I did in the NBA for 20 years. That's probably one. I I will say this though, Dan, I miss basketball a lot. I miss the NBA. I still do some college stuff in the offseason, but I miss the environment of the NBA. I miss the energy and the excitement and the building and the physicality of the game and all that. So I love baseball, but I do miss doing professional basketball.
SPEAKER_02:Now, as somebody who's been in play by play for 20 years and understands that window to get to the top that you've experienced is very, very thin. Experience, people you know, you know, sometimes just dumb luck, all those things factor in, and you've had the opportunity to be at the top of the ladder for quite some time. Take me back to the early days of getting into play by play and through that journey now, getting through the as many would call the difficult years to get to where you are now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, got a degree in broadcast journalism, and I always wanted to do play by play, Dave. I didn't want to be a sports anchor. I really didn't want to do news. I wanted to do play by play. I thought that's where the action was. I played college baseball, and I thought if I'm not going to be a professional baseball player, which I knew I wouldn't be, I wasn't good enough, maybe the next best thing would be a broadcaster. So I just started doing high school games at a small station in Kansas, and that grew into small college and then major college, and then I did four years of minor league basketball, and I got a big break in 1991 when the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were just starting, needed a second play of my play guy, and they needed one quickly. And I was available, they did somebody who had done TV and radio. So I got a gigantic break by going to Minnesota in 1991, did those games for two years, and then uh lucky enough to get the Denver Nuggets job on the radio, which I did for 18 years. And then at the age of 50, where most guys are kind of downhill in their broadcasting career, I got the Rockies job. And you said it right. The competition for these jobs is enormous. There were 315 applications for that job, for the Rockies job. Now, you keep in mind in baseball, every minor leaguer is going to send their tape and their resume, but there were over 300 applications for the job, and I was lucky enough to get that. Um, and I didn't have a tremendous amount of experience doing baseball. So um there's some talent there, but it's more being blessed by God than anything. I'll have to be honest, very honest with you.
SPEAKER_02:Now, going back to that moment when you talked about, you know, getting that gig with the Timberwolves and then moving forward throughout the journey, did you grow up with a background of faith? Because I imagine now, based on it, you know, interactions, things I read about you, faith is a very important part of your journey. Was the Lord involved in that process of going, okay, God, I guess I'm gonna go to Minneapolis and then kind of walk you through those steps?
SPEAKER_03:It was at that time, Dave. It was in in 1991 when I got that job. I became a Christian in 1990, so just the year before that. And I had no spiritual foundation whatsoever. None. I was raised in the Catholic Church, but for me, that meant you show up on mass on Sunday morning and everything's fine. And that's the way I lived my life for 29 years. And then I I survived a plane crash in 1989, and that changed everything. I started questioning everything, trusting my questioning my faith. Why did I survive? Why am I here? What why am I on this earth? Or everybody in that crash died, including a little boy sitting in front of me who was a year and a half old. So I questioned everything, and I just uh I started looking at all religions, and I saw this Christianity thing that wow, it's the only it's the only religion that says you can't save yourself, that you have to believe in somebody, and that's Jesus Christ, God's son, to go to heaven. I always thought you'd just do good works and you you're a good person, you get to heaven. And that stopped me my tracks. So in 1991, when I got that Minnesota Timberwolves job, I was a believer. I was a I was full blown for Christ, and I realized that I was being blessed. It wasn't about me, it wasn't about my talent, it was about God putting me on that stage.
SPEAKER_01:Now, after the crash, who did the Lord put in your life in order to provide that fork in that road for that defining moment when you came to know Christ?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was uh a pastor of a church that that I finally broke down and went to. Um, I had been insisting that if with my wife that if we went to church, we're going to Catholic church. I mean, I was very stubborn about that. And finally, one day she said, Hey, let's just try something else. Let's try this non-denominational church that was right down the street from this new house we just bought. Um, a friend of mine had gone there. I thought, oh, I didn't really want to, but I'll try it. And there was a pastor there, Pastor Nam, a great friend of mine still. We've known each other all these years now. Bill Oldemoland, crazy last name, but he was this incredible preacher. And he preached the gospel. And I never heard that before in a church. And I thought, well, I've been missing something all these years. So it was Pastor Bill, I call him, who's now retired but still a great friend, who really changed the course of my life completely.
