What the Texas Rangers Do Off the Field Might Matter Even More | Justin Henry | Ep 210

Nobody would have thought that I would be the one.
Ryder, sports talk, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball.
Oh, it's a big mic.
Oh, OK.
All right, yeah.
OK, now I get it.
We're going to lightning strike, boys.
What happened over there, Grego?
We had a little lightning, probably got outside the window.
All right, all right, here's a tip for all these Americana league teams.
Don't do it.
You said tip.
Yeah, tip, OK.
It's a P.
I would keep jamming.
It's a ticket to take a colon, nothing but a big gen X jerk off, say.
This is a little lighter, what?
Although somebody would hear that.
Bullshit.
I'm back.
The really underrated people.
Tom Gribble.
Yeah, that we had up there.
I love that man.
I wasn't like him two bands with him.
That's right.
You were in two bands with him.
Doors and green day.
What was that like?
Awesome.
He's a great singer.
Great front man.
Like he really is.
He's a great guy, too.
Yeah.
He's a great dude.
Yeah, he's great.
He's doing scoops.
Scoops.
He was useful.
One of the more underrated times that we had up there.
So shout out to Tom.
We love you.
Like boy, wherever you are, bro.
He's on KSCS in the mornings with Hawkeye and Mishra.
Oh, he is.
He's the producer, yeah.
Why I didn't know that?
So we won't be able to talk to him, but we can give him a shout out.
You mean they kept Hawkeye up there all these years?
Yeah.
Despite all his stuff.
Yeah, stuff.
He's like one of the guys ahead.
Yeah.
Man.
Wow.
I know.
That's crazy.
Well, here we are.
It's another episode of YDC.
Three in a row.
Shupi is here.
Ashley is here.
Becca is here.
I, I think, I'm here.
And this is episode number which, 210.
And it is Wednesday.
The first of April.
The optional month of April is here.
But you're not wearing shorts.
No, not yet.
You got to ease into this stuff, of course.
Some do.
Well, yeah, I'm one.
I'm one.
I don't observe.
Yeah, I know.
I know you don't know or anything.
You don't ease into anything.
I have worn shorts every month of the year.
What's the coldest it's been that you've worn shorts for?
Uh, 2011 when there was the, the Super Bowl was being hosted here
in a snow that week.
Yeah.
I wore shorts and flip flops to the media party.
That house of rules.
What are we doing here?
I've gotten a little better since then.
That was a choice.
Oh, it absolutely was.
I was going for the bit.
Of course.
Were you hit at the media party with that?
Sure, everybody loved me.
Was that a point of controversy?
Probably.
I'm pretty sure you all made fun of me the next day.
I love each group's over here.
Yeah, well, today we're going to talk about something that I don't know much about that
pertains to the Texas baseball Rangers.
And for those who think that I just automatically know everything about them, you're going to
find out that no, I do not.
There's a whole wing that I know nothing about.
However, we have Justin Henry in here with us today.
And he knows everything about what we're talking about because his title is Foundations
Senior Director of Development for the Texas Rangers baseball club.
Now the first word of that was foundation.
When I hear the word foundation, my next thoughts are all pro-foundation repair.
However, I'm kind of thinking that that kind of foundation and your kind of foundation
are two pretty different things.
That's correct.
We do have the right solution for your home, but it is slightly different than that.
Well played.
Wow.
Yeah.
I was not ready for that though.
Justin's got bits.
I'm here for it.
Well, we got to find out a little bit about exactly what it is you do because when I hear
about the foundation, I know that you're out there doing good work for the non-baseball
side of things and kind of looking out instead of looking in.
You got it.
I guess that's one might be the one way to put it, but I don't know anything about how
that works or what you do.
But tell us a little bit about yourself before we get at that.
Where you from?
Absolutely.
So I grew up in a long view out in East Texas, spent my entire childhood out there, attended
Baylor down in Waco for college, and then came to Dallas right after that.
I worked for a couple of nonprofits doing public relations, figured out really quickly that
I didn't like sitting in a cubicle, and I really liked talking to people, and so changed
tactics, went into the business world, and was a financial advisor for a few years here
in Uptown, then got into fundraising after that.
I got used to talking to people about their money and translated those skills over to
actually doing good with it, which has been an amazing journey, and so I've been a fundraiser
now for the past 15 or so years, worked for university, and then now with the Texas
Rangers, I've been with the Rangers Foundation for the past eight years, so seen some really
good times on the field and off, and had some tough times as well, but it's been an amazing
place to be able to make an impact, and a different context certainly, you don't necessarily
think about the professional sports world being a place where you can truly make an impact
in your community, but you've got these immense resources at your disposal that are super
unique and that are desirable and carry weight with people when you're involved with a professional
sports team, and so it's been a tremendous chance to really dive in with this community
and figure out, okay, you know, we've got these resources, how do we best leverage the
resources of the Rangers to make an impact?
How can we do that and put those puzzle pieces together?
How many people work with you on this?
So we've got a staff of 10 or 11 total, and so that includes our staff at the ballpark,
and then we've got our youth academy in West Dallas, which you've got to come out and
take it to the room recently.
Sure did.
That's nice.
It's an incredible facility, and so this was really nine years ago or so, Major League
Baseball was starting to dream about this model of promoting youth baseball, reviving
baseball in inner cities, and looking to teams that wanted to partner with the league and
with their communities to say, okay, let's have a full-time place that is a physical location
that's embedded in the community where 365 days a year we can pour into these kids, particularly
underprivileged kids, kids from underserved communities.
And so as we went through that process and looked at different locations, the city of
Dallas was a prime location.
We were able to find housing authority land right down off of North Bicker Street, where
there was already non-profit active there with Mercy Street and their sports complex,
and expand a lot on what they were doing already, but create this facility, we spent about
$15 million to build it.
And so it's on par with many spring training facilities, minor league facilities.
It's really good.
It's narrowly nice.
