S5 | Ep. 53: Ozzie Smith, Top 50 MLB Players of All-Time
Live Inspired Podcast with John O'Leary
John O'Leary
4.9 • 672 Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2017
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Hard work and applying yourself to be the very best you can be everyday: That is what life is all about."
Today my boyhood hero joins us. Introducing him as a friend is a dream come true.
Ozzie Smith is a 13-time, MLB Gold-Glove-winning short stop for the St. Louis Cardinals. When I was burned as a 9-year-old, Cardinals' announcer Jack Buck promised me John O'Leary Day at the Ballpark when I recovered.
At John O'Leary Day: I got to meet Ozzie for the first time. This summer, on the 30th anniversary of that day, Ozzie and I reconnected. Join me and Ozzie as we talk about humility, being a role model, baseball and how each has allowed him to lead an inspired life.
SHOW NOTES:
- "People are looking up at you, they are watching. Give them an example that is worthy. Make sure you leave people better when they walk away from you then they were when they walked towards you."
- Watch Ozzie interview John on Cardinals' Insider here.
- From growing up in a single-parent home, to being the only African American player on his minor league team: Ozzie shares the greatest lesson he learned repeatedly in life: You are only going to get out what you put in.
- Hard work, applying yourself to be the very best you can be everyday is really what life is all about. It comes from within, you gotta have that drive within you.
- You gotta be able to kick doubt out.
- Failure wasn't an option. No matter what I came up against, I had to strive, to work hard to make it. I didn't know what making it was. But I knew that if I was successful, it would make life better for my family.
- Winning is being able to help your team win psychologically. You give them confidence by being there.
- Today, Ozzie is passionate about the PGA Reach Program.
OZZIE SMITH'S LIVE INSPIRED 7
1. What is the best book you’ve ever read? Charlotte's Web, one of the first books I ever read that I really enjoyed reading.
2. Tomorrow you discover your wealthy uncle shockingly dies at the age of 103; leaving you millions. What would you do with it? Kickstart the PGA Reach Program. Finding ways to help people who are less fortunate, John, because there is so much that can be done.
3. Your house is on fire, all living things and people are out. You have the opportunity to run in and grab one item. What would it be? Rawlings gave me a trophy that has each year I won a gold glove. That would be the one thing I'd grab for my grandkids; something they could look at and refer to who their grandpa was.
4. You are sitting on a bench overlooking a gorgeous beach. You have the opportunity to have a long conversation with anyone living or dead. Who would it be? Jesus Christ that would be great; to sit and have a conversation with him. My first question: Why are we where we are, what happened?
5. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? Be the best you you can be. That's as simple as it gets. if you adhere to that, good things happen.
6. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself at age 20? Get involved in the tech world. It would give you the entree to do so much more for the world. You could do so much good.
7. It’s been said that all great people can have their lives summed up in one sentence. How do you want yours to read? You were such an important part of my life! Watching you play baseball with my family - that is what we did. We enjoyed watching you and you brought us such enjoyment. It doesn't get any greater than that.
***
If you enjoyed today’s episode: Subscribe (automatically get new episodes), rate & review (help spread the word!) this podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
I can’t wait to see you here next Thursday! Today is your day. Live Inspired.
Live Inspired with John everyday on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and get his Monday Motivation email: www.JohnOLearyInspires.com/Monday-Morning
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Live Inspired podcast with John O'Leary. |
| 0:10.0 | John is the number one national bestselling author of the book On Fire. |
| 0:14.4 | He's a world-class inspirational speaker and he's the host of the Live-inspired podcast. |
| 0:19.5 | John interviews extraordinary individuals on their life story so that you can wake up from accidental living and more fully live your life story. Here's your host, John O'Leary. |
| 0:32.3 | Well, hello, my friends. Welcome to the live-inspired movement. This is John O'Leary and on every live inspired podcast episode, |
| 0:39.2 | I have amazing guests join me to share their stories so that we can wake up from accidental living |
| 0:45.7 | and more fully, more intentionally live out our stories. You're going to love today's episode. |
| 0:51.0 | It's one of my boyhood heroes and kind of a dream come true when I get |
| 0:54.9 | to introduce you to a new friend. His name is Ozzie Smith. He's a gold glove short stuff for |
| 1:00.9 | the St. Louis Cardinals. He's a Hall of Fame. He was a childhood hero of mine. He's an impact player |
| 1:06.7 | in the community today. Before we bring Ozzy on, let me first share with you that if you don't currently |
| 1:13.6 | follow us online through social media, now is an awesome opportunity to jump on board and |
| 1:18.8 | really go a little bit deeper into this inspiration. |
| 1:21.6 | If you want to learn more about our social media, our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., |
| 1:26.6 | go to John O'Learyinspires.com. It's a great way to get |
| 1:31.5 | daily inspiration. On that primary site, you can also view old videos. You can check out the book |
| 1:38.0 | On Fire. It's a number one national bestseller. It's certainly worth checking out if you haven't |
| 1:42.7 | yet seen it. You can learn a little bit more about my speaking career, where we are traveling, where we're going next and what it means to you. All of that is located, kept in one cool site at John O'Leary inspires.com. As a child growing up in the Midwest, my team was the St. Louis Cardinals and my player was |
| 2:03.5 | Ozzie Smith. He was the best player I think in the 1980s for the St. Louis Cardinals. He became a |
| 2:09.6 | not only gold glove shortstop. Eventually, he'd become a Hall of Fame major league baseball player. |
| 2:16.2 | I loved him growing up. Was burned, as many of you |
| 2:19.2 | know, as a nine-year-old, Jack Buck, the great announcer for the Cardinals, made a commitment to me. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John O'Leary, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John O'Leary and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.