SPEAKER_01:So now the course of your life has changed, your profession has changed. How did the two start to overlap? Because I think for many people, we've actually used this line as part of this podcast where people all all of a sudden they have this thought where they're like, Well, okay, well, what's my mission? Well, your mission is your work, your work is your mission. How did the two start overlapping for you as part of that?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I think it it started when I realized that I was not doing this for me. It was not about Jerry Schimmel becoming a public figure. It wasn't about Jerry Schimmel making a lot of money. It wasn't about Jerry Schimmel getting patted on the back and his name and face being recognized when he when he goes out. It was about being in a place on a platform where I could uh give God glory and point people to Jesus. Those two things. I realized that's why I have this job. And that's why I survived the plane crash, so that I could I could maybe spread the gospel a little bit in my life. I just one one day just hit me like this is not about me. This is about Jesus and it's about the gospel. So when when that realization hit, then I started looking for opportunities and I've been trying and haven't been perfect doing it, but been trying to do that for 30 plus years now.
SPEAKER_02:Describe that process of me, Jerry, to finding purpose. Because I have a lot of friends uh in the broadcast industry. And, you know, uh now uh approaching the job as a Christian, I think is is important to clarify for those listening who maybe don't have the faith. It doesn't make us any better than anybody else. That's not where we're going with this, but describe that process to me of now arriving with purpose because I've had friends who I've spoken to have said I've accomplished this, I've done this, I've done Olympics, I've done championships, and I just don't feel fulfilled. What did that look like to you to then now approach the microphone and go, wow, this feels different?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, at the at first it was really challenging, Dave. I uh I met a lot of resistance because I want to turn the mic on and just be ambassador for Jesus. And that doesn't always work. You can't, you guys know this, you can't hit people over the head with the gospel sometimes. That has the opposite effect. It's counterproductive. So I just realized that I'm in a spot where I'm around a lot of people, uh, coaches, players, other broadcasters, fans, and I I don't have to tell them who Jesus is necessarily. I can show them. I can just I can be at peace and I not I can not have things bother me, and I can not judge people and not criticize people, and just be as prepared as I can be and be a good person. Try to be reflective of the way Jesus lived his life. He loved everybody, he had compassion for everybody, he never treated anybody poorly. So I just I I try to do that. And when I took that approach and took that mentality, David, it kind of kind of all fell into place. There are days I'm in Los Angeles right now, and the Rockies are playing the Dodgers and uh Dodgers Stadium and its history, and you know, a lot of famous people in the ballpark. I was like, I don't really care. I'm just gonna do my thing and I'm gonna treat people with with respect. And maybe they'll look at me and say there's something different about him. That that's that's the role I try to play now.
