Transcript of Interview with Jack McKeon And Tom Allen about Champions Of Faith – The Bases of Life. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
Champions Of Faith – The Bases of Life is available at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/4003739/Champions-Faith-Bases-Life-DVD/
——————————–
Chris Cash: Welcome to the Catholic Spotlight. This is the Catholic Spotlight, the Podcast and we talk about what’s new, cool and exciting in the Catholic marketplace. I’m your host Chris Cash, Director of e-Commerce from CatholicCompany.com, your source for all your Catholic needs.
And today in the Spotlight, we have Jack McKeon on; he is one of the featured player’s mangers on the Champions of the Faith Baseball addition II. Jack its great to have you on.
Jack McKeon: Thank you, Chris. And it’s always a pleasure to be on with you guys.
Chris Cash: So, Jack why is this video so important to the faith?
Jack McKeon: Well, I think you know us we like to have been involved in this thing that you might say athletic celebrities; we feel that our role is to try to reach as many Catholic people we can, religious people for that matter. And you know I’ll tell them how important their religion is and also how important it is for us in athletics to fall with all in a tough season.
Chris Cash: And you have quite an illustrious, clear – quite an illustrations career managing the Marlins, the Kansas City Royals, the Oakland athletics, the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds. You know that – that’s a lot for anybody to have accomplished in any career and yet you have remained a daily communicant for many years. When did that start?
Jack McKeon: Well, really you know I was very fortunate to grow up in a Catholic education and then, you know all my parents were very, very you know strict in that. We had a lot of discipline in our families and they encouraged us to you know profess our faith. And we were pretty much even – when I went through high school basically daily communicants, and it carried over to you know my carrier in baseball. I got you know Marlins when got down in the South, where there is very, very few Catholics in the South and very few churches. And it was a little more difficult in my early years in my early baseball, but I always found a way to you know whenever I got to lookdown, the first thing I did was seek out the church and made sure that I was available to go on Sunday for sure.
And as I moved up the ladder and got into different areas where the population was much greater and there was much more Catholics and much more churches around, then it became a whole lot easier to you know participate on a daily basis. And when I got to the Major Leagues why it was easy, because you know like I said the first thing I did when I got to a town in Cincinnati even though *** [03:19] I would go to the church and find out the times of masses and relay that information to the Catholic players on my team. And we you know – we went to church on the pretty much regular basis. A number of players have also participated there greatly and going to daily mass. And what I mentioned the most is this one peer when I had him at the Marlins; he was a pretty frequent daily participant.
Chris Cash: Now, did you ever find any resistance from players to how much you integrated faith into the game?
Jack McKeon: No, not all. In fact, you know I was just impressed, I never pushed my religion, but I encouraged it. And I think I led by example and that was the key you know. I would let somebody’s Catholic players know that I was going to Church and they were willing to go with me. And you know even on a Sunday, I always alert the guys what kind of masses were, and tell ‘em that I was going to go to 7:30 mass and the cab would be at the hotel for us to take if you wanted to go. And I’d say if we had 8 Catholic players, we have 5 of to show up to go to Church every Sunday.
Chris Cash: Now, with such a busy schedule as someone who is doing Major League baseball, how did you find time to integrate all of that into your schedule? And did you have any other things that you would faith wise that you would be able to fit into your schedule as well?
Jack McKeon: Well, I had no problem fitting those into schedule in my routine. I lived in Florida and when we were home, my routine was very simply go to 8:30 mass and go to the ball park at 9:30 or 10 ‘o clock whatever it was. And stay at the ball park all day, and do my jogging and working out, and sitting out and *** [05:19] like relaxing and you know as I jog 3, 4 miles a day. And I always had time to say the rosary and stuff like that, so it was a you know pretty easy task really when you look back and say that then all the – you know the spare time that I had I was able to use in prayer.
Chris Cash: Now, did you find that your efforts to bring the players into the mass and help them define some spiritual outlets. Did that help to bring out the best in them?
Jack McKeon: Well, I don’t know what it brought the best of ‘em, but at least they felt that it was my *** [05:57] since it used to make an effort to you know encourage them. And also set an example by going myself. And I think you know I felt like it paid off dividends in one peer’s case I’m sure. And the other ones were pretty dedicated Catholic boys, and you know I didn’t think I needed the whole lot of you know pushing to get those guys to participate.
Chris Cash: Did you ever get the moms coming in and saying thank you for making sure he got to mass this week?