But to give that type of a thing to this community in particular, you know, it first was met
with a little bit of resistance.
As you can imagine, what are the rangers doing coming in here and building this super nice
facility in our community?
And so it took some explanation of saying, hey, we're doing this for you to enable us
to be able to work alongside you to better this community and improve the lives and outcomes
for the kids here.
Not that we're building this facility and then we're going to bring in kids from the suburbs
to teach them how to play baseball and softball.
We wanted them to be able to take ownership of it.
And that's just been an amazing thing to watch how it's grown.
Each year we see about 20,000 kids come through the doors in some capacity.
This year we'll have 30 plus that will go on to play college baseball and softball, and
most of those are first generation college students.
And so you're helping these kids not just learn how to play baseball and softball, but
helping them dream bigger.
You know, sometimes an outfit like the rangers goes into an area like that.
And you do meet with a little resistance, suspicion, skepticism.
How'd you get around that?
Certainly.
I mean, it took conversations and being intentional about saying, hey, we're not here to do any
harm, first of all, but we're here to genuinely be community partners.
You know, we're committing to you that we're going to be here and we're going to be here
for the long term.
And really the reason that I was brought on board shortly after that project went into
motion was to raise money for an endowment.
That's one of the things in my background that I found very enjoyable.
And so basically for the uninitiated, an endowment is a big bucket of money that spins
off enough interest every year that it covers all of our operating costs.
And so that was a promise.
When we raised that money that we were going to utilize those funds that are spun off
from that endowment to keep the doors open at the youth academy in perpetuity.
It's not going to go anywhere.
We're not just going to come in and renovate a field and then be gone or build a court
and be gone.
And that's how a lot of professional sports foundations operate and that's great.
There is meaning to that.
There's impact to that.
But to do it this way is something completely different.
Did you finally, I guess after a while, once you got past all that other stuff, get
a pretty good buy-in from that area down there?
No doubt.
And part of that was due to just opening the doors to the community and saying, hey, y'all
are welcome here.
What do you need the space for?
If you want to come in and have some classroom sessions, if you want to conduct some workshops,
we'll partner with you on that and letting them know, hey, this is a safe space for other
community organizations that are already doing great work here.
We're not trying to recreate the wheel.
We don't want to replicate what's already being done because there are a number of organizations
that are doing tremendous work in West Dallas.
But rather, let us be a resource that can help grow what you're doing.
Since 1991, the Rangers Baseball Foundation has donated over $80 million in college scholarships
and I don't think that's right.
It says $0 million that they can't do right now.
It's 10, slightly.
Okay.
All right.
Let's say, unless you want to fix it, in community grants.
So the $80 million is going to encompass our grant program scholarships and everything.
And so we have, you know, we're really unique, the Rangers from a broadcast perspective.
You know this.
We've got a five state territory, which is massive by land area.
That is the largest by a long shot of any team in Major League Baseball.
And so we have a responsibility to reach into that five state territory from a community
perspective as well.
And so a lot of that, we can't be everywhere.
We recognize that.
We can't build a youth academy in every state, unfortunately, I wish we could.
But we can certainly give money to organizations to support them.
And so it really creates this hybrid situation for us where we are a grant making institution.
But we also do some amazing hands-on work in the community.
And that's kind of another one of those differentiators for us.
If we were a purely grant making group, like a lot of professional sports teams are, then
I would have no interest in being the fundraiser for them.
That I love being involved in every step of the process and being very hands-on.
That's part of who I am and what our organization is really about.
So it's been really fun to be able to take an idea.
My colleague, Ray Cossess, is our program's guy.
And he does a great job of seeing a community need and saying, okay, where can we do something?
How can we help?
Then we'll kind of come up with a process.
Then I'll be able to connect the dots with a donor that I know.
Maybe it's a season ticket holder or sweet holder or sponsor that I know has an interest
in this area.
Yeah.
So we'll go to the dots and say, okay, well, let's go to them and see if they'd be willing
to partner with us on this.
And then we get to implement it.
And I get to actually see and be involved with the fruits of that.
And that's a really unique situation that we're able to accomplish within the organization.
Now people out there listening to this, maybe thinking that this is a guy who's had it
made everywhere he's gone all throughout his life.
But you've got a book.
I do.
And that book tells a little bit of a different story.
It does.
What's the title of the book?
It's called Shameless and it's a real guide to dealing with guilt and shame.
And so a few years back, I took on the task of writing this book because I really felt
compelled.
This was a topic that I hadn't heard a lot about growing up.
I grew up in a very conservative home Baptist church, first Baptist church, long view.
And frankly, when I had adulthood, I didn't have any skills to be able to cope with these
feelings of guilt and shame that all of us feel at some point.
For me, a lot of it was based on trying to, a lot of my behaviors.
Mainly alcohol abuse was focused on trying to escape from those feelings of guilt and
shame.
And I didn't have a healthy way to deal with it.
And so this book gave me an opportunity and I'm not here to promote a book, I promise.
It is a good book, though.
Thank you, Groves.
But it was an opportunity for me to tell my story in a way that was very candid and open
and has really given me the opportunity even at work to be able to come alongside some
people.
We've got a lot of young people at work at the Rangers that are finding their way, that
are trying to figure things out.
And I've got a little bit more gray hair than most of them now.
And certainly have lived through some things.
And so being vulnerable like that has given me an opportunity to really impact my co-workers
in some significant ways.
And so that's been an amazing outcome of that that was really unintended.
That's, yeah, that's really awesome.
That's awesome stuff you're doing there.
Let's say that I wanted to get involved with the Rangers Foundation in some way.
Absolutely.
Tell us a little bit about the mechanics of how that all works.
Now somebody gets involved with the side of the organization that you're a part of.
Yeah.
So, you know, it really does depend on how much somebody wants to get involved, you know.
As the fundraiser, I am always looking for people that come alongside us financially.
But I want to make it beneficial to my donors as well.