SPEAKER_02:A really good friend of mine told me early on in my broadcast career, people are people, right? It doesn't matter who you encounter, and always remember that that, yeah, you can be starstruck a little bit when you see this guy and that guy and go, wow, yeah, you accomplished those things. But people are people. And unpacking that, you talked about being in LA, where in performance there's a glitch in the glamour to the opportunity, there's a glitch in the glamour to the whole experience, but there's also a dark side. There's a lot of that that maybe people aren't aware of. How have you been able to navigate those moments of long hours on the road by yourself, wife's at home, you know, checking in? Like there are guys who have fallen, who have been up on the platform and have crashed. How have you navigated through those moments, part and parcel with the Holy Spirit holding you in uh by your hand?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, a lot of discipline, Dave, to be honest with you. And yeah, there there are temptations there, no question about it. Still, I'm 65 and I still have them on the road. But for me, it's it's all about discipline. I mean, this morning I I got up and the first thing I did is open the Bible and have my um my my quiet time, which is about a half hour or so. Probably should be longer than that, I guess. But that sets the tone for me. And if I don't do that, then I still feel right. But if I get in the Word right out of bed, um, have a cup of coffee, whatever your routine might be, it sets the tone for me and just puts everything in place for me and puts it in perspective. And then I can move on and I can do stuff like this, and I can go to the game tonight and I'll see some famous people, and Orl Herschiser, the famous Dodgers, right next door, and Mary Hart, who is on TV for 30 years. You know, I'll see all these people and I won't be intimidated and I won't be awestruck. I'll just be like, hey, I'm here for a reason. I'm here as an ambassador for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01:That's fantastic. When I was a young man, actually, I was probably a kid, I'll I'll admit it, I was a kid once. Um I was a huge baseball fan, and an older lady at my church befriended me and invited me to come over to her place and watch Blue Jay games all the time. And uh one of the things that we uh had outside of our relationship was just a love for sport and love for the Lord, and she actually gave me an autobiography of Orl Hirschheiser, and um and I looked inside years later and realized it was actually autographed by him. And I wasn't I wasn't starstruck because of who he was as a player, I was actually more starstruck by who he was as a person, and we talk about this discipline that's involved in life, and often when we come across athletes and people involved in sport, there's that overarching discipline over and over and over again because we're running a race of endurance. Tell me a little bit about a race of endurance that you participated in. You hold a few cycling records. Um, let's talk about that and then the opportunity that God gave you to be involved in a whole different sport.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. First of all, let me let me just comment on this, Dan. Oral Hershey's is a great guy. He's a really humble guy. You would love him if you ever met him. But we just played the Dodgers at home, last homestand, and he had to come through the security, and everybody that's a medium member has to show their badge. And he didn't have his. And it says, Well, we need the you know, we we need your badge. And he goes, You don't recognize me? I'm this famous pitcher from the Rodgers. Everybody he was he was uh, of course, messing around, but that's the kind of guy he is, a very humble guy. Love him. You you guys that love him. Uh cycling. Uh let me see if I can briefly do this, but it goes back to the plane crash that I survived. Uh, Dan, I was looking for something physical that I could do on a regular basis that's would be good therapy for me, dealing with the effects of the crash, the post-trauma stress that I went through, the psychological fallout, I call it from that crash. And I I dusted off my bike and started riding, and it just felt great. It felt like it was natural again, and it was just therapy. It was great therapy for me. And I just started riding more and more. I started doing long rides. And one day I thought, you know, I'd heard about people riding their bike long distances to raise money for charity. So I arranged to do that. And in 2004, I think it was the first time I rode across America as a fundraiser for a children's hospital in Denver to help them build a playground, which I think we raised$150,000, and that playground was built and it's beautiful. Then the next year uh raised money for another uh athletic facility at a Christian school. We raised more money there, and I I loved it. Uh, I love doing it. I was doing the nuggets at the time, and so it was the middle of summer, I had plenty of time, and I could take my time. And then I started thinking about racing, and so I started entering some races and had some success. And then in 2015, I had this crazy idea of doing a race across America, which is called the toughest bicycle race in the world. And I think it is after doing it. And this this sounds crazy, but I thought about doing that race for about five or six years. I thought about it every day. And every time I look at the website or think about it, I go, I could never do that. That's too hard. You can't, there's no time to sleep. You have to finish in 12 days or disqualify it. So that's you know, 250 miles a day. I just thought it'd be too hard. And then one day I woke up and I said, you know what, you got to do this race because it'd be easier to do the race than not do it because you're driving yourself crazy not doing it. So I got a relay partner. I thought I'd skip the solo thing, but do it as a two-person in 2015. Uh, we did it and we won the race across America, the two-person division, and like we beat four or five four-person teams, and it was great. We raised money for an orphanage in Haiti, and and it was an incredible experience.
