Hank Smith: 00:03 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. You know that John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson.

  00:09 John, we are in Alma 8 through 12 this week. I’m going to share a story, but you know it as well as I do, so please fill in the gaps here. There’s this moment in chapter 11 where this man Zeezrom offers Amulek six onties of silver, which must be a lot, right? Six onties?

John Bytheway: 00:30 I guess it’s a lot.

Hank Smith: 00:31 Yeah. If he will deny the existence of a supreme being and Amulek does not take him up on his offer. The story I wanted to share is about McKay Christensen. John, I know you know this story. McKay Christensen was an incredible athlete and maybe he still is. McKay, if you’re listening. He was highly sought after by colleges, both in baseball and football.

  00:55 He held California state records in both sports. Absolutely incredible. But John, there were many professional teams that wanted him to skip college and come straight to playing professional baseball. Now, can you imagine being a senior in high school, you’re 17 or 18 years old, and you’re getting offers from professional baseball teams?

  01:19 I remember hearing his dad say that he was helping him through this as they’re offering him this much money and this much money, and he came to the point where he had to tell the teams that were trying to pick him up that he was going to serve a two-year mission, and many of the teams went away. They thought, well, that’s not for us.

  01:39 But there was one baseball team who really wanted him to come play for them. I think his dad said something like this, that they’re both on the line. And this baseball team manager, I guess, or owner says, “Tell you what, instead of serving your mission, come play baseball and we’ll make that your mission. We’ll talk about your religion as a member of this team.” And just to sweeten the deal, John, he says “I’ll give you a 1 million signing bonus.”

John Bytheway: 02:12 And this was a while ago, too,

Hank Smith: 02:14 Back in the ’90s.

John Bytheway: 02:15 Yeah, that’s what I spend to fill the Sequoia today. But yeah, keep going.

Hank Smith: 02:19 $1 million. John, can you imagine? You’re 17. You’re 17. Would you like a million dollars just for signing a piece of paper? You don’t have to go on a mission. You can just stay home and play baseball. Oh, I’m so glad this wasn’t me, John, because I can’t imagine. I would think, oh, I could get that Ford F-150.

John Bytheway: 02:40 Come on, Hank. You had talent scouts after you, you know that.

Hank Smith: 02:44 I had so many. Then if I remember right, his dad actually started to weep as he tells this story, where his 17-year-old son on the phone with an owner of a professional baseball team says, “That’s awfully gracious of you, sir, but my mission’s not for sale.”

John Bytheway: 03:06 Amazing.

Hank Smith: 03:08 Unbelievable moment for a young man. That’s awfully gracious of you, sir. But my mission’s not for sale. Well, John, you know the rest of the story. McKay goes and serves a mission in Japan. He’s drafted anyway as a missionary. He’s drafted and something only McKay Christensen, maybe it’s only happened to him ever. He gets traded while on his mission. Can you imagine?

  03:34 “Hey, by the way, you got traded today.” “I did?” He comes home and he still plays baseball. Right, John?

John Bytheway: 03:41 Yeah, he does. In fact, I’m looking at his baseball card right here.

Hank Smith: 03:46 That’s awesome. McKay, if you’re out there, you can correct any of the mistakes we made.

John Bytheway: 03:50 Yeah, I know this story, Hank, and while he was on his mission, he got up in the middle of the night to sign baseball cards, and I have one of them. And it says something on the back that you will not see in any other baseball card in the world probably. It says, “Christensen made a commitment prior to signing with California. Therefore, he will begin his pro baseball career when he returns from his Mormon mission to Japan in 1996.”

Hank Smith: 04:16 That is awesome. Now, John, I know that you know that story because I got it from your book, Sports: Life Lessons from Court Field and Gridiron. If anybody wants to pick that up, you can get it at your local DI.

John Bytheway: 04:32 Desert Industries because it’s out of print.

Hank Smith: 04:34 John and I have our own shelf there.

John Bytheway: 04:37 That’s right.

Hank Smith: 04:37 Desert Industries. Hey, join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re walking through these chapters, Alma 8 through 12 with Daniel Sharp. Dr. Sharp does a great job with these chapters, and then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.