I'm not going to try to match somebody up with a project that doesn't make sense for
what their philanthropic priorities are.
Yeah.
Right.
That's something that I care very deeply about.
It's not always the case in the fundraising world.
Sometimes you're just supposed to go and ask for whatever that need is.
But fortunately, they've given me enough freedom or enough rope, maybe, rather, to allow
me to do my job the way that I see fit.
And that's been a tremendous blessing.
So as far as getting involved, you know, our website is texasrangers.com slash foundation.
We've recently just gone through a big rebrand.
We're really proud of it and allows us to tell our story more effectively.
And so I encourage people to go and check out the website, check out our social media at
Ranger's Care.
There are opportunities to give.
There are also opportunities to serve within the Rangers.
And so from an engagement perspective, an easy way for people to come and support the
Rangers Foundation.
It's also really fun as the text Gala.
We've got that coming up on May 7th of this year.
We've got the Zach Brown Band coming in.
We do big dinner on the field at Global I Field, which is really special.
It's an opportunity for people to come and experience being down on the field, get some
great food and drinks.
Thank you, groups.
I appreciate that visual that you're providing for the audience over there.
Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I appreciate it too.
It's the flyer.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
That's our graphic for the text Gala.
Boy, look at Schubert.
He's our goalie.
We're an audio and visual today, and I really appreciate that, groups.
I'm here for you.
And so that's a great opportunity for people to come out, have a great time.
We've got a live in silent auction with some really unique items, as you can imagine,
from the Ranger's perspective.
One of the things that I'm really excited about this year is the opportunity to have dinner
at home plate with the great Chuck Morgan, telling stories for the evening and hosting people
there.
And so we've got some really unique ways to do that.
And we've got Zach Brown Band coming as our musical entertainment this year.
And so you get this experience on the field, but you also get a great concert.
All right.
Here's one real pagan-like question that I always wonder about it.
I love it.
It's great.
I like you.
You ever get tired of asking people for men?
Yeah.
Was that too quick?
Did I answer to that?
I'm sorry.
You said you said you knew what I was going with that.
Mike, how?
You put me in an uncomfortable spot there.
Yes.
No, I mean, really, if I was not as connected to the work that I'm doing, it would be much,
much harder.
What I love is being able to point to the impact.
And so if we have these kids that are going to college from the youth academy for the
first time, we have a big signing day at the ballpark for these kids.
College signing days are a big deal at high schools now.
Sure.
And so we want to celebrate these kids and really put them front and center.
And so we bring them down on the field.
We've got tables set up all the way around the infield.
If you can imagine, we play a video on the big screen of their highlights and our director
down there, Juan, does a great job of talking about each of these kids individually and
celebrating them.
And we invite their families to come out, we feed them lunch.
And it really is a celebration.
And that may be my favorite day of the year, better than opening day to me as sacrilegious
as that may sound.
It truly is because that is an opportunity for us to celebrate the impact.
And that's the kind of thing that keeps me going.
Yes, it can become a grind asking people for money.
But also, I'm in the relationship business.
And my job really is to get to know the people that care about the things that we care
about and find ways that we can benefit each other through giving.
And so it's pretty fun at the end of the day.
Whenever I get down, I remind myself, I work at a baseball ballpark.
And it's pretty cool.
And it's got air conditioning now.
And that's not so bad.
No, that's not so bad.
It is really nice.
Listen, there's not much that's made a bigger difference in my job satisfaction than
having air conditioning at the ballpark in the middle of the summer.
Right after I started, I remember the first time that I was down on the field for a check
presentation.
I didn't know any better.
And so I were, you know, a suit.
I was like, OK, I'm about to go down on the field and present this check to this organization.
And I wore my dress shoes that had real thin rubber on the bottom of them.
And I'm standing out there and I'm like, did I step in gum or something?
My feet are sticky.
What's going on?
No, the souls of my shoes were melting to the turf over there at Choctaw Stadium.
And at that point, I realized, OK, I've got to figure some stuff out here and either get
some nicer shoes that have leather on the bottom of them or just stop wearing a dang suit
to work.
So therefore, I'm in a pullover today.
You know, every time I have a conversation with anybody about the Rangers these days,
it always ends up at the ballpark.
And I tell them, look, I love the temple as much as any 100%.
It was wonderful.
And it's still got years of life left in it.
And I really hate that it's not used by the Rangers, you know, in the way that we always
came to know it.
But that said, I understand why the Rangers did what they did.
For sure.
And the Rangers, I think the Rangers had to do what they did.
Well, I mean, listen, I'm the same way I grew up going to Arlington, Stadium and sitting
on the hot bleachers in the center field.
That was fun.
And when I was eight, it was great.
As I got older and started to appreciate a little bit more of the creature comforts,
I got to realize why my dad was ready to leave at the end of the fourth inning and wanted
to drag us out the door.
And I wasn't ready to go.
So from a family perspective, certainly, you know, I've got two little girls at home.
They are having a great time.
They right now they're excited to come out to the ballpark and eat cotton candy and
see where Daddy works.
And that's awesome.
It's a great place to be.
My oldest one has started to understand the game better now.
And quite frankly, if it was the middle of August and we were at the old place and it was
111 degrees, they're not going to want to be there.
But I think that this gives us the opportunity with our new ballpark to be able to bring
people in, bring families in, and the kids can sit there and enjoy it.
The family can sit there and enjoy it together.
And that's really important in terms of growing the game, ensuring that we have fans in the
future.
If the kids have a great experience, then they're going to want to come back.
Yeah, especially if it's 111 degrees at 9.30 at night and they're at the bottom of the
fourth inning.
Aim into that.
The rangers are down 7 to 2 and they're rummaging through the bullpen right and left.
We both sat through those games.
The rangers did a great job of reading the room and they knew and understood that the
masses really don't have quite the appetite for that kind of thing.
The way they once did.
They did the right thing, man.