SPEAKER_02:Now they made a movie about it after that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, a documentary called Godspeed. Yeah, and despite my being in it, it's a really good film.
SPEAKER_02:So take me into that process of you have this platform, right? You've already had it. You are this figure that people know. And then now you you talked about, I think what people sometimes lose sight of is you know, people who are famous are human. We struggle. You talked about this crazy catastrophic event. Most of us will never understand. It's our largest fear. When you're on a plane, you think about, oh shoot, I hope they have internet, I hope they have TV. You know, people think about crashing, but it never happens, right? So you have this crazy traumatic incident, and now you have this ability. You talked about you needed something to cope with it, and you have a platform. What was that process like being able to do the movie and have the privilege to use your platform for good?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um it took a long time day, but I finally came to the point where I realized my surviving that plane crash was a blessing, not because my life was spared, but because now I had a story and people are interested in it. Like you said, everybody thinks about anybody flying thinks about crashing. It's such an unnatural feeling when you're in a plane. And so people are naturally curious about what it's like to survive a plane crash. And so I've got that story, I've got a built-in audience that way. Now I can use that to bring people to Christ a little bit, hopefully, or point people to God and bring and point people to his son. And so um it took me a while to realize that people just want to know about a plane crash, but I I wanted them to have a message. And so I I've been able to over the years use that both in secular settings and Christian settings because people are intrigued by it. And now that I got your attention, let me tell you about Jesus. And let me say this too, and this might sound corny or like I'm downplaying what I went through, but I'm not. Everybody has their own plane crash. Dave, you've got yours. I don't know what yours is. Uh Dan has his. I don't know what his is, but we all have a plane crash. It might not be as bad as what I went through, it might be way worse than what I went through. I have a couple of friends that just lost their child, their seven-year-old son. I can't even I would go through a thousand plane crashes before I would I would let let one of my kids pass away. So everybody has their own plane crash. Um, we all deal with ours differently, but we all get knocked down, and what we have to do is turn to God to pick us back up. And when he we turn to God and he helps us back up, we are better than we were before we got knocked down.
SPEAKER_01:You keep on mentioning about using things for purpose. And uh you've written three books as well, telling these stories of these events and things that have happened. Look ahead for me in the couple years. What opportunities do you foresee, or what direction is God leading Jerry in order to tell more about him?
SPEAKER_03:Um, Dan, I was I was gonna hope you would tell me that what I'm gonna do, because I don't know. I don't know what God has in mind for me down the road. I really don't. I think about it all the time, and my contract is up with the Rockies after this season, so I got you know two weeks, three weeks of the season left, and and I'm don't I don't even know what's gonna happen after that. All I know is this is that God's got a perfect plan for me. And if he wants me to stay in broadcasting, do the Rocky still, he's gonna do that. If he wants me to do something else, he's gonna do that. I'm not gonna talk him out of it. I'm not gonna uh pull back and and and uh swim upstream with with him. Um, I'm just gonna see what happens. So I don't know. But you know what? That's the fun part for me. I I don't know what the future looks like. And maybe it's something incredible, maybe it's I don't know what it might be, but maybe it's something more amazing than writing three books and doing the Rocky. So um I don't know what the future looks like. I know that God does, and I'm just gonna hopefully go along with this plan as best I can.
SPEAKER_02:Astard, our church pastor, talked a lot about, you know, launching uh at our church service on the weekend and how sometimes as Christians we want a plan, we want the blueprints, we want everything laid out, okay, God, I'm ready to go, let's go. The blueprints look good, let's go build a house. Where in faith, as you know, and many of us know, in that realm, it's not like that. So, how has the Lord continually refined you and your family throughout that process of, hey, there's a roadblock coming up. There might be a little bit of fear attached to it, but Holy Spirit, I'm so surrendered to you, I trust you compared to years prior walking that journey.