Jack McKeon: Oh, I had a few you know just the thank you for looking after the boys.
Chris Cash: So, what’s your proudest accomplishment over your career?
Jack McKeon: Well, if you want to talk about baseball wise, probably winning the World Series.
Chris Cash: Do you have any personal proudest accomplishments?
Jack McKeon: I don’t know. I can’t think of any – well, yes, in looking back as I said you know my – participate in daily church was the directors all of getting a cup of Catholic players, I mean cup of players to convert Catholicism. And in one case, it was this fellow I had and I was playing in *** [07:25] New York in 1950, this player John *** [07:30] said to me on a Saturday night. He said, “Let’s meet for breakfast tomorrow 8:30.” I said,”I can’t do it; I got to go to church.” And he said, “Well, you know see I like to go to church too.” I said, “Well, come on and go with me.” He said, “Well, he said no I’m a protestant, you are a Catholic.” He said, “I don’t know those signals that you guys use.” So, I said, “Well, you just come out with me and I’ll teach you the signals.” So, I got him to go to church and we went to – went this Sunday and then went another Sunday and then pretty soon you know the season ended. And we dispersed to different areas of the country and you know, but maybe it’ll be 15 years later or 20 years later I got to the big Leagues and all the sudden out *** [08:17] comes a call from this guy, John *** [08:19] telling me that you know I reminisced a little bit about our career and thanking me for taking to church that day, because he had met a Catholic gal. He got converted and married this Catholic gall, and he was so thankful.
And then it was another situation where I had a coach Harry Dunlop, who’s with me in Kansas City, and we were going – we were training in Fort Myers, Florida spring training right about this time of the year. And on this particular day, we also had the hotel and this particular guy said to me, “Hey, can I ride the – can I ever ride to the ball park with you tomorrow?” I said, “Sure, but I said you got to understand that now I go church – I go to mass at 6:30 in the morning, and if you want to go that early and I said I got to stop at church.” He said, “Oh, I’ll be glad to go with you.” So, he went with me today and then tomorrow, the next day and he kept going with me, and he eventually got converted to Catholicism. So, I think at a personal goal, those situations really standout, because you know it was a way of setting of example of your losing and reaching other people.
Chris Cash: Now, you mentioned your role series when as being your proudest accomplishment baseball. And one of the things that you talked about in the first Champion of the faith movie quite a bit is your devotion to Saint Therese as being a big part of that? How do you feel about your world series Championship being a testament to your faith?
Jack McKeon: Well, I think you know going back, if you want to go back and I was managing the risk and I used to go to church everyday. And one day and then sitting in Church and this fellow comes up and he gives me in the novena of Saint Therese. He said, “Yes, this is a very special lady here and I thought you might wanted to you know partake in this novena.” And I kept that card and I kept praying to Saint Therese, and well at the end of the season we were all at go in Cincinnati. And was out of the job really you know I thought it was my end of career, and at my age I didn’t think anybody would – that was 1969 – 1999, so that’s maybe about 70 year old. And I figured well this is end, no one’s going take a chance on a senior citizen. And I came back home to North Carolina and I started going to church on a regular basis daily, and I started praying to Saint Therese and I said, “You know Saint Therese I said Saint Therese *** [11:13]. I just don’t feel like my career is completed, and I wanted to intercede with the lord and asking if he wishes that you know possibly I have one more chance.” You know couple of years later, here I come, I get a call from the Marlins, you know and manage the club. The – you know always worked out well and I felt that all long that the direct result of Saint Therese’s intercedes with the lord that it made this happen. And I felt that if the lord wanted it to work out the way he have hope to give me a – possibly give me a platform later on that he would help pull us through. And you know I can’t believe *** [12:07] true, so I help my players, let them perform unto the top. You know everything worked out, we won the – you know we got the Royal card, we won the play offs, and then we went to World Series and…
Chris Cash: And when you took this team over, no one expected them to go anywhere?
Jack McKeon: Oh, no of course they were down in the fourth or fifth place. And the expectations weren’t that high for that team you know, which the case. Like I said I just firmly believe the power of prayer and the power of saying prayers and to say he was the lord send some of those roses out to us each day was the key. And they won the World Series; someone told me who is your most valuable player? I said, “You know what Saint Therese.
Chris Cash: Well, thank you Jack. Was there anything else you wanted to share with our listeners?
Jack McKeon: No, I just tell ‘em that you know maybe the lord is good learning you know and forgiving lord, he wants us all to go back to him. And worship him and not be afraid to profess faith and believe in the power of prayer. I mean, I can give you one more story if you have time.