It's been a game changer for fans to be able to bring a sweater or a blanket to a game
when it's 100 degrees outside of doing that at the old place.
It sounded insane.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
All right, out of all the organizations that you've been involved with, what's your
favorite?
It is a great question.
There may be too long to question for you.
So let's say who are some of your favorites?
I was going to tell you, it's the one that signs my paycheck.
That's a good one.
Obviously.
No, honestly, this stage of my career with the rangers has been truly the best time of
my life.
And that's in large part due to the people that I work with and the organization itself.
Our team is extremely close net.
I was telling you all a little bit before we are occasionally irreverent.
We have fun.
We treat each other like family.
And there's something magic to that when you actually love the people that you work
with.
And so that's made it a true pleasure to be a part of this organization.
I've been here for eight years now.
It's because of those people.
And I walk down the hall and talk to the people in the sales room or our partnerships
team.
And people genuinely care not just about the product on the field, but about the organization
as a whole.
There are a lot of people that think professional sports is this magical world where if I got
a job there, I would be set.
It is not the case guys, I hate to disillusion anybody that's their dream.
I suspect it's just like any other business.
It is.
It is a business at the end of the day and business decisions are made.
And you will have your good not only that have something that are not so good.
Listen, it's not a nine to five.
Don't know if everybody is aware of that either.
You get some people that will come in and they're like, wait, I have to come in at eight
o'clock and I don't leave until 10 o'clock at night.
And yeah, that's part of the gig, Bucko.
Get on board and get ready to go.
So it's, but it truly is an amazing place to work.
And the organization from top to bottom cares about the game.
They care about the organization.
They care about their community, which is what drew me in.
Everybody who's talking, like Angie.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
No.
And they do tremendous job of leading different areas of the organization, Karen, who's
my boss on the foundation side has been with the organization for 25 plus years.
And it has stayed because she loves doing what she does to make an impact.
And that's to have a leader like that and like Jim, like Angie, that have been there for
that long.
You look around and you've got Chuck Morgan.
You, John Blake still hanging around Blake is still hanging around.
He's working out of a closet right now.
Yeah.
I don't even know what he's doing.
He doesn't even know what he's doing, but we're in our meeting room that's right next
to his closet.
Oh my God, I can hear John talking through the wall, 100% of the time, we'll carry on
a full conversation.
And you don't get that type of longevity in an organization, especially a pro sports
team without something special.
Yeah.
You know, you mentioned John Blake.
He's a guy that we worked very closely with back in the day.
And I will freely admit, he'd probably say the same thing about me sometimes.
He and I were we bumped up against each other and what?
I know that surprises you.
You were probably the reason that, you know, my first introduction to John at the old
ballpark was him walking very fast down the hallway in our offices, yelling explages.
And I was like, oh, that's him.
That makes a lot of sense now.
So it might have been part of the cause there.
Well, sometime back down the road, when we first started or not long after, we'd started
to smell loose.
He's smell loose, by the way.
He's very, very chill.
He has.
Still loud though.
Still very loud.
I've got the idea of possibly having him on the podcast.
And I went around and around with it for weeks, talking myself into it and saying, well,
give it a try.
I can do it, say no.
And then thinking, no, there's no way he would even consider it.
Finally, I decided the day had come.
Let's just bite down, swallow hard, send him a text and let's see what happens.
So I did.
And he changed his phone number.
No, he didn't change his phone number.
He wrote back a four word answer, which I will never forget.
He said, I would be honored.
Yep.
And he came in here and then we did it with him and he was, he was great.
He had him on again.
Yeah.
We've had him on twice.
We haven't.
And he likes it so much now.
He and Evan Grant have their own podcast.
Yep.
That's right.
They took your, your template here.
Yeah.
Just ran with.
They did.
They ran with it.
As many have.
So what's your favorite thing out of all the things that you've done and all the organizations
you've worked with?
If you had to hang up one on the wall, what would it be?
So I think that for most people in our organization, we would point towards the World Series.
I mean, what an incredible year 2023 was to have that legendary run.
Frankly, from the foundation's perspective, it created, nobody told me how much extra
work that was going to be, but also created some amazing opportunities, right?
And so we were able to do more in the community over the past couple of years as a result of
that victory than I would have thought possible.
You know, we were able to host the World Series.
We had a community engagement project during that.
And then the All Star game in 24 following that up immediately afterwards was just a really
unique opportunity.
We spent well over $5 million throughout the All Star game period in order to build our
community up.
And that was something that I would say that I'm most proud of is taking those opportunities
and utilizing the goodwill that we had gained as an organization to benefit our community
in huge ways that we couldn't have done without the performance on the field.
And so the two things are inextricably tied together.
It's really unique when the team does poorly.
Obviously, you know, the 50-50 Raffle is a great example of this.
That is a huge fundraiser for us.
We generate almost $3 million a year to go back into the community on that on a gross
basis.
So 1.5, you know, half of that will go to the winning ticket, half of that goes to the
Rangers Foundation.
1.5 million is a lot of money that we can do a lot of good with.
But when the team's not performing as well, there aren't as many fans in the seats and
you can't sell tickets to empty seats.
And so that creates some, you know, some difficulties.
And so we are dependent on the team in some ways.
But also having that endowment that I talked about earlier, that back stops us and says,
okay, all of our overheads covered, that allows us to focus in and be really intentional
with our community in terms of what we engage in, how we give money, time, resources.
And, you know, fortunately, our organization top to bottom does care.
You know, you talk to Chris Young, he's going to mention the Rangers Foundation as part
of what makes this organization special.
And our players are engaged, you know, that's always interesting to feel out, okay, where
do the players lie on philanthropy, you know, giving back to their community?
We've been really blessed to have some really strong leaders in the room in the clubhouse
for the past several years that have set the tone for that.
We've still got several of those.
We've got several new guys that I'm really excited about what they're excited about
and finding ways to get them engaged with the foundation.
So it's super unique from that perspective.
This is Justin Henry.