SPEAKER_03:It's a difficult thing, Dave. I think we all struggle with that. We're all struggle with what's next for me, what's God's plan for me. And here's what I've learned is um, my family worries about it more than I do, by the way. I I'm like, I'll just go with the flow. I, you know, I'm I'm happy, I'm comfortable, I'm blessed, I know exactly where I'm going when the when I leave this earth. I'm I'm ready to go anytime. And and I actually read this this morning in one of my um devotionals. It is um, you better be ready to die before you're ready to live. And and I am. I'm if you're ready to die, you're ready to live. And that's the way I live my life. I'm ready to go. If you're gonna take me tomorrow, man, I can't wait to meet Jesus. What an incredible experience that's going to be. Uh, but until then, I'm just gonna I'm gonna think about what God has for me. And here, yeah, what I was getting to, here's what I've learned. When you try to take a humble approach, you try to be as humble as you possibly can be. I think that's where God wants you so that you can hear what he wants you to do. If you're thinking about the next project or the next job or the next paycheck or um the next project that you might have at work or at church or riding your bike signing up for the next race, if you're constantly thinking about that, I think you get away from God's plan. So, what I try to do, you ask what the process looks like. My process is be as humble as you possibly can be and just let God work in your life. That is so much easier said than done. I understand that, but that's the approach I try to take.
SPEAKER_01:I love that response about listening and being quick to listen. James 119 tells us that about uh being slow to speak and quick to listen, and which is totally hard when you're doing something like a podcast. Yes. Oh or or a profession. But I think there's such wisdom in that from the experience of we learn so much about like just pausing. And I think in the Psalms, even when it says Selah, it says to pause and reflect and to take in. It's so important sometimes to just absorb what the Lord has done. And uh, it often provides us good direction for the future. Um, we talked a little bit about purpose and about what the Lord has done. Um, if if you got to go back in time and you gotta talk to the maybe the younger version of yourself, you mentioned coming to to Christ in in the early 90s. Um what do you speak into the life of young Jerry?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I think there's a there's a lot of different things I would have done. There's a lot of mistakes that I made that I wish I could go back and correct. But to answer your question, um, Dan, to go back and talk to younger Jerry, and that is that um be open, be open to the gospel. Um, my thought was I don't need any help. Religion is for weak people. Uh I take care of myself. I was one of seven children in a semi-poor family. We really, really struggled financially. And we always had to take care of each other, uh, not care of each other, but we take care of ourselves first and then each other second. And that was always the way I live my life. I've always done everything on my own. If there's a problem, I fix it. It, I don't worry about it, I don't get depressed, I just move on. And I think I would go back and tell my younger self, you don't have to be that way. You don't have to be strong all the time. You can be open, you can be vulnerable, you you can be humble, but you can be vulnerable at the same time. And when someone tells you when you're 11 years old, there's a Jesus that loves you, that died for you, maybe you go back and listen to that, which is which is what someone did, and I just blew it off. Like that's for weak people. So I would go back to my younger self to answer your question, Dan, and say, let's be a little more open-minded.
