Let's Get Real

Bishop Wall, Fr. Burke, and Mike Sweeney discuss the controversial Nationals' interview about Trevor Williams, the Mendoza Line in baseball, and the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Theme song: "Rock Star" by John Ehrich. Used with permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Nok Chepe, welcome everyone to episode 35 of Verso el Alto, our Faith and Sports podcast. My name is Father Burke Masters. I am pastor at St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale, Illinois, and the Catholic chaplain for the Chicago Cubs.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Bishop James Walm, the bishop of the diocese of Gallup, located in the beautiful states of Arizona and New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

And Mike Sweeney, former Major League Ball player, husband, father, and traveling now in Racine, Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Racine. I always think of the uh League of the Arizona. The Cardinals are from. No Cardinal Baseball Fire.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Arizona Cardinals. That's the original place of the Arizona Cardinals.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

They went from Racine to Chicago to St. Louis.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

St.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Louis to Arizona. Wow. Little known fact.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, I went to the ballpark yesterday and they had a big plaque of some of the uh the women's professional leagues, and it brought me back to Father Burke when he was on the on the major league field with some of the Chicago Cubs, and he started tearing up. Remember? You want to tell that a little bit, Father? I thought that was so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, I was in right field uh talking with um one of the Cubs pitchers, and yeah, it just these tears started rolling down my face. Uh, because you know, Joe Madden had let me practice with the team. And uh my first thought was there's no crying in baseball, you know. And uh and then my next thought was God, you're amazing. It was like God was saying this was your dream to be a major league ball player, but now you're living my dream as a priest, and you get to do it in the major leagues. And it was like I thought I'd given up baseball forever by going to the seminary and becoming a priest, and God just purified that that dream and brought it back to me just in a completely different way. So, yeah, that line from a league of their own is uh always uh it always makes me smile. There's no crying in baseball. Yeah, in fact, I know I was trying to find Bishop uh Wall for Christmas when you're uh like a Racine Cardinals uh jersey, since he's a big Cardinals fan, can't find him anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

So no, I have no idea why. Yeah, maybe if it were uh a team that played a little better and were a little more popular, they they might be out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I'm sure we can have a lot of people. I'll go, yeah, I'll go sniff around after our podcast here in Racing and see if I can pull something up out of a uh consignment store or something.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah. We've got a great uh show ahead of us, so let's pray for God's uh grace and blessing upon us. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the joyful example of your servant, Saint Pier Giorgio Frasati. Pierre Giorgio never tired of striving boldly to go higher and deeper in faith, prayer, and love. He cherished your presence in his family, friends, the mountains he loved to climb, the poor he visited, and especially in the Holy Eucharist. May we too go toward the heights of our Catholic faith, and by example bring others to your church through Christ our Lord. Amen. Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Amen. So the last half of the show we're going to be talking about the as we're praying there, the most holy Eucharist. It was so dear to St. Pierre Giorgio Frasati and really all the saints, uh, and for us as well. So we can't wait to get there. But first, we've got a lot to cover in sports. We've got Major League Baseball, we've got college baseball, we've got the NBA. Um, but before we get to that, let's uh check in for see how the week's been. Mike, you you're in Racine. Uh what's what's happening there?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

So my son Michael uh is home from Wichita State. He came out here to play uh collegiate summer ball here in the Northwoods League, and he's off to a great start. So I haven't seen him in a while. I flew out and uh spent spent a great night last night with my son, went to mass together and had dinner, gave him a haircut in the hotel room, and my heart is full. But uh it's been it's been a great week. And um, can I share with you guys real quick the highlight of my week? So maybe about about a three, four weeks ago, um I have a relative that you know I was kind of walking with and kind of guiding him back to the sacraments. And um we had talked about you know the beauty of the Eucharist and the beauty of the sacraments. And he uh he came home and he's fully home, and it's super cool. And he's like, Hey, can we do something that we can grow in our faith with? So I said, Hey, what do you think about getting in the gospels together and start reading a chapter a day together? And then that morphed into, well, can I invite my brothers? And and I was like, Can I invite my sons and can I invite my brothers? So um, we just finished the Gospel of John, uh, John chapter 21 yesterday, and we're beginning now with Matthew. And we have, I have like five of my uncles, um, several of my male cousins, and then my two uh sons, Donovan and Michael, that are joining in on this. It's called the Sweeney Patriarchs, and every day we're writing reflections with each other, and it's it's like hearing from some of my relatives saying, you know, I dusted off my Bible, and I've I've never felt so good in my heart reading the Word of God with the men that I love most in my family. So the yeah, if you guys can pray for the Sweeney Patriarchs as we are going through the Bible together, and my hope is that we can continue this till God calls us home. It's been a really beautiful, just a legacy thing, but also in in the in the meantime, like in the now, in the present, it's impacting men, it's impacting families, and it's drawing us to Christ. So definitely the highlight of my week and highlight of my month.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

What a great idea. Yeah, yeah, that's a very good idea. Reminds me of my you know, I've got my my weekly beform group that most of the men in my family are in it with some other friends, and man, what that's done in our family dynamics of being able to talk about faith is uh I haven't experienced anything like it, so I'm excited for you. That's great. So maybe people listening might think about doing it. So are you guys meeting once a week, Mike, or just uh texting?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