He works with the Rangers.
He's the foundation senior director of development of the Texas Rangers baseball club.
We'll have more with Justin momentarily here.
If you need to just relax and unwind for a couple of seconds and let me do what I got
to do, you can.
Sounds great.
But we'll be right back with you here in just a minute.
Right now though, for you out there, it is time for the dreaded and feared mid show
read.
All right, let's start off with the CBD House of Healing.
Can we do that for you?
If you were walking around in pain in this world like I was not too terribly long ago, you
need to do what I did to make that pain better.
Put a pinch nerve in my neck and it was causing me a very serious amount of pain.
I've been very lucky in my life.
I've lived a long life, mostly pain free life, but this was some of the worst that I've
ever experienced and I didn't know what to do about it.
I tried this.
I tried that.
None of it worked.
And finally, I thought, you know, you might as well give the CBD House of Healing a try.
I had the wrong idea about it for a while.
I thought it was something that it was not, but I went it down there and talked to him
about it.
I talked to Summer, their owner, who is also a registered nurse, by the way.
And she said, why don't you take this and put some of this on it and see what happens.
This is the House of Healing full spectrum sad stick.
So I did that.
I would put it on before I went to sleep at night.
Even within a matter of days, I was feeling much, much better.
And now I don't know if it's going away, but it doesn't hurt anymore.
Now if they can do that for me, they will do it for you too.
There's no reason for you to walk around this world in pain when you got the CBD House
of Healing standing by ready to help you.
All you got to do, go in, talk to them, find out what they've got, find out what they
can do for you.
If something's wrong, there's a chance that there's a chance that are a good chance.
In fact, that they can give you something to make it better.
The CBD House of Healing is located at the corner of Northwest Highway and Plano Road
and the northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection.
We were down there just yesterday, in fact, to see what was going on.
And they are there.
They are still doing their thing, no matter what you might think, no matter what you
might hear out there.
They are still there and they will be glad to help you out with whatever is wrong with
you.
Go by there, tell them you heard about it, about it from us.
Here on Little Your Dark Companion and start your healing at the CBD House of Healing.
Next.
We got one more?
Thanks a lot.
Okay.
All right.
Next, we must talk about the Eric Nadell birthday benefit concert.
Eric does this every year.
They're celebrating their 14th edition this year.
And what he does is he goes out and gets two of his favorite bands.
Now, I don't know if you know about anything, anything about Eric's musical tastes, but
they are very, very eclectic and they are well, well beyond the mainstream.
And they're always, always good.
This year, Brooklyn based Sammy Ray and the friends and Bay Area favorite Chuck prophet
and the Kumbia shoes will be playing.
The date is May 14th.
The time is at 6.30, Showtime is at 7.30, the place, the legendary Longhorn Ballroom.
Now I would recommend that you get there early.
I was at the Longhorn Ballroom myself or something, not too terribly long ago.
If you are any kind of music historian, especially if you're into country music, you will get
swallowed up by the pictures, the memorabilia and the historical stuff, one of a kind stuff
that they have at the Longhorn Ballroom.
This benefits, supports the work of the Grand Halliburton Foundation.
That is a local nonprofit that provides mental health education, training and support to
teens and families to find out more.
And to purchase tickets, go to grandhalliburton.org slash Eric Nadel.
Sponsor tables and suites are also available.
Come see the YDC gang on the purple carpet at Eric Nadel's birthday benefit, presented
by Haynes Boone and KXT 91.7 featuring Sammy Ray and the friends with special guest Chuck
prophet.
Is that it?
Hell yeah.
Nailed it.
All right.
Good.
Justin approves.
Strong, strong to quite strong.
Listen, you got me wanting to go to the CBD House of Healing.
I've got a compression fracture in my back right now.
Oh gosh.
You ought to go?
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm going to have to.
Maybe if you're good, shoot me a little, give you a little saddle later.
I don't think I've been that good.
Uh-huh.
That's fine.
Um, let's see.
Where were you going with this?
You had something you wanted me to get into?
Oh, the pillars.
Yeah.
Yeah, the pillars of the foundation.
All right.
Tell us about those and what they are.
I assume these are pillars and not pillows, right?
Pillars.
That is correct.
Okay.
Not Pilar's either.
Not Ernest Hemingway's fishing boat.
No.
So as we, uh, as we went through our rebrand recently,
we really wanted to take a look at where we stand in terms of, uh,
the impact that we want to make in the community and redefine it a little bit.
Our mission statement used to be an entire paragraph.
It had ellipses and dashes and it was ridiculously hard to remember,
even as a fundraiser that's in charge of remembering such things.
So we really distilled it down in our marketing team at the Rangers.
We're so lucky to have a group like this that, um,
doesn't an incredible job on the baseball side,
but also partners with the foundation to help us navigate some waters
that we're not as familiar with.
Um, and so their team got together and came up.
We walked into a conference room and they had an entire wall covered
with potential mission statements and we went through those picked different parts
from each of them in the place that we landed, uh,
for our new mission statement is we're here to develop the next generation
to honor those who serve and to serve those in need,
which defines those three pillars.
We've got develop, honor, and serve.
Break those apart a little bit.
Um, the develop pillar really is focused on youth baseball and softball,
youth health and youth education.
So we're developing the next generation, um,
to honor those who serve.
We're looking at our military veterans, first responders,
and the work that we do with them, honoring them at the ballpark,
finding opportunities to work alongside organizations like the USO.
We spent, uh, part of the day, the other day packing bags for, uh,
our service members with the USO, um, for when they're deployed.
And they took, they can pick those up yesterday, actually,
and took them directly to some service members that are being deployed right now.
This was their last night, uh, in the US.
And so they got one of these bags with necessary supplies to kind of transition,
um, to the, to the operating theater that they were headed to.
Um, and then the, the last pillar, uh, is looking at serve, right?
And that is really defined by being where our community needs us when they need us.