SPEAKER_02:That's yeah, that's so important. I think often we as believers can look back and go, I wish I could change this. I wish I could do that, I wish I could undo this. Now, yeah, you you had mentioned, and I don't I don't want to glaze over it because it's such a profound comment you made. And the last time I heard something like this, I mentioned on a previous podcast that I had the the privilege of having a relationship with Christina Hogan, Darcy Hogan, humble uh Broncos bus crash. I actually did an article for it on Sports Spectrum um based out of Colorado a number of years ago. And what what Christina said is Darcy would have traded his life if he knew that this many people could have encountered the gospel. Now, you talked about you wouldn't change the plane crash. That is someone's greatest fear. People could be afraid of spiders, people are afraid of being alone, people are afraid of knocks in the night. A plane crash is something so incredibly unique that you had mentioned, you wouldn't change it based on where you are today. Take me into the mindset of somebody, maybe, who doesn't understand what that means and what the power of the gospel did to transform your life.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. First of all, let me let me say this, Dave. I I don't think God wastes anything that we do. I I think all other experiences he uses. So I think he tells me, You yeah, you made a lot of mistakes, Jared, and you feel bad about that. You wish you'd go back and change things, but I'm gonna use those mistakes for your good. I really believe I believe God doesn't waste anything in our lives, uh, even at 865 and all the mistakes I've made up to this point, um, I think God uses. So I don't think I've I've wasted anything because God uses the waste in a in a great way. Um Yeah, I think that we're all uh as Christians looking for something that we can maybe put our hat on and maybe get in the door with. Now, as a broadcaster, I get in a lot of doors that I wouldn't get in. I'm able to speak in a lot of Christian groups and churches and secular groups only because I'm the voice of the Rockies and not because I'm a plane crash survivor. But the plane crash is also part of that story. And I think for um uh for a Christian audience, that gives me a one-up. All right, he's got it, uh he's got an interesting story in that he's a broadcaster and has been in Denver doing the Nuggets and the Rockies, but he also has this plane crash story that completely changed his life. And that's what people are looking for. I think when you speak uh at a motivational conference or you speak to a church, people are looking for something to grab onto. And for me, it is hey, I'm a plane crash survivor and I'm gonna use this story for the good. I'm not gonna hide it like a lot of survivors, by the way, Dave. Many of a survivor smart crash have brushed it under and they've swept it away and never talk about it. And those are the people who are do who are struggling as a group, they're really struggling, the ones who just won't talk about it, deny that it ever happened. I decided to do the opposite. I was going to embrace it. I'm gonna tell people every detail they want to know about it because it might have some effect on them, either in their life with their fears, or more importantly, their afterlife, whether they accept Christ as their savior or not. So um it's that's a long answer to an easy question, but I believe that God put that story for me um, not to do anything but influence other people.
SPEAKER_01:And now it's time for Dave's favorite part of the show where we ask rapid fire questions. Dave, I I always I always struggle with this because I like to ask creative questions and you want to know how many towels do you have stacked in your closet behind you? Stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Dan sometimes will be like if an elephant and an Eskimo were riding down a highway and they were carrying coffee and they spilled it onto the ground and you saw it, what was likely in their coffee? Like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:You know what's really funny with that question right there, Dave, is when I'm directing camp, I specifically tell all the kids there's no what if questions. Because when you're explaining a game, I say, okay, you can ask me questions afterwards, but if you start with what if, then I can't answer you. And kids really struggle with that one. Anyway, Jerry, we got you on the hot seat now. We're ready to give you some questions in no particular order. Are you ready? I'm ready. Favorite moment that you called in the sport?
SPEAKER_03:It was when the Denver Nuggets beat the Seattle Supersonics in game five of a playoff series. First time that a number eight seed had ever knocked off a number one seed. And I was there for the game.
SPEAKER_02:Incredible. I was that was the question I was gonna ask. So Dan and I probably should have uh talked about that beforehand. I thought he was gonna ask something between an elk and an Eskimo and a beaver. So, okay, tremendous stuff. Um, Jerry, you're your signature sports fan moment. So you talk about what you were able to call growing up, you were able to watch and experience. I mean, obviously, other than the miracle on ice.
SPEAKER_03:Um I would say that I watched, let's see. Um I grew up in South Dakota, and about three hours away was Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, and my hero was one of their pit their players, Harmon Kilbrew. He was a slugging first baseman, and I got to go to one Minnesota Twins game going up, and he had a home run. And I thought that was the greatest thing I'd ever witnessed in my life in person. It was incredible. Now I've watched thousands of baseball games, and they don't seem as important as that one, but that was fun.
SPEAKER_01:If your best friend could describe you in three words, what would those three words be?
SPEAKER_03:Um humble but hungry.
SPEAKER_02:How many hours do you spend prepping for a broadcast?
SPEAKER_03:A normal day, probably three to four.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, you're you're a relief pitcher and uh you get a come in major league style. They open up the wall for you and you have an entrance song. What song is playing?
