SAX IN THE MORNING

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Debbie Neal is an entrepreneur, a coach, podcast host, motivational speaker and mother of four children. She started the Level Up with Debbie Neal podcast a little over a year ago and has garnered a big following with her fiery, powerful advice and affirmations for her listeners. Debbie and I share a lo...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. We all have a voice in our heads that tells us to stop what we are doing in our efforts to be successful or make a change. That voice is a bully called the inner critic and there are three ways to put that guy in his place and keep him quiet.  First, you have to shine a light on that voice and acknowled...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. A study published just a few years ago showed some amazing results about the benefits of living with optimism. First, people who are optimistic live longer, plain and simple. They are more resilient and are less affected by stressful situations, which reduces their risk of heart disease, depression and...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. I love stories of entrepreneurs who have huge failures before huge successes. Today I wanted to share the story of Kathleen King, who founded Tate’s Bake Shop.  If you don’t know Tate's, they are the crispy, crunchy chocolate chip cookies in the green bag that you can buy at the grocery store. King...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Before wrapping up my week of baseball predictions I wanted to bring you an interview with the Houston Astros Manager Dusty Baker. I talked to Dusty while visiting Spring Training and we talked about how the universal designated hitter will affect not just Major League Baseball but youth baseball as wel...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Yesterday I gave you my predictions for the winners of each division in the American League and today we move on to the National League. I make some picks that stray form conventional wisdom because I still go with my gut and I'm not running a bunch of predictions through a computer. Listen to hear...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. It’s springtime, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining and baseball is officially underway, so I thought I’d focus this week on talking about the season ahead.  Today is all about a little inside baseball as I give my predictions for who will win each division in the American League.  Enjoy! Visit...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. I got called up to the big leagues on August 17, 1981. The next day I was in the starting lineup against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field and I was facing Mike Griffin, who I faced in high school and he had owned me.  As fate would have it I got a hit off Mike in my first at bat and launched my big lea...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. This week I’m sharing some of my favorite memories of my career and how they still impact my life.  In 1982 I was voted as an All-Star and I got to bring a guest with me. I decided to bring my dad and during the All-Star luncheon he sat between Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt with me next to Schmidt. He talk...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. This week, in honor of the regular season getting started in baseball, I wanted to share some stories of my favorite memories of my own career and how they have stuck with me. Today I wanted to tell you about when I got that phone call telling me I won the 1982 National League Rookie of the Year. What w...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. My guests today are Eddy and Gaby Alvarez. Eddy is a Major League Baseball player who  recently signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He made his major league debut with the Miami Marlins in 2020 but what he is best known for is being one of just six athletes ever to win Olympic m...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Jim Eisenreich was an all-star caliber player for over a decade in the majors. But just two months into his rookie season in 1982 he was taken out of three straight games due to fits of panic and anxiety. Doctors didn’t know what the cause was and Jim was forced to retire when his dream had barely start...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. This week I am talking about baseball players who overcame tremendous adversity. Yesterday it was a mangled hand but today it’s the loss of an entire arm.  In 1945 Pete Gray, who had just one arm, was called up to the big leagues. He spent the year as a fourth outfielder but managed to hit .218 with 51...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. This week we are going to celebrate two of my favorite things: baseball and people who overcome adversity.  Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown was a hall of fame pitcher from the early 1900’s. When he was 7-years-old he got his hand stuck in a wheat shredder and lost his index finger. Just weeks later he tri...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. I love to talk about the importance of having a purpose, so it was a joy for me to find an article and a study that showed how people with purpose are actually more level-headed and grounded then those who do not.  The study found that those who have a purpose actually get more blood flow to the part of...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Yesterday I talked about forgiveness and today I want to talk about second chances.  Shoeless Joe Jackson is known for being a part of the “Black Sox” scandal when a group of players agreed to throw the World Series in exchange for money. Jackson tried to warn the commissioner, he was found not guilty i...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Today I wanted to tell the story of Louis Zamperini, who was an Olympic athlete, WWII pilot and prisoner of war.  Zamperini’s plane was shot down over the South Pacific and he survived 47 days at sea before being captured by the Japanese. Unfortunately his nightmare had only begun as he was mercilessly...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Today I am sharing some great wisdom I found from some amazing female entrepreneurs. Their words on success come from a Forbes article and I wanted to share it with you.  They cover the importance of adaptability, dealing with rejection and how you should treat customers or clients as human beings with...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. This week I am celebrating inspiring women for Women’s History Month. Today I wanted to highlight Suzyn Waldman. If you don’t know, Waldman has been the color commentator for the Yankees radio broadcast since 2005.  Waldman is the first woman to call a World Series game on the radio and has been a trail...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. It’s women’s history month so this week I thought we would celebrate the accomplishments and positive effects women have had on my life and on our world.  When thinking about women I admire I have to start with my mom. My dad called her the Italian princess. She saved my life when I was a little kid, sh...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Obsession is a word and a quality that people often look down on or misunderstand. No one should be so obsessed with something that it ruins their relationships or their lives but it takes a healthy level of obsession to be truly great.  I was obsessed with being a big league ball player and if I wasn’t...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Today, I talk about the importance of having a burning desire to achieve a goal or to make a change in your life. The term comes from an old war story when a general sailed his men into battle and had the boats burned  after they landed so there was no opportunity for retreat. The only path was to fight...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. Today I wanted to take some time to talk about having a backbone and no current example demonstrates this more than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  He has stayed in his government’s center to help defend his country. He has survived assassination attempts, refused his own evacuation and is ins...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. What do Tony Robbins and the great Frederick Douglass have in common? Well, they both are/were fantastic speakers and motivators. And they both spoke about oppression and the fact that people will suffer as much as they allow for limits to be imposed on them. With Douglass, it was the much more real out...

I would love to hear from you, just send me text and let me know what you think of the podcast. We are so good at telling ourselves stories that sometimes we don’t even know what our real limitations are and what are just fears we make up in our heads.  One way to tell is the language we use. Do you ever hear yourself saying “they” as in, “they will know I’m too young, too inexperienced, too old,...