Um, that, that is disaster relief.
That's food insecurity.
When we see a need, um, we want to be as responsive as we can.
And it's, it's looked different throughout different stages of, uh,
our community's life.
And so during COVID, for example, food insecurity was a real intense need.
And so we turned the youth academy in a lot of ways into a food distribution center
where families could come, uh, and get some fresh food.
They could pick things up at, at no cost to them.
Um, we've been able to do disaster relief, the terrible flooding in the hill country last year.
We were able to contribute about a $1.5 million to that relief effort.
And, and with the intention that it wouldn't just be a gift now,
but that we would continue to help them rebuild into the future.
Yeah. Um, as, as they're looking forward.
So, you know, based on those three pillars, it's a really unique situation
because it's broad enough that we have a lot of different touch points in our community.
It's not just about baseball and softball.
Um, we understand that there is value in teaching kids how to play the sport that we love, right?
Um, I certainly learned a lot playing sports growing up.
That was an important part of my childhood.
A lot of you are the same way.
Um, but what happens when we're adults?
And so we want to build major league citizens.
That, that is the stated goal of what we do in the youth academy,
what we do through our education programming, providing scholarships.
All of that is geared towards helping kids dream bigger
and then giving them the means to achieve those dreams.
How do people get you involved in stuff?
Does somebody just call you guys up and say we've got some kids out here that are in trouble?
Yeah. Is that how it works?
In a lot of ways it is.
You know, the, the rangers, fortunately, we've, we've got this massive presence.
We've got this, um, platform from which to operate.
And it does open us up.
And so, yes, we get asked a lot, uh, to help.
And we do whenever we can.
Um, we have to be really intentional though about how we manage our resources.
People think rangers and they think, oh, you, you've got these unlimited resources.
You've got a, however many million dollar payroll.
Well, yes, we do.
But that's, uh, also going into the payroll that I can't touch that much.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um, you know, when we sign, uh, Cory Seeger or Jacob DeGrom or, or these incredible guys,
um, that is thanks to our baseball operations group.
That is thanks to fans coming to games.
Um, we operate completely outside that structure.
And so we are a separate 501c3.
We exist underneath the rangers umbrella.
But we are a true nonprofit in every sense of the word.
We have a separate board.
We've got an advisory board that helps us identify some of those needs in the community.
Um, and gives us some insight into areas that we might have a blind spot.
Um, but we do have to be really intentional about how we dole out those resources and,
and try to make sure that they fall within those pillars.
Um, part of the reason that we define those the way that we did is that, you know,
we feel like they are, they give us firm direction, you know, with develop honor and serve.
When somebody comes to us and says, Hey, we have this need.
Well, does it fall within one of those pillars?
If so, then let's explore what that could look like.
Um, if it doesn't, unfortunately, we may not be the right organization to help you.
But let us help you find somebody that can also.
We've, we've got tremendous connections in our community.
And so that's a really fun thing for me to do is say, Hey, you know what?
That's not us, but I've got a friend over here.
Why don't you go talk to them?
That's really impressive.
Like, I almost would have thought, you know, you could just as easily say, like, well, sorry, but buy.
Yeah.
And the fact that you'll do other resources to connect others with other foundations and organizations.
That's really something that's important to us is making sure that people know that we care.
Regardless where they're coming to us from.
You don't make friends and when friends and influence people by not genuinely caring about them.
Yeah.
You know, it takes that genuine investment of saying, Hey, you know what?
Let's have a conversation.
Tell me what the needs are.
And maybe if we can't do it, I can connect you somewhere.
How about that?
That's pretty common in your world.
It is.
Absolutely.
And the nonprofit community in DFW is unbelievable.
It's superior to anything else I've seen around the country.
And the way that people are willing to connect with each other, we're not in competition on the nonprofit side.
I see it very much as we can be collaborative.
Yes, there are in the development world especially when ever you're asking people for money.
There's this idea out there that isn't completely incorrect that there are limited resources that there are only so many donors who would be interested in giving.
That may be true to a certain extent that there are certain donors that are going to want to partner with the Texas Rangers baseball foundation.
That doesn't mean that there are not enough resources out there for everyone to be able to make the impact that they want to have.
It's just helping those families decide, OK, what are your philanthropic priorities?
What are your values?
Does this align?
Does this gift align with the difference that you want to make?
And if it does, great.
Let's work together.
If not, that's OK.
Let me introduce you to my friends at the Grant Hallburton Foundation and find ways to make our community better.
Do you have an organization that you work pretty closely with?
Like when somebody comes to talk to you about something where you don't quite match up with them but you know somebody.
Great question.
Do you have somebody who's like top of mind for you for that?
We do and it's very dependent on the situation but we've got several key kind of nonprofit partners that we work very closely with.
And those are really mission Arlington in terms of making an impact where we live, where the ballpark is.
They have done a tremendous job for more than 40 years and I don't know if you've ever met Ms. Tilly down there but they do incredible work within the city of Arlington with the homeless population with the at risk population.
They've got a medical clinic, all of these different services.
That's certainly not our wheelhouse but we do a lot to help support them and point people their direction.
Make a wish North Texas is another one that does incredible work with terminally ill children helping to fulfill wishes.
We've got wish weekend coming up that we support at the ballpark and all of our raffle proceeds for that weekend.
I believe it's the last weekend here in April is going to benefit make a wish North Texas and help fulfill some wishes for these kids.
My wife was a child life specialist at Children's Medical Center and so those types of causes are near and dear to me.
But there are a ton of different ways that when it's not our area of expertise we want to stay in our wheelhouse.
We want to stay in our lane for a professional baseball team.
We're not going to be health care experts. We're not going to be social workers.
What we are is a professional baseball team and that's okay but let us find ways to still meet the needs of our community.
Kind of on those lines how do you keep track of all the different things you're doing.
I realize that's a very broad question but just knowing how much y'all interact with so many groups and people and all that is just one big dang spreadsheet.