And so yeah, every morning we'll read through the gospel of the day, the chapter of the day, and it was really neat. We're on John chapter 10, and um, I have a great uncle who's daily mass communicant, uh, reads the Megdifficot, and he writes this beautiful reflection on you know, abiding in Christ, and I am the vine, and you are the branches, and you guys know that's John 15. And I said, Uncle John, I know you're a couple steps ahead of us in the faith. You know, you're the oldest one here, you're strong in the faith, daily mass, but you're like five chapters ahead of us. So like pump the brakes, Uncle John. And he's like, and he gets back to us in all humility. I'm laughing too. But he he writes with all humility. He says, Mikey and all my fellow brothers, um, I read my daily mass community, I read the daily um Magnificat. I go to Mass, I pray. He says, but I don't have a Bible. And I go, Oh, I love the Lord. I just I don't have my own Bible. I read my Magnificat. So I said, Well, you'll get something on your doorstep tomorrow for you and Ann Ginger. And it's just been such a joy. He he came home, he he's firing open his Bible. I said, Listen, this is not something that's called to be in a museum. Like, get a highlighter out, write notes. And I said, think about your grandchildren that you may pass this down to someday. This is gonna be bigger than a stock, you know, a dump or a financial, you know, um inheritance that you're leaving. I said, This is your Bible, Uncle John. And it's just it's rippling through our entire family. And so we have we're just checking in every morning with texts, and different people will write different reflections on how that kind of Lexio Divina, how it hit them. And uh yeah, it's just it's one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of in my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

That's that's great. I think you're gonna inspire some people to do something similar there.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, and Father Burke, I want to transition to you. Today's a special day for you. You want to talk to our parishioners about 24 years ago what happened in your life?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah, so we're recording this on June 1st. Uh yeah, 24 years ago today, I was ordained a priest. Uh, that was definitely the uh greatest day of my life. People say, wasn't it the Grand Slam that's behind you there? Like, no, that that uh that's something that fades away. But uh yeah, the gift of the priesthood, these 24 years just been amazing. The people I've met, the the experiences I've had, walking with people in faith, uh just been amazing. And so I can't wait to see what hopefully the next 24 or more years bring. Uh so yeah, it's a it's a great day. Just like married couples celebrate their their anniversary. This is a big day for for priests.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

So we last year we were at we were at Wrigley on this day. We were and celebrated Mass. Here's your 23rd, which was your 20 your number. And they put us in section 23, didn't they?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

For the game. I've got my Ryan Sandberg hat here. Let me get it here. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yeah, lots of hats.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

23.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Even though I didn't grow up a Cub fan, I was always a big Ryan Sandberg fan just by the way he played, and man, just steady, never got too high, too low, but Hall of Famer, you know, and yeah, so 23. Uh it's funny, when I went to Mississippi State, um I I had number 27 in high school, and so I I knew 27 wasn't available. So I my buddy and I, Jody, were in the back of the line to get uniform numbers. We were the last two to get them, and the two numbers available were six and twenty three. And uh so I looked at Jody and he's like, I so I took 23, he took six. We didn't know that six was Palmero's number, and twenty-three was Will Clark's number. So um, so that was uh pretty cool to follow up those legends at Mississippi with the number. And then 23's just been my number ever since.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So Father Berg, did they retire your number at Mississippi?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

My my number is it was retired, but then it's one of those where they brought it back. Like I still wear it, but it's yeah, you know, it's retired under Will Clark's name, of course, but I can say my number was retired.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

We know who the real hero is.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah, thank you. And Bishop, you've had uh uh a busy couple weeks as well, so tell us what's even up to.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, but I talked about a little bit last week, but back to back, I was I preach um priest convocation. So a couple weeks ago, I was in uh Lake Placid, New York, preaching to the wonderful priests in the diocese of Ogdensburg. Shout out to those guys and Bishop Terry Lavalli. And then this past week I was in Oklahoma City with our good friend Archbishop Paul Colkley and preaching uh the same convocation uh to their group, uh Quartz Mountain State Park. Beautiful, beautiful area. You just drive it along and it's flat, flat, flat, all kinds of wheat fields and stuff, and then all of a sudden you start seeing the mountains pop up. Uh just a beautiful place. I was with the uh the priests of the Archdiocee of Oklahoma City, and both weeks were on priestly fraternity. That was the focus, kind of starting with the Second Vatican Council, drawing from there, looking at the the sacrament of the grace that we you know uh that we we all share by virtue of our ordination, and then also looking at scripture. It was a good week, very good week. Good man.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

I'm I'm uh I'm a little a little bummed for my brothers in Oklahoma City because um twice, you know, we had two nights where we were really working on priestly fraternity and we were all huddled around the TV watching the Spurs and the Thunder game. And those guys were all decked out in uh they were all decked out in Thunder gear. So I feel I feel sorry for them. I was I was rooting for the thunder. But I think you know that probably the reason why they lost is because we all picked them. That's probably why why they lost.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I warned I warned our listeners uh you want to play against our picks. We're not we're definitely not uh NBA experts. Yeah, so if I remember right, I think we all picked the Knicks and OKC with OKC to win it all. So we had the Knicks, right? They they dominated uh in their series, but uh um yeah, OKC went down in seven. So what about in this series going forward? Uh Knicks and Spurs.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

So I I'm rooting for the Knicks. I'm a diehard Phoenix Suns fan, which means that I cannot like the Spurs. Take a look at the 2005 series against them. The pain is still there. And uh but um which means probably the Spurs will win it all because I I'm choosing the Knicks.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah, I like I like the brand that I love the brand that uh the Spurs play, and I know Popovich is no longer their head coach, but saw a really cool 30 for 30 on him and how he was as a leader, and kind of even that as he steps aside, he he's still his presence is still felt and seen in the way they play. So I'm uh I'm in on the Spurs. So maybe we can we can bet a cup of coffee over that, Bishop Wall. There you go, Father Burke. Who are you on, Father Burke?