Chris Cash: I’ve got it, I’ve got a few extra minutes, go ahead.
Jack McKeon: Well, I was you know I was a high school student and a pretty good high school player and my dad, and the Scouts came to the house and tried to sign me. And my dad said there is no way I want you guys me and my brother to have a college education. I don’t want you to work as hard as I did. And so I took the baseball scholarship, the holy cross up in the Massachusetts. Every night I would go through – and my desire was to play professional baseball, I didn’t care about going to college. I knew I could a degree that was no big deal. But anyway every night on the way to the dining hall, I past the shrine of the Blessed Virgin and came back and after dinner and stopped pray for 20 minutes. And asked the Blessed Virgin that she intercede with the lord, see it anyway possible that he could convince my father to let me sign a professional contract.
So, I went home for the Christmas vacation, Scouts came back to the house again for him to sign. My father called me in his and he said, “Do you really want to play baseball?” I said, “Yes.” He said I tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a deal.” He promised me that you’ll get a college education, I’ll let you sign. Well, I said, “That’s a piece of cake.” So, he let me sign the – you know professional. And so I got started, so I kind of look back and Blessed Virgin and every time I get the gym I say okay, Blessed Virgin Mary, you got me in this gym now you got to help me out. Well, I ended up getting my college education, so I fulfilled my promise.
Chris Cash: And that’s good that you are a man of your word.
Jack McKeon: Well…
Chris Cash: Thank you, yes?
Jack McKeon: You’re welcome.
Chris Cash: Thank you so much for coming on our show and God bless.
Jack McKeon: Thanks Chris, okay.
Chris Cash: And we’ll be back in just a minute to talk Tom Allen, the producer of Champions of the Faith baseball, about his take on the new video. This is the Catholic Spotlight.
Advertisement
Chris Cash: And we’re back on the Spotlight, talking about Champions of Faith, the bases of life. On the phone with us now is Tom Allen, editor and president of Catholic Exchange. The organization that has been responsible for putting out both of the Champions of Faith baseball films. Tom great to have you on.
Tom Allen: Thanks Chris, it’s good to be here.
Chris Cash: Can you tell us just a little bit today about what is new and exciting in the bases of life video?
Tom Allen: Well, the basis life is about going deeper in our faith and prayer lives as Catholic’s. And the guys who lead us into that discussion are some of the biggest names in Major League baseball. And it’s different from Champions of Faith baseball in that film was more of an entertainment, and it had more human interest type stories that are focused on a handful of players and their stories. And had the Major League baseball footage and that kind of thing, and in the end the popular music, whereas bases of life focuses the most part on a different set of Major League ball players. And it’s more faith formational or catechetical in nature. It’s entertaining and compelling and moving, but it goes deeper into the Catholic, spiritual lives of these players.
I will say that for all the wives and moms and grandmothers out there, this film is an answer to prayer in that its very powerful vehicle for bringing your husband or the man in your life back to sacrament. Because you’ve never seen high profile figures in the culture like these guys take you on such a journey into the Catholic Faith breaking open prayer and sacraments of confession and communion. It is really a stunning pride, and the Catholic Church hasn’t kind of seen this kind of film before.
Chris Cash: So, what are the major topics that are covered here? You mentioned confession and communion are there other topics that you cover or is it mainly talking about those particular sacraments?
Tom Allen: Well, the Bases of Life are like grounding the bases where Rich Donnelly, the – he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates now, he was the long time third base coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He opens up the film with a metaphor about how running the bases along the base camps is like running the bases of life. You start out as a kid and you are going to base it, and you go run in the first base and you eventually you won the second bases, the farthest place away from home which is your home and your heart and your family and your faith. And you are in your 20’s and you are far away from there, and your mind isn’t on family matters or godly things, typically and then you’re running to third and you are in your 30’s and 40’s, and you are kind of getting little bit down with the pressures and responsibilities of life. And you pick up your third base coach and he is your priest, your mentor, your spiritual advisor where is he pointing to, he is pointing you the home. He is pointing you to go back home when you’re in round third and you are in your 50’s and 60’s, and you are racing to home place. You are trying to get close to God and so, we’ve identified the bases of life as faith, prayer, confession and communion. And that’s how we’ve structured that film, and these guys Tom Glavine and Greg BGO and Darrell Miller and Mike Sweeney, and Justin Baker, these guys take us on that journey. I mean, break open each of those four themes and go into real depth in an enriching way.
