| They came to Kansas City in the winter (of '97) to hit, along with Joe Randa, Kevin Seitzer and Keith (Lockhart), and we were in the batting cage and I said to Keith one day, 'Keith, I think I'm ready.' I just got on my knees right there in the cage and came to Christ.
I had a tough time winding down after games. I used to drink about 30 beers a night and close to a fifth of Southern Comfort. And that was the one thing the Lord took right out of my life. I don't have a desire for it anymore.
I think back, and I was like, 'Man, I don't know how I did it?' He took care of me, He took it out of my life. There are other things I still battle with. I'm not perfect by any means, but He took alcohol right out.
In 1999, I got sent down even though I spent basically all of '98 with the (big league) team. But what He knew was that me and my wife were really struggling as a new couple. In Triple-A, our chaplain was leading this "Marriage Without Regrets" study. Me and my wife grew so much stronger. We understood our roles with Christ and how individually we would grow stronger and then we would grow together. It's a tough lesson to learn for a young couple.
I'm to a point now in my career, though I'm still young at 28, where I just say, 'Whatever you want. I just do it. If I have to go to Triple-A, I'll have a lot of witnessing opportunities there and a lot of challenges in my faith. Or if I have to go to another team, I don't care. I know I'm still going to be His tool, His blessing. It's just tremendous that He's given me this opportunity to play baseball, and as long as I can play, I'll be His tool.
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