SPEAKER_00 13:49

So being a so I'm on the other side, being a Sixers fan, I it's hard for me to like the Knicks. Um, but uh I think the way they're playing right now, well, I think it's gonna be a great series, but I think the Knicks uh Knicks and seven is gonna be my my prediction. Um and I know Bishop Wall well. One thing I know about him in sports, he he forgets things very easily, you know. And yeah. CTE.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, those uh little little CTE from all his football injuries, all the brain our our seven seven seconds or less.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Mike D'Antoni, Steve Nash, Marsh Stodemeyer, those teams should have won at least at least one championship. But go for take a look at the Spurs, Suns series, Robert Ory checking Steve Nash into the into the bench and or into the table. Not pretty. So yeah, they're still still kind of hold, still kind of hold a little grudge on that.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah. As you said uh before, I think that all the years of Arizona professional sports, just the one major league uh championship, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:01

2001. I I remember when the D Backs won them like ah, this is easy, we'll get a bunch of these. That's not the case. Yeah, one one one uh of the of the four major uh uh sports now. We don't have the coyotes any longer. They went up to Salt Lake City. Um hopefully we we can get another hockey team back, but yeah, they're only one out of all that, only one.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

One oh one. Yeah, so switching over then. The the D-Backs went on a little run and then they kind of hit a buzzsaw with Seattle this week.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Uh but as we looked at they lost all they got swept by him, they lost you know extra innings two of the three games. Um yeah, Ryan Nelson got banged up a little. They were just hitting the they were teeing off and there was batting practice on Saturday night with them. They have four home runs off him, I think something like that. At one point, they I think they had seven hits and four of them were home runs. So he he was either hot or cold for us, one of the two. But they they had his number. But we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Hopefully, he sent something. Uh you know, we've got a little tech string with Paul Seawald, the the closer uh for Arizona and Rolando Vallez. What he got his hundredth save, was it? He did.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Hundredth save, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Good for him. He's pitching well. Maybe we can get Paul on the podcast uh one of these days. I got to meet him there at Wrigley a few weeks back. Just seemed like a great guy. Um get Rolando on, too.

unknown 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Somebody all three of us know. Yeah. He's great. He's evangelizing the team over there. Um guys on fire. And you know, the the Royals, I know uh big expectations this year, Mike, they're still scrappling, scrapping a little bit. Uh oh, yeah. What are your thoughts, sir?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Well, no, I think a lot of people picked the Royals to win the the Central, and and now the Chicago White Sox are only a half came back from the Indians. Uh we'll still call them the Indians. Yeah. Um but uh but yeah, Guardians? Uh the Guardians, yeah. The White Sox are hot, the Royals are not. And uh hopefully, you know, after we turn the page, you got two calendar months done. We got four to go. So it's a long way to go, right? But man, the Royals have dug themselves a pretty big hole. So yeah, I think if the playoffs began today, the White Sox and the D-Backs would both be wild card teams. Pretty cool for your local teams.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Yeah, that that's crazy. For for the White Sox, they go from what was it, two years ago, worst. They broke the record for the worst record in the history of baseball. And I think that the Rockies broke it the next year. To be playoff contenders this year is incredible. Uh, and they're a fun team to watch. I mean, um, you know, obviously being here in Chicagoland, I'd say probably my parents just half and half, Cubs and White Sox. And uh there's there's some excitement building. They're they're cautious, you know, knowing uh, but I think they've got some good young talent, and they've got the number one pick again in the draft, probably the shortstop from UCLA Tchakowski, I think is his name. They say he's a generational talent. So uh we'll see. Um also big news in baseball. Uh our friend Trevor Williams, not by his doing, uh, made the news this week. One of the Washington Nationals executives was caught on a um kind of a camera saying that uh they keep Trevor off of social media because of his strong Catholic faith. And boy, it hit the news and uh just went went viral. And uh the Nationals then fired uh this man and and uh they apologized publicly to Trevor uh and to their fans for this uh this incident. And you know, we all know Trevor well, just a great Catholic guy. And what I kept thinking is, you know, you go back to the scriptures, and you know, Jesus said, You're gonna be persecuted for your faith. To be my follower, it's not gonna be easy. And uh knowing Trevor the way we do, you know, it it's not gonna deter him from living his faith and sharing his faith. And uh yeah, it just Mike, what are your thoughts? If you were in that situation, uh you probably had some things like that in your career. What what are your thoughts on it?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Well, yeah, for our viewers who didn't see it, there was a video of a vice president um with the Washington Nationals that there was an undercover video taken of him as he's at a dinner, and he's basically just saying, Yeah, this Trevor Williams guy, he's w really Catholic, and we intentionally keep him off of our social media because he's too Catholic. And the guy talked about having a communist agenda and every donate $100 to his communist thing and wear tea. It was just far opposite of truth and beauty. And but the thing that I highlighted is number one, you know, it did go viral. And but Trevor's response, right, in the book of James, consider it joy. Consider it joy, my brothers, when you endure trials of many kinds. And Trevor, his response is heroic, and you could tell that Trevor doesn't just have an emotional response. And I think that's why, whether it was the the nuns in the drag, the men that the drag queen men that dressed up as nuns at Dodger Stadium a couple years ago, Trevor had this beautiful, thoughtful, loving response that it got, I think, millions and millions of views because he's not an emotional reactor. He's prayerful, he he reacts in humility. And even the response that he had after all this, you know, people are waiting for a response for him on his social media. And if the guy that got fired with the Washington Nationals read this, he would feel like, man, I I want to get a cup of coffee with this guy, and I want to apologize to him face to face. His response was heroic and is rooted in humility. And I, you know, um, my good friends at the Thomas More Society, they are representing Trevor to make sure he's taken care of. Uh, a couple of the lawyers are in my Bible study group back in San Diego, but you know, his heroic response has been amazing. So I don't know. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Yeah, I I um had a lot of thoughts on this. I one is I think that this is probably not a one off thing. And the reason is is I'm sure this this person is like, hey, let's just sit with this guy and ask him a bunch of questions. So I'm sure there was something that was known, which is why they kind of caught him in this this um little undercover operation. So I think that's one thing. Um two is you know they this if we remember a few years ago, um it was the LA Dodgers, they had this kind of I don't know if it's drag night or whatever it was, but they had they had these these guys who were dressing up like religious, and and um it's just a real mockery of something that's good, true, and beautiful. You know, we know lots of women religious who have given up their life, who espoused themselves to Christ, and wonderful, wonderful women. And um they they were, you know, they were supposedly being given an award or a recognition for doing community service. But if you go a little deeper into the group, I mean, I mean, I'll use a strong word too, it's really demonic, is what it is. Because they're saying taking something that's good, true, and beautiful, and it's making a mockery of it. And then if you look at some of the other things that we do, they do a mockery of our Lord's passion, uh turning the cross and all kinds of other stuff into like a like a um like a strip pole. And just it's just just horrible. And uh it's it's anything but good. And um, and so that was kind of the first of it, and then this most recent thing come came up, and and um so I'm I'm I'm I'm glad that the Washington Nationals did the right thing and you know dismissed this guy, fired this guy. Um, as you also you mentioned, one of the things too, I mean, he was a proponent of communism. Communism is a is a is a godless system. So sometimes it sounds kind of nice. Oh, look at people are sharing everything, but the Marxist ideology, the communist system, removes God from everything. So again, it's it's it's it's uh it's not good at all. I get you know, you can see I get a little fired up about it. But um, yeah, we we know so many wonderful women religious who have um you know avowed themselves to Jesus Christ, who are all part of what's good, true, and beautiful in this world. And then to make a mockery of that is anything but godly. Amen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Yeah, I think uh I think you're right. There's probably a lot more of this that goes on than than we realize, and um I'm happy to see it go viral and to bring attention to it. You know, as as long as there's gonna be good and evil in the world, we're gonna see things like this. And so it shouldn't surprise us. Um I love as you say, Trevor is prayerful and respectful in his response, but you know, just like Jesus, you know, they they beat him, tortured him. He still loved the people, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But I'm not gonna veer off this path of returning to the Father. And so uh the church, it seems like it's the last bias that is acceptable in our in our world today is against Catholics and Christians, you know. You can't talk about any group, but you can talk about Catholics and Christians, and I'm I'm praying that that that changes, you know. And um I think you know, related to it, I think we're starting to see like so many films and movies that have religious uh themes that are selling. I think people are seeing that there's a there's a a large number of Catholics and Christians out there. Um and uh I think we need to we need to be bold, we need to stand together, uh be respectful and loving, but also be bold with the truth and not not be afraid to say who we are. Um so yeah, I don't think we're gonna hear the end. This isn't the end of this story. I think there's I think there's more coming to it.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