SPEAKER_03:Uh Speechless by Stephen Curtis Chapman.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you're probably sometimes speechless when you're calling Rockies games this. Your word has it, they haven't won a lot of games. Have you had a moment when the coach or player has been sick of hearing the same questions? And how do you get creative in kind of spinning a loss a different way?
SPEAKER_03:Um you try to change the subject. So we have to interview the manager every single day, and we have had a lot of losses, 104 to this point, which is a new team record. Um, you ask about different things. You forget about the game or the upcoming game. You ask about his family, about his interest, about the Pittsburgh Steelers that he loves, anything but the matchup itself. So just try to change the subject as best you can.
SPEAKER_01:You're traveling on the team bus, and they say, What's for dinner tonight, Jerry? Pick something for the team. What are you picking for everyone?
SPEAKER_03:I am probably picking um, I love Mexican food. I would probably pick Mexican. It doesn't really matter what it is. I can start with Taco Bell if I need to, but Mexican food for Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:Your most humble, maybe your favorite Canadian sports broadcaster you've had the opportunity to encounter or meet throughout your career.
SPEAKER_03:Uh help me with his last name, Dan, who does the uh Toronto Blue Jays. Shulman. Yep, Dan Shulman. Yep, that's uh I I should know his last name because I talked to him every time we play them, but uh great guy, great humble guy, very versatile, not just baseball, but he's done all these other sports. Uh that would be my number one.
SPEAKER_01:Best piece of advice that someone has ever given you.
SPEAKER_03:Um I would say it is uh just do the best you can. Just do the best you can. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Is there a Bible verse that if you were to, I don't know if you have a tattoo or if that's a thing for a 65-year-old guy that's still a desire, but you would put on your wrist that somebody could see when you roll up your sleeve and say, This has been huge in my life.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Ephesians 8, uh 2, 8, and 9. For it is by grace you meant saved through faith, not of yourselves, but a gift from God, and not by works, let no man boast. That probably wouldn't fit too well. That's put kind of long, but that's the one I would put on there.
SPEAKER_01:That one goes from wrist wrist to shoulder.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, very good. Well, Jerry, we have two conditions of everyone being on the show. One is we get to invite you back on one time and we'll catch up with you and hear about the exciting adventures that the Lord has taken you on. All right. Second one is that we always close in prayer. Uh, so let's do that and pray. Okay. Heavenly Father, we come before you right now, and we thank you so much for this time that you've given us to spend with Jerry. And Lord, we thank you so much for his humble attitude towards not only sport, but life as well. And Lord, you've taken him on a wonderful adventure thus far. And Lord, we thank you so much for his involvement in sport and the passion that you've given to him. Lord, we pray that you would give him opportunity and that you would open up doors that are closed or just creaked open a little bit, and that you would swing them open for him in order to show the love of Christ. And we thank you for our Savior most of all. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_02:Amen. I'm meeting more and more Christian broadcasters now, and and I I don't know if it's just because of the world we're in that it's maybe sometimes polarizing, but or or on the other side of it, that Christians are just more outspoken on the social media. But I can remember a time years ago when I was involved in CFL fantasy football, you know, doing different things on TSN and Sportsnet radio and all those kinds of things. I remember every Christian, every football player I interviewed ended up being a Christian. And I started to make all these Christian friends, and it was the Lord had told me at that time, I want you to be involved in this. And so it was interesting, but it's really cool now to meet more of them and a guy who's accomplished as much as Jerry has to for somebody who has faith in the industry.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, for sure. I think it uh you know what I kind of have to call it a like a red car theory, where all of a sudden you're just like, oh man, like I haven't seen a red car in a while. Then all of a sudden you start paying attention to it, and all of a sudden you're like, holy cow, I just saw like 15 red cars today. I think uh faith in sports is kind of like that. Sometimes you got you got to look for it. Sometimes it's quite evident, and it's right there, and and and there's a depth to it. Sometimes you come across a guy like Jerry, though, when you're like, wow, there's a bigger story to the story, then there's an even bigger story behind that. There's so much to look into. And uh, you know what? We could have honestly interviewed him for three hours versus 30 minutes and still come up with more and more stories.