Or do you find sometimes the left hand?
I'm supposed to book two gets a week and I can't even handle that sometimes.
There's a lot of moving pieces in the nonprofit world but our team truly does an amazing job of that.
You know we've got Bethany who's been with us.
So Ray who oversees our programs Bethany who oversees our events and myself all officially started the Rangers on the same day eight years ago.
Bethany had been around as an intern and she's had this amazing growth in her career where she's now managing all of our events.
Does a great job with that and so we've each kind of got our little specialties like I said Karen's been around for 25 plus years with the organization.
She's got this vast institutional knowledge and network within the community of all these different organizations that have been a part of our story with the Rangers.
And so that that team dynamic of really finding ways to put those puzzle pieces together is the key.
It wouldn't happen if one part was trying to do it without the others and I know that I can lean on them for absolutely anything and it's going to get done.
There was a time I suspect when most baseball teams wouldn't have paid a lot of attention to their nonprofit side and to helping out the community around them that they're in.
What do you think this got underway for in sports?
Oh man.
Also a little bit of a loaded potato there, but it's what we do here.
So, you know, we didn't say this was going to be easy.
No, I love it.
Yeah, you're actually going to make me think in this podcast Mike and I appreciate that.
But, you know, I think that sports teams have always in the background had an obligation to their community not just to entertain but to serve.
That should be a core part of a sports teams identity.
At the end of the day, we provide an entertainment product that is of some value.
But if we really want to benefit our community as a business, then we have to explore ways to partner in meaningful ways.
Yeah.
And so I think that it was really a natural outpouring of that idea.
There have certainly been individual players throughout baseball's history, throughout all sports histories who have had pet causes that have been outspoken advocates for different things.
And so as a natural outflow of that, the organizations themselves kind of took on a mantle of, hey, let's give it a platform.
Let's make it official.
And so when I came on eight years ago, really looking around kind of the sports landscape, there weren't many professional fundraisers.
That were doing what I do or what I was invited to come in and be a part of with the Rangers.
Most teams have raised money traditionally through, you know, things like the raffle, through events, getting money from ownership or players and corporate partners.
But nobody had really kind of experimented with saying, okay, well, we want to tap into the resources of our greater fan base and give them the opportunity to partner with us too.
Because that could be really rewarding for our fans to say, hey, I'm partnered with the Rangers Foundation to make a difference in my community.
And that's been incredibly fun to kind of start that process and then watch other teams see the results of it.
They'll come visit our youth academy and they'll be like, how did you do this?
How are you continuing to do this?
And you've got, how many kids graduate and go to college? That's amazing.
We want to do something like that. And so we can help kind of lead the way in a lot of ways.
And one of the things that I've noticed about this organization as a whole is just the desire to be as consistent as we possibly can in doing the right things well.
And that takes a bunch of different forms. It's on the field. It's off the field seeking that excellence.
And for us being excellent as a foundation means having that year round presence where we are not just coming in and renovating a field.
It is wanting to invest in the lives of people in our community on an ongoing basis.
And so that's been tremendous to watch as not just the Rangers Foundation is developed, but as the rest of the league has participated in that as well.
So every team has something like this.
Every team has a foundation. Everybody does it a little bit differently.
Like I was saying earlier, a lot of professional sports teams are grant making organizations.
And so you look at some of our other local teams. They may partner with one or two specific nonprofits.
That's where the vast majority of their philanthropic resources are going.
That's awesome. That's great. There's a place for that.
For us as a hybrid foundation, we felt like it was really important for us to have that full time presence to make sure that, you know, people know that the Rangers care about them specifically.
And not just about a couple of different organizations or even just building fields, you know, renovating fields, that sort of thing.
We believe that our impact should and can go deeper than that.
But yes, a vast majority of professional sports franchises now do have a nonprofit arm in their different ways of doing that business.
If there was one thing that you've done that you would really want to be attached to and that you would really want people to know, hey, I did this.
What would it be? I'd have to say our scholarship programs, especially with the youth academy.
You know, I've talked a couple of times about helping these kids dream bigger.
If we're going to help kids dream bigger, then we have to provide a mechanism for them to achieve those dreams.
And scholarships have been a huge part of our focus over the past three or four years.
We have some incredibly generous donors and sponsors and players that have come to us leadership on the baseball side of things.
This come to us and said, hey, this is something that I want to help with.
I want to invest in these kids because I see the potential.
I see myself in a lot of cases walking through those doors at the youth academy.
And once they've gotten plugged in, they experience that and they say, okay, you know what, I see it.
I see the spark. I see this kid that may have come in and didn't know a dang thing about baseball.
But now he's got the opportunity to go and play at the collegiate level or juco level.
Whatever that looks like, whatever it takes to get them to that next step.
And again, that's generational changing.
It really is. And when you take that approach like that, there's nothing that I can be more proud of than helping to give these kids a brighter future.
Any players ever come to you and say, hey, use me.
100% and we have been really, really blessed with over the past several years, especially people wanting to directly engage with kids at the youth academy.
My boss texted with texts with one of our players.
Why is one of our very prominent players wives on a regular basis and she's like, hey, how can we help?
Is this something that we can do or, hey, he wants to come and do a hitting clinic at the youth academy.
And the answer, of course, is always, yes, of course, we would love to have him come down to the youth academy.
Even if they're in slump.
Even if they're in a slump, listen, there may be something to get Josh Young out there and having him put on a hitting clinic for these kids that could turn things around.
He had a good game today.
He did.
He did. I was happy to see that.
But, yes, I mean, having those players out there, not only reinforces to them, hey, what we do is important.
But for these kids to see a major league baseball player, generally a prominent one, somebody that's been an All-Star,
and an MVP come out there and devote time to them, that maybe the first time that they felt valuable.
Yeah, that this person would come out and pour into them on an individual basis and say, hey, I see what you've got.
And I believe in you.
How much do you all get involved in a player's cause that's maybe already been established?