I can't wait real quick as we put a bow on this. Uh Trevor, in his post, he's he talked about, man, I'm throwing bullpins, I'm getting close to being back. I can't wait to see the fans of Washington, DC in that area when Trevor makes his first home start to see the reception that he gets. Yeah. Right? We we I can I can imagine there's gonna be signs up, there's gonna be standing ovation when he takes a mound. Um, and and that's that's what happens when you're persecuted for your faith, and then you receive it. I know it's I think it's first Peter talks about when we suffer unjustly, we can identify with Christ. And that's what he's Trevor's doing. He he is identifying with Jesus and he's acting like Jesus through the suffering. He's praying for those that mock him and ridicule him. And I I hope that the Washington National fans give him the ovation that he deserves when he comes back off the I. L.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Yeah. I agree. You couldn't find a nicer guy, like you say. I think if this executive that was fired would just sit down and talk with Trevor and see what an amazing guy he is, you know, just a normal guy who um, but you know, I think that's where when when we don't get to know people for who they are, we just start to label people, and that's you know, it's just a dangerous, dangerous thing, you know. Um we'll keep you up to date on that. And like I said, we're gonna invite Trevor to come on the show. He's gonna be pitching again, I think, in the next couple of weeks, and uh it would be great to see a great outpouring of support for him.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Uh yeah, the yeah, the bra the brace surgery, right? Kind of that new thing that they've been doing the last few years. Different than when guys go full Tommy John, they do a brace to it. Isn't that what it is?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Yes, it's supposed to be short uh shorter recovery. Um and so uh yeah, he had it done. Gosh, it was in the fall, wasn't it? And so normally you're out a full year and uh he's he's gonna be back this summer, God willing. So um yeah. We're big big Trevor Williams fans here. On another note, uh one more thing in baseball uh that's making the news is uh on the Phillies, you know, Christopher Sanchez now has 44 and two-thirds scoreless innings streak. Um they're starting to talk about you know, Orl Hersheiser set the record with 59 scoreless innings in 1988. So what is that uh thirty thirty-eight years ago, and he broke the Phillies record from 1911, Grover Grover Cleveland Alexander. Um he's getting in the pretty uh pretty thin air there with 44 innings in a row. I mean, if you think about it, that's he didn't have five consecutive shutouts, but that's the equivalent of it. And uh I remember I saw him pitch against the Cubs early in the season, and the Cubs knocked him around, and you know, I thought, man, this is he's something wrong with him, or and now here he is, he's just dominating. So it's good to see uh somebody like him who wasn't you know wasn't on anybody anybody's radar two years ago, and now he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. Got one of the greatest change-ups uh uh that just it must he must disguise it so well, guys just can't pick it up. So he's uh 15 innings away from setting the all-time record in in baseball.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yeah, when he throw, I mean, he's a big dude throwing left-handed, he's I don't know if he's 6'6, 6'7. He's got great extension, and he's throwing 98, 99 miles an hour in his changeup, it's the same arm slot, same arm speed, and and he can throw it behind the count 2-0, 3-1, and and then next thing you know, they sit on the changeup and he gets 98. I mean, he's he's filthy. Um, going back to Oral Herschiser, when you were talking about Oral Herschiser in '88, um, setting that record. I grew up in Southern California, and in 1988, I was a high school freshman, and that was right after the Fernando Valenzuela mania in LA. And then on the coattails of that, Oral Herschizer sets this record, and it was crazy. It was it was almost as exciting as like you are about the Phillies, Father Burke. First at Schwarber, now it's Sanchez. But um but about maybe uh six years later, uh maybe eight years later, actually, I'm in I'm in the major leagues, and we're facing Oral Herschiser pitching for the Indians in Kaufman Stadium. And I'm grinding, I'm like, do I really belong here? I'm a 22-year-old kid. I'm facing Oral Herschiser, um, the bulldog, and I'll never forget it. I think it was my second or third big league career home run. I hit a ball up in the Falcons in Kansas City, and I'm jogging around second base, going, I just hit a home run. It was like you going, there's no crying in baseball. I'm going, I just hit a home run of Oral Herschiser. And then sure enough, a week later, we're playing them again in Cleveland. And uh, I was thinking to myself, okay, he I hit a home run on this pitch. He's probably gonna throw me something opposite of that. And he did, and I hit another home run, and I'm running around the base of Jacobs Field going, I have five big league homers, and two of them are against the Hall of Famer and Oral Herschizer. And yeah, it was it was funny bringing back memories like that. I mean, you you you think that these big leaders are supermen, right? Uh, like Schwarber. You know, yeah, he's from Indiana, he's hitting 50 homers a year or whatever. But like, man, we're still kids at heart. And I got when I was running around the bay, I can still feel it like it was yesterday. Like two steps away from second base. I looked out where I hit the ball at Jacobs Field out up in the bleachers in center field, and going, I can't believe I did that against Oral Hersheiser. So yeah, really, really cool. And I got to meet Oral, great Christian man.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