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I feel like we have already talked to him for almost two hours, it seems like, just with how much content that has come out of that. But uh yeah, he's he's got so much wealth there and so much knowledge, and yeah, so many we could have unpacked just the the cycling documentary for an hour. We could have unpacked just the plane crash, we could have landed on the rigors of broadcast. We didn't even touch on his family, what his family life is like, right? There's so many facets, and I love what he said that the Lord is going to use the difficult things in your life for his glory when they're surrendered to him, you know, rather than hiding those things, you know, like and and I I know he would prefer that we qualify this. There are some people who've gone through immense trauma that they have to bury it because maybe they're too afraid to encounter it, right? So, not not in a disrespectful way, but I love what Jerry said that I want to open this up as to this big wound to the Lord and say, here I am, use this and surrendering to what he can do with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and you look into the story and the fact that they like he he said it's like created it used a platform, it created a platform for it, and vice versa. So it seems like everything there's some people that it's like, wow, Lord creates a platform and he creates a platform. There's some people that do stuff in silence as well. And I think um when it's something that's traumatic, like what he went through, you can say, Wow, you know what, it's not necessarily relatable to everyone, but everyone can relate with trauma, everyone can relate with things that come along with it. And um, you know, Dave, you've brought up something interesting because it's it's a bigger story, and often when we do a podcast and we talk about faith and we talk about sport and we talk about things, people often might question and they say, What's what is the deeper story? And um it it is a question that I think everyone kind of wants to know, Lord, what's my purpose? What am I here for? Uh why did that happen? Uh what why did this event reshape my life? Am I and I I sometimes I refer to it as the fork in the road, but it seems like too light to describe it as that. And but there's this decisive moment when you have to say and you have to really kind of figure out, okay, God, this has happened. What do I do with it now? And really, uh that that's a challenging thing for me to even discuss, even as part of this podcast, because my faith is so important to me, your faith is so important to you. How do we show with the most immense compassion and sensitivity to what people are going through as athletes and as people at the same time? How do we share the story of how the Lord has brought them from hopelessness to hope, knowing and understanding that hope is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, through humility. I think that's the big piece, is what um what Jerry had talked about. And if you have questions, maybe you listen to this and you don't have someone in your life that you can go to that has answers for faith, reach out to us. We are getting so many messages right now from people that we didn't know or in have been impacted by the podcast, and they'll say, Hey, this really touched me. Hey, this was great. You know, hey, I live in this city. Do you know somebody who's a like which church I can go to in this area? Because what Dan and I have realized in our lives, as we talked with Jerry off-air about how Dan and I met originally, like sometimes you we may think in life is coincidence. I know people in different parts of the world. Like, how how would I possibly know somebody in Unity, Saskatchewan, or in Belleville, Ontario? But the Lord has just allowed me to meet people in those areas for moments like if a listener's listening and going, where do I go to church in you know a suburb of LA? Where do I go to church around St. Louis? Well, email us. We might know somebody who can get you connected, or there's a chaplain, or somebody involved in a sports team. We'd love to hear from you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and we have a message board as well. And you want there's no bad questions. Even if you have a thought or a question or something has reminded you of something, or an episode is like, yeah, it it's engagement, this idea of engagement on a different platform. Send us a message. We'd be happy to say, hey, I don't know, but let me help you find out.
SPEAKER_02:Download us where all podcasts are found or available on all platforms, and Instagram is well, where we do most of our posting. You can uh like follow us on Instagram or on X as well. But we're grateful that you are listening. Thanks so much for listening to the show.
SPEAKER_00:You've been listening to another episode of the Gospel in the Game podcast. We'd love to hear from you.