Like I know, Jake Berger came to us last year.
He was already established with the Down syndrome foundation and all that.
Do you all approach him? Does he approach you or does it kind of just naturally work its way to get there?
That's a really fun part is that a lot of times, especially with new players, you know, that are kind of an unknown quantity.
We get to have those conversations with them and figure out, okay, what makes Jake tick, for example, his daughter's situation and then really wanting to go deep with that side of things.
That's amazing. Let us, you know, help you with that from an expertise perspective, from a resource perspective, as you kind of navigate what this looks like and give you a platform for it through the Rangers through the Rangers Foundation.
And, you know, that is a beautiful way that we can work together.
And so when people already care deeply about something, that's amazing. That's awesome. Let's figure out how we can both work together to benefit our community versus
us being in any sort of adversarial position over it. You know, it would be kind of funny if you were though, you know, in mind.
Their costs are just better. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're like, I don't want to help the Rangers Foundation.
See, only he would think. That's why he's the devil. That's right.
Hi.
Hey, Groves, bring me out now. Thanks, Mike.
I'm going to be looking over my shoulder. I need to sprinkle some salt around me.
I thought the Groves was all wholesome over there. Oh, he had a little bit of, you know, he's got the disarming smile.
The terrific face and everything. Devil's advocate stuff over here.
Is there anything else we need to know about this?
Oh, jump in. Well, jump on back up.
Back up. Back up. Back up.
So people can pass back us coming off the sidelines out of the top rope.
All right, just just ask it. Don't worry about that. Yeah, let's let actually plug in.
We don't have to be that professional. Why start now?
Fair enough. Why start now? It's just a little YDC. We got it.
Oh, dude, nailed it.
Okay, this good. Actually, you're loud.
Thank you. It's too much. He will have been trying for years.
Truth.
This is going to get Ashley really riled up to.
But talking about the these scholarships, getting these kids into school.
The athletic aspect being a bonus to so many kids for a very, very, very long time.
Who otherwise would have no other way to get there.
How much does the NIL affect you now?
Oh, wow, we're going to NIL on this.
Only because we have been informed several of us have different ways that it does affect the college coaches themselves.
And the steps they've got to take before they get to some of these high school kids.
For sure. No, I mean, honestly, the biggest impact that has had on us with our youth academy staff.
Fortunately, we've got some former athletes.
We've got people that are familiar with that process with the NIL with recruiting.
And so the biggest change for us honestly has been advising those families on what that process looks like.
You know, if a kid looks like they have the potential to go and play at the next level, then we are very intentional about meeting with that family and walking them through the process.
And making sure that they understand what this means, what this could mean, that when a coach comes to your house and promises you the moon, it doesn't mean that you're getting the moon.
It means that you have a shot, right?
And so I think that that's been the biggest impact on us.
Honestly, from a donor perspective, I haven't seen any difference.
I think that what we're doing is different enough from what most people are investing in at the college level that we haven't really been hit by that.
Have you seen an impact at all on who is being approached?
Only from the aspect that like their, their coaches who are saying like we had it, we have to go through the portal before we can even start going out and looking at these kids.
So that slowed that down.
The transfer portal certainly has had an impact more so than an NIL.
I think that as kids are now looking at, okay, you know, do I want to go to college and get playing time or do I want to go to college and ride the bench?
That can affect their decision significantly.
And so, you know, we've got a kid right now that went to, went through our Youth Academy program, he's now at UT.
He's got a good bit of playing time, he's an outstanding young man, another one that went to LSU.
And so you've got those high level guys, right?
But then you've got the kid that is good enough to play in college at some level.
But we just need to find the right spot for him.
And so with our staff, with the relationships that we're able to leverage because we're the Rangers and we have a little bit of sway with a lot of these coaches and organizations and schools.
We're able to provide those introductions even at the lower levels of competition.
That's still tremendously impactful.
People aren't going to be able to hear me on this, but in Mike, but there's a lot of people that are kind of like the Matt Carpenter to the World Baseball,
where they don't come out being the best when they come out of college or high school.
It's exactly right.
But they end up going in the 47th round, maybe not for the end, or the 47th.
They go in the 47th round and then they become 10 year, they become 10 year.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, giving these kids an opportunity where they, to go someplace that they can develop, that they can get playing time,
that that's a super high priority for us is making sure that they go to the right place for them.
And we want to make sure that they end up in a place where they're going to develop not just on the baseball field, but off.
And that they're going to get the education that's going to set them up for the future because, frankly, you know, a tiny percentage of college baseball players going to play professional baseball at any meaningful level.
So, really, what are we preparing these kids for? It is for the vast majority of them to go out and have a meaningful career, to be able to elevate what they accomplish with their lives by education.
It's just that that continued if they're able to get past and are still out there when this coach gets through the portal and can say,
hey, let's look at these other kids and what's out there. That could pay for the rest of school.
You guys are able to give them a scholarship. If they go on for a long period of time and are being successful, that could still continue to actually pay for school.
So, yeah, you want to get them there and it is about dreaming bigger doesn't necessarily mean staying on the field professionally, but it does mean having that opportunity.
And so, that's why those things have like really started to creep into a lot of our conversations.
Sure.
It's two things that have really changed about college sports.
Yeah, no doubt about it.
And now you've put Ashley in a mood.
Yeah.
Much, much to Ashley's she grand.
Yeah. She might have already been in a mood, but even more so.
Well, Justin Henry, this has been very enlightening.
I got to tell you, and I think I did tell you at the start that I don't know much about the foundation.
You shouldn't don't understand what you guys do.
How you do it, but I'm coming away with a greater understanding today.
Thanks to him.
I'm really glad to hear that Mike, and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to educate a little bit to talk about something that I'm really passionate about.
I can tell.
Making it making an impact.
You definitely know more than he does about it.
Yeah. Thank you, God.
You do.
All right. He is Justin Henry.
We are your dark companion.
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