And yeah, but did you do bat flips on him when you when you hit it off him?

SPEAKER_01 31:49

No. And I tell the kids that I said, if I did a batflip, I would expect, I would put an elbow guard on my neck, my next step back and go, go ahead, I deserve it. You don't do that, you respect the game. But like I said, I didn't I didn't think about how cool it was until I was at second base, right? Nowadays, someone would go, you know, the ball's up in the bleachers, and they're sitting in the in the batter's box going, I just hit a home run against Aaron Sanchez. How cool is this? I put my head down and ran as fast as I could, but I didn't even get a absorb the moment until I was at second base.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

So yeah, pretty cool. What what made him so good, Mike? He didn't throw 98, right? Uh no.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Yeah, he had tons of movement, uh, tons of sync. He had nasty changeup slider, and he could put that ball um anywhere he wanted, any time of the any count. Like he had pinpoint control, didn't walk anyone. He has almost a savant brain. He could read a swing. You know, this guy, his swing is susceptible to this pitch, and he would he would just exploit him. He he was an incredibly brilliant man.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

A lot like uh Maddox. I see them being very similar guys, you know, a lot of run, and just they you you put the glove there and the the ball is going to be right in the glove. You don't have to move it. You know, that was him. Yeah. Fun to watch. I think the guys now uh I was talking to one of my buddies who's an agent. He said, We're we're losing some of that that uh, you know, the guys are just throwing harder, harder, and harder, but they're not necessarily uh that savant, you know, that just knowing how to carve guys up with different kinds of pitches. Uh um yeah, I wouldn't want to be a hitter today facing guys throwing 102 miles an hour and unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Yeah, there's a lot of really good major league hitters right now. Still, we call it on the big leagues on the freeway. And our listeners say, What do you mean by that? Well, if your batting average was 185, they would say, Man, right now you're on the interstate, I-85. And then if you can get over the 200 mark, that's Mendoza line. Mendoza line. You can Mendoza line, but man, there's a lot of good hitters right now on the freeway in the big leagues. And that that's attributed to the great pitching.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yeah, you wonder if they're gonna change some rules because guys are throwing so hard at the batting averages are down. Um, yeah. Real quick, uh, we have listeners who are probably saying, What is the Mendoza line? Where does that come from? So I don't remember the exact guy's name, but wasn't there a player who I don't know if his lifetime average or he hit right around 200. And uh, so they just they're calling that the Mendoza line. So in baseball, if you're below two hitting below 200 batting average, they call it your below the Mendoza line.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Yeah, maybe Suzanne can pull up a picture, a baseball card of Mendoza. He had like a long major league career, and his batting average was exactly 200. So exactly 200. Yeah, so that's that was known as the Mendoza line in baseball. And and gosh, you wanted to be way above that, but now there's a lot of great all-star major league hitters that are, you know, they may have 10 or 15 home runs, but man, they're hitting, they're on, they're on interstate 80 80 right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah, yeah, they say guys just showing harder and harder. I remember after uh uh Bob Gibson had his 1.12 ERA or something like that, they they lowered the mound because you know, it he was so tall anyway. The the angle of the ball coming in and the speed, the guys just couldn't hit it. So they you wonder if they're looking at that now because hitting hitting cells, you know. I mean, people like to see uh great pitching, but people get excited about the home runs and that kind of thing. So uh I'm sure baseball's looking at that. Uh hopefully they don't change too much, though.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