Chris Cash: So, who do you have talking about say prayer, and in what way are they approaching it?
Tom Allen: Well, prayer is one way a whole variety of players comment on the importance of prayer and how they do it and how to do it. I mean, I for one, I spent a long time in my life not quite being sure how – what the best way is to approach prayer, and these guys kind of give some guidance on how their prayer life’s work and good and effective ways to approach prayer.
On the sacraments of confession and communion, we’re lead primarily by Mike Piazza and Darrell Miller, these guys gave us incredible access to their personal lives where we go into their home, we go into Mike Piazza’s home and meet his wife and baby daughter. And then we go on across town block on the streets of New York with Mike and where the encounters that are unscripted with fans in New York and it just shows how he deals with signing autographs and greeting people. And, but it’s a journey to his favorite church, the church is Saint Andrews *** [22:07] city hall in lower Manhattan. And then, he just goes into this mode of prayer and confession that’s really stunning. And they had the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the church as well. So, he went through confession and then he had penance prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and it’s really remarkable. And I have a man who is this, this famous and this iconic, who faces incredible temptation in the world, because of his wealth and his fame and his power, and his good looks. And its just to see how he really keeps close to God by staying close to Christ and the Blessed Sacrament, staying close to the confession *** [22:56] is really something.
And Darrell Miller who played for a long time with the California Angels, he is the brother of Indiana Pacers basketball star, Reggie Miller and the brother of Cheryl Miller, the Olympic Gold Medalist runner. He and his wife go into Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and our camera follows. And it’s like this past Christmas we filmed it, and it was a snowy day before Christmas across the market *** [23:23] across fifth Avenue in *** [23:27] Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. And then they explore the looks and *** [23:31] in the out coast of that beautiful Cathedral, and they pray and meditate before the statues, the *** [23:38] statue and the icons of Saint Maximilian Kolbe and Pope John Paul who visited there back in the late ’70’s. And then most stunningly they go behind the alter and down the spheres under the alter and even from the Crib where they have intense prayer before the tombs of archbishop pope *** [23:57] and Karen’s Carmel Cook, both of whom were servants of God, there are causes for *** [24:04] are well underway.
And so, we’re able to really experience in a different way how one is to approach the sacraments of confession and communion? What this position we’re supposed to bring to those sacraments and the riches and benefits that we are – that we derive of sacraments.
Chris Cash: And you know the other thing that stands out to me is a lot of people seem to have this idea that they don’t have time for church and sacraments and the faith, and to see these people who have such incredibly busy schedules and such incredible demands on their time and their energy that they are making extra time just to be able to go into this.
Tom Allen: Yes, Chris, it really points to the need that we have in our lives for prayer, and the need we have for the sacraments in order to live good and deep and holy lives. So, we have to constantly ask ourselves what is the purpose of life? What are we doing here? Are we just on the you know what rats run, the treadmill, are we just going with the emotions of life and going through our jobs, and doing the basics or are we preparing ourselves to live for eternity with God in heaven? Well, there’s other things that we need to do in this life in terms of preparing our souls in order toe enjoy eternity with God in heaven.
Now, heaven is for those who can figure out how to be happy and fulfilled here on earth and happiness and fulfillment comes from leading virtuous life of prayer and trying to attain *** [26:00]. So, nobody has the kind of temptation and busy schedules that these men with their wealth and their fame, but they show us how to deal with it. They just show incredible leaderships in Champions of Faith – The Bases of Life, in terms of how we as Catholics are supposed to approach our faith in our lives.
Chris Cash: And did you have any problems getting people to come forward to do this or were they pretty excited about the project?
Tom Allen: Well, that’s been one of the great miracles of this film is that you know who these guys are and what they say and the access they gave us, you would think that it would not be something that we as film makers would be able to achieve. But they just opened up. And it seems like there is a moment in these guys life is cross section of Major League superstars, where they all seem to come awake and say yes to this thing. To say give their *** [27:06] to opening up their lives. And to make their faith lives and prayer lives public as a means of thanking God for the blessings that they’ve received, and accepting their position as role models in the culture and determining to use their positions of saint in this useful kind of way.
To provide an example for other man and for young people on how to approach their Catholic faith. I think that there is an awareness among these guys that one of the main problems we’re facing in our Catholic church in modern times is the crises of faith among men, in this men are not leading their families in prayer, in worship, and this is a way for them to give back. A way for them to acknowledge that hey, it’s not through anything that came from them that they are able to achieve celebrity status and the kind of wealth they’ve achieved. Its – that they say acknowledge it as gifts from God. And now they are giving something back, they are contributing to the strengthening of their church by offering themselves as leaders and role models, in terms of their Catholic faith.