And and then switching real quick to college baseball before we get to the Eucharist, uh, we're in the NCAA regionals, heading to the super regionals. The number one seed in the country got upset by St. Mary's. Uh UCLA lost uh two games to St. Mary's, which was a huge upset.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

That's that's what they get for blowing up the Pac-12 and going to the Big Ten. The same.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

But I'm not better. That's that short memory. I talk about Bishop while he he he remembers those things uh and feels it. Yeah. And Mississippi State's still playing Father Burke. Yeah, so we we advanced uh, and now we play the other Bulldogs, the Georgia Bulldogs, uh in the super regionals. Georgia has beaten us all four games this year. But an interesting development. Georgia in their last regional game, one of their studs hit a hit a home two-run homer to go ahead. And he stood at home plate, watched it. He was mocking the the opposing team, running down the first baseline, mocked the first baseman, the second baseman, and uh when he got around that the the they threw him out of the game for taunting, and then his coach went crazy. They threw him out of the game, so I think they're ineligible for the first game of the super regionals, which could be consequential uh against Mississippi State. The dogs like that too, Mike. Or uh Bishop.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

They do. They do. They're pretty excited about it. Bulldogs. We've got we've got a Mississippi State um cowbell, and I ring it when it's time for dinner. And so they're they're died, they're diehard Mississippi State Bulldogs, not Georgia Bulldogs, Mississippi State Bulldogs.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

There you go. Yeah, 21 national champs. Uh um, yeah, there's uh it'll be interesting to see that there's some new teams coming through, which is good. Uh Kansas has never been in a super regional uh advance, which is great for baseball. And um, there's some other, we're recording this on Monday. There's some other uh winner-go-home games today, and so we'll be talking more about the super regionals. Well, they'll probably be finishing up uh on our next podcast, getting ready for the College World Series. Hopefully, we'll be talking about the Mississippi State Bulldogs advancing. Let's go, let's go, Bulldogs. All right, uh, let's switch gears. And uh, you know, we love sports, but uh today's one of my probably my favorite topic in the church. Uh it's Corpus Christi Sunday, uh most holy body and blood of Jesus. And uh Bishop, can you kick us off?