Chris Cash: Now, I don’t want to keep you too long, because I know that you in your busy schedule are trying to head off to get to mass. One last question here, I know that Champions of Faith – Football is also on horizon. Is there anything you’d like to share about that before we take off?
Tom Allen: Well, our idea for this Champions of Faith project had been from the beginning to create a series of films. To go from one sport to another and then, even beyond and outside of sports into the military and into Hollywood. We’re interested in doing, in identifying the high profile Catholic in the culture, and persuading them to open up their lives in the same way that Jeff Suppan and Mike Sweeney and Craig Biggio and Mike Scioscia and these guys have done. So, but its a – you know it’s a project that we really need the support of the Catholic public in order to fully realize, so we need people to embrace these first films, Champions of Faith – Baseball and now Champions of Faith – The bases of Life, which is a companion films and the baseball film. And again, that goes deeper into the faith and prayer and sacramental lives of these players. More of an informational tour, but its still an entertainment and still they are moving. And that’s the way we want to approach each one of these projects.
Football next, we want to do an entertainment with this NFL game footage and major college game footage. And then, tell the human interest stories and some of the key players who we’ve identified and wanting to participate, and then to a companion film. So, that one was well. That’s more faith formational and catechetical in nature. So that we’re squeezing all the juice out of the orange so to speak on each of these things. And then, go from there to soccer and to Olympics sports, and the basketball and go over into the military where Archbishop Edwin O’ Brien is opening up his doors to the long time Archbishop of the military services. And he has given us a list of individuals, which is the phenomenal feature in the Champions of Faith – Military film. And just go from discipline to discipline, even maybe into government and business.
So, the idea is like vegetable started out with one cucumber talk into one carrot. And the next thing you know there is an entire lengthy shelf filled with these enriching his videos. We want to do with the same thing with Champions of Faith. And we’ve attracted enormous support; the bishops are four-square behind what we’re doing. But we do need the Catholic public to step up and embrace this project and make sure that like the Passion of the Christ, Champions of Faith films become DVD’s that people have in their homes. It’s not good enough to just be part of it at school one day. This is something that you know kids go and they watch these DVD’s over and over again. And we want them watching something enriching and entertaining and faith building like Champions of Faith, and not you know the other Hollywood fair that we are putting in and watching over and over again.
So, we need the Catholic public to step up and get these DVD’s and add them to their home video libraries. And then, we will just continue making these things for the next 10 years, God willing.
Chris Cash: One more question real quick? Is the Bases of Life a standalone DVD or are you – do you really need to have the original Champions of Faith DVD to get the most out of it?
Tom Allen: Its completely – the answer is yes to both. It’s completely a standalone film that you can enjoy and be blown away by without having seen Champions of Faith baseball. But really to get the most out of Champions of Faith, the broader theme and project, you should see both. Because the first one, again it has that Mike Sweeney’s fifth right on the field and then his reconciliation with Jeff Weaver. It has the drama between Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens. And Roger Clemens is now in the headlines of you know most prominent name on the George Mitchell report, in all the trouble he is getting himself into. So, the black had the villain in Champions of Faith baseball has turned out to be to have real life problems right now. And when he is through that Mike Piazza had left an entire nation scratching your heads about what that was all about, we’re kind of getting an invitation of what that might have been about now with the steroids report. But those incidents, those human interest stories Rich Donnelly’s daughter dying of brain cancer and the effect that had on his faith, on his family, those stories set up the material that we go into the phases of life.
Then we go deeper, we go deeper into their faith lives and their prayer lives, it’s not so much about their baseball life. It’s about them behind the scene glimpse into their home in private and personal lives, and how they deal with a priest and how they deal with the sacraments and how they deal with their Gods. So, they are both standalone pieces. You don’t need to see one to see the other or to profit from the other, but they go best together.
Chris Cash: Well, thank you very much Tom, and it’s been great having you on again. And we look forward to seeing this video as well as the future videos to come.
Tom Allen: Well, very good Chris. Thanks a lot for having me, God bless.
——————————–
Transcript of Interview with Jack McKeon And Tom Allen about Champions Of Faith – The Bases of Life. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
Champions Of Faith – The Bases of Life is available at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/4003739/Champions-Faith-Bases-Life-DVD/