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Sure, yeah. So this is uh another one of the major solemnities that falls within um ordinary time. You know, Pentecost concludes with Vespers at ordinary time, and then uh and so um now we move into the last week we had central mystery of our Catholic faith, which was the most holy trinity. This week we move into um Corpus Christi, the solemnity of the most holy body and blood of Christ. So corpus Christi. So a little quote, I think this is just important to start off with, comes from the catechism. Uh, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, for in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the church, namely Christ Himself, uh, our Pasch, right? Our Passover. And I think when we think about the Eucharist too, we want to say that it's not a matter of um uh it, it's a matter of who, and we know it's it's Jesus Christ, it's Jesus Christ's truly body, blood, soul, and divinity. So this this week what we do is we're gonna hear from John's Gospel, chapter six, that's the bread of life discourse. And this is where Jesus is really preparing um his listeners, his followers to receive the Eucharist. So he's he's he's he's laying the the uh the groundwork uh for something he's gonna do at the Last Supper. Now, so he's gonna say things such as, My body is true food, my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has my very own life within him. And so thinking about every time that we receive the Eucharist, what Jesus does is he abides with us, right? Jesus, Jesus abides with us. So that's that's very, very important. Um another little thing, we're gonna have a reference back to the Exodus experience when the people were walking in the desert. And in the desert, what does God provide for them? He provides uh the manna, and the manna means what is it, right? They don't know exactly what it is, but what is it? So the manna is a precursor of something much, much greater to come, and what was much, much greater to come was the institution of the Eucharist at the at the Last Supper. So, you know, we have the reference here like your ancestor who ate man in the desert but still died, right? He who eats my flesh, drinks my blood, has my very own life within him, and I will raise him up on the last day. So there's that that promise that Jesus gives to us in the Eucharist. This is also the time where a lot of places will do um Corpus Christi processions, so Eucharistic processions. Um I know, Father Burke, you do one on Thursday, similar to what they do in Rome. There's a famous one that that concludes at um at Mary Major in Rome. And uh we do one, we'll do one on Sunday morning, but this is the one where we really kind of take Jesus to the streets. Uh our good friend Archbishop Um Alex Sample has been really talking this up recently. And one of the reasons why he's been talking up, because there was a an evangelical Pentecostal pastor who had some really bad things to say about Eucharistic processions, and which I'm what I want to say, it's it's it's not a matter of it, it's a matter of who. This is Jesus Christ you're talking about here: body, blood, soul, and divinity. And we know that because Jesus was the one who said so. Take and eat, this is my body, take and drink, this is my blood. And then he says, do this, right? So he gives us the commandment to do this in memory of me. And that word memory doesn't simply mean to think about something that happened last, you know, yesterday or last year or 10 years ago. Memory means to truly make present. That's the it probably in its proper context, that's what that's what that means. So there's a lot of things here, a lot of things here for this week. So that's kind of what I have. Yeah, John 6, we should always remember that. It's called the Bread of Life Discourse, and it's one of the ones that we should remember because it's connected to the Eucharist.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Yeah, and this is very personal for me because you know the Eucharist is why I became Catholic, why I became a priest. You know, I I went to a Catholic high school just not just to play baseball, but it was the biggest reason. And uh I was exposed to the Catholic Church for the first time, and they were teaching us that that's truly the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. And I thought, how can that be? I my eyes see bread and wine, nothing else, you know. So I'd go to all school masses and never went forward for communion. I would just observe and I thought, why are they bowing to a piece of bread? You know, why are they so reverent? Well, my junior year I went on a retreat. It was a visiting priest, and I wonder if it was Father Privost, who's now Pope Leo, because uh the Augustinians were running my high school. Uh and uh he was on the next year's retreat for sure because my friend has has the the the um outline of the the retreat. Anyway, the priest uh invited us around the altar. There are only about twenty of us. For the consecration and communion. He started coming around the circle. I didn't know how to, you know, cross my arms and ask for a blessing. He said, the body of Christ. I opened my mouth to say I'm not Catholic. But before the words could come out, I received my first communion. And it changed my life because I felt the power of God so strongly. So I became Catholic because of that experience. And then years later, when I was going to adoration, I kept hearing involuntarily, I want you to be a priest. And so the Eucharist, Jesus speaking to me through the Eucharist, invited me to the priesthood. Now, 24 years later, today, my greatest gift is to be able to bring that gift of the Eucharist to God's people. And so why do why do we believe this, you know? Um, I don't believe it because somebody told me to. One, I experienced it, but also theologically it makes sense. Think about Jesus, everything Jesus says happens because he's the word of God made flesh. There's not once in the Gospels where Jesus says, I hope you're healed, that they're not. So when Jesus says to Lazarus, rise from the dead, he rises from the dead because he has authority. His words, as the word of God, the Logos speaks, it happens. So when Jesus says, This is my body and blood, it's his body and blood. John 6, one of the most convincing things for me is, you know, he's gathered a lot of followers, and you know, he says four different times, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And the the original word there is to kind of gnaw on flesh. It's a very graphic word. So people think he's talking about cannibalism, and they start to walk away. What Jesus did not say is so important. He didn't say, Come on back, everybody, I'm speaking metaphorically. It's just a symbol. I just want a lot of followers. No, he he let them walk away. And he looked at the twelve who were remaining and he said, Will you leave me to? In other words, I know this is hard to understand, that this is my body and blood, but will you leave me to? And Peter, of course, the first pope, speaks up and he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of everlasting life. And so Peter says, I don't understand the theology of transubstantiation, but I believe you. And if you say this is your body and blood, I I'm all in. And so for me, those those are a couple of the reasons why I believe this. And as you said, Bishop, we do a big Eucharistic uh procession. Uh, it'll be this Thursday, June, what day is that? June 4th at 6 30. And uh we have 1,500 to 2,000 people out there, and then in the fall, last year we did it for the first time at our village hall. We did outdoor adoration, had over a thousand people there. We're hoping to do it uh you know on a bigger scale uh this fall. Just even non-Catholics come and they realize, well, either this is the biggest form of idolatry or that's Jesus. And so often uh people who aren't Catholic are drawn in by the Eucharist. You hear convert after convert saying, I became Catholic because it was the Eucharist. That if that's Jesus, and it is, that's the only church that has, you know, the the the real presence. Um and I'll finish with this the connection to our Jewish roots. You know, the first Passover they they cooked the the uh spotless lamb, you know, the unblemished lamb. So Jesus, that's why we call him the Lamb of God who's sinless. Uh they would eat his flesh, eat the flesh of the lamb, and then they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, so the angel of death would pass over that household. So Jesus offers us his flesh, he's the unblemished lamb, sinless. We eat his flesh, and we don't put the blood of Jesus on the doorpost, but we drink his blood, because he says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. In other words, the angel of death passes over us uh as we consume his body and blood. And so um, will we die a human death? Yes, but it's this eternal communion and connection with the Lord in the in the Eucharist. It's it's the source and summit, as Bishop said, it's the most important. Uh well, there's so many important teachings of the church, but it's central to what we teach as Catholics. And so I've talked to many Catholics who who've been, I've been Catholic my whole life, they say, and I thought it was a symbol. And so we have to do the best we can to teach that this is not a symbol, it is truly Jesus uh presence.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

There's a great great story by uh Flannery O'Connor, a great Catholic author, one of my favorites. And um, she's got a little spicy language, but she says if it's a symbol, then to hell with it. And uh she's just you know hammering home the point. You know, it's it's not a symbol, it's truly body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, right? It's um it's Jesus Christ truly present to us. Yeah. Mike, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Well, Father Burke, you talked about today um, you know, being your 24th anniversary, and you know, it's it's the best day of your life. It's um bigger than a grand slam you hit. And people always ask me, what was the best day of your life? You know, and I was raised by the greatest parents that, you know, great models of Catholic um leadership. My mom, I can still remember every morning she'd get my dad off to work about 4:30, iron his clothes, make him breakfast, hot mug of coffee, and I'd wake up and she'd be reading her Bible every morning, praying her rosary. I mean, if if I ever ever witnessed a living saint, it's my mother. Um, but uh I never had the chance to go to Catholic high school like you, Father Burke, and have a nun or uh talk to me about the faith and give me a Bible like she gave to you, or uh maybe even Pope Leo giving you your first Holy Communion as uh a non-Catholic. But um at 17 I went on a retreat, and it was the first time I ever went to Eucharistic Adoration. And I knelt down and I knew it was Jesus. I know it. And it was the beginning of that that night at St. Margaret Mary Church, it's almost joyful. I felt the love of God. I I knew for the first time it was like St. Paul, the scales of my eyes were removed. And um, that night, it just it flooded me with God's grace and and the reality of that is truly Jesus. And over the last, I guess that was over the last 35 years, I've done a lot of studying and reading of the scriptures, and I know that's Jesus. Like I have a lot of great friends that are not Catholic, that they're Christians, but they don't, they're not living out the fullness of the faith. And they talk to me about, you know, let's get in the Bible study. I'll I'll read the Bible with you, but man, I'll take a bullet before I leave the Catholic Church because I know that's Jesus. And and recently I started reading, I don't know if you guys have read Word on Fire, and Bishop Barron put out this book. It's a collection of all the early church fathers, and inside of it said Didic, but like you're reading on St. Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Justin Martyr, whose feast day we celebrate today, um, Irenaeus, all the church fathers, and I'm blown away that 2,000 years ago, it's the Mass, it's the true teaching of the Holy Eucharist, and these are the apostles of the apostles. These are like a lot of these men were ordained by Saint Peter or followers of Saint Paul, like they were influenced by the ones Saint John that were followers of Jesus. And I'm I'm more and more blown away. So, any listeners out there read the early church fathers, and if you don't know where to go, Word on Fire just put out a book recently. It's a collection of all the early church fathers and the Didic, which was uh a blueprint of the early church. And if you aren't proud of being Catholic after you read that book, I don't know what will make you more proud because you're reading the early church fathers of you know the year 95 AD and 100 AD, and they're writing, yeah, the Eucharist, it truly is the true presence of Jesus Christ. And and it just makes you so proud to be a member by God's grace of the church that Jesus started. I I know I know Peter started the church. Why? Because I'm reading letters from people that Peter ordained and Peter blessed and Peter taught. And the teaching of 2,000 years ago is the same teaching that Bishop Wall and Father Burke are living out as successors of you know the apostolic succession. That uh it's it's the greatest gift of my life. And it started at 17 years old at St. Margaret Mary Church before the Blessed Sacrament and Adoration.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

Yeah, I was thinking about somebody like uh Cardinal Newman, you know, who was setting out essentially to prove the church wrong and essentially the kind of the Protestant movement wrong too. He was looking for what they called the middle way. And what he did was he ended up studying himself right into the Catholic Church. And um, he's got this famous quote where he says, you know, to be steeped in history um means to be you know to cease to be Protestant. In other words, you go all the way back to the very beginning, and we're talking about the Eucharist. The church taught about the taught this at the very beginning. She might have clarified it and strength her, you know, strengthened her teaching and some of the counsels that came later, but it's from the very, very beginning because it comes from the word, the the lips of our Lord. And our Lord never said anything that was wrong, and he never said anything where he like Father Burke was just pointing out, where he wants to say, No, wait, let me change that up. Let me let me switch that up. You you misunderstood me. And uh, but it it it comes from Jesus Himself. Yeah, we we believe it because Jesus said it.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Amen. I I think too of uh the road to Emmaus, you know, uh they invite him in, and uh, you know, he's already explained the whole scriptures to him, which is the first part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word. And then he sits down, and then in the breaking of the bread, they recognize him and he disappears. And it always struck me like, why did he disappear at that moment? And I think it was because he wanted them to recognize him in the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist. Like he knew he was gonna be ascending to the Father soon, and he would wouldn't be with them any longer in his, you know, in his you know, human body, but he's gonna be present to us in the Eucharist. And when he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, I'll be with you until the end of the age. It's through the power of the Holy Spirit and also present in the Eucharist. I think what kind of world we would be in without the Eucharist, you know. I think like when you walk into a Catholic church, when I when I walked in a Catholic church before I was Catholic, I thought, there's something different here. And it wasn't the furnishings, but it was the Eucharist. And uh now I know what that is, and uh it's it's a presence, it's Jesus that if he weren't in all those tabernacles around the world, we'd be in a lot worse shape than we are, believe me.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

There's a great book uh by Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited. And at the very beginning, you have this image of the sanctuary lamp, which talks about the true presence of Jesus. And at the very end, I'm not giving you a spoiler alert, um, but at the very end, there's also the sanctuary lamp. And then in the middle of it, it's just people's messy lives. But you can see this kind of this bookend, and and the presence of Jesus kind of carries everybody through all these you know ups and downs and you know, happy times and sad times and messy times and everything. But it's it's it's a it's just for me, it's always a reminder of that promise that Jesus gives us. Um, I'm with you until the end of the ages. I will not abandon you, I will not leave you orphaned. Well, one of the best ways we understand, come to understand that is through the true presence in the Eucharist.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Amen. Yeah, and I think Bishop and I both our vocation stories um are rooted in daily mass and adoration. Those two things. I as vocation director, my number one goal was to get people in front of Jesus in adoration because everyone was the rest. I was in adoration and I started to hear the voice of God, you know. So I love we have a beautiful adoration chapel here at St. Isaac's, and I just love seeing all day long there's this people going in and out. It's like the lungs of the church, people being filled with the Lord and then going out and and doing his doing his work, and yeah, it's we need uh we need adoration chapels all over the place because that's if it's Jesus, we gotta get people in front of him.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Oh that's right.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

I think uh that's a good place to put a bow on it. Uh Bishop, you want to close us in prayer?

SPEAKER_02 57:43

Be happy to. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing. Bless the church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading her along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who are your great passion, help them dream again, help them look up to the heavens again, to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth. May you bless each and every family. You warned of Satan's assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. Saint John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family. Pray for the whole world which is still marked by tensions, wars, and injustice. You oppose war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love. Pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace. O Saint John Paul from heaven's window, where we see you beside Mary, send God's blessing down upon us all. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Lord be with you, and with your spirit. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_00 59:07

Amen. Thanks, guys. We invite all of our listeners to like and subscribe and share this uh podcast with uh maybe family members or friends that you may find uh helpful. Put your comments in the comment line. And as Saint Pierre Giorgio Frasati reminds us the higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ. Keep striving verso l alto in your faith and pursuits. And until next time, God bless you.