If I'm going to dish it out, I'd better be able to take it. If I ask, I need to answer. M-I-Man, ready, serious. The answers to those questions are coming. Welcome to In the Bull Pin with Mark Dewitt, brought to you by developing Contenders Ministries. You're listening to the Fight Lab Feast Network. Thank you for joining us. And look to coming up. I fly forward to right field. She is gone! During the first three episodes of In the Bull Pin for 2026, I have been asking you questions. And it's only fair that I let you ask me the same questions. In the first episode of this year, I asked, Are you mad? Today, I'll let you ask me. In the second episode of In the Bull Pin this year, my question was, Are you ready? You may be wondering the same thing about me. Am I just an old school guy stuck in my ways yelling at the clouds? Or am I truly in school? Am I truly seeking to continually learn? Do I believe the younger generation truly has something to offer to the Game of Baseball? And for that matter to life? Am I ready to address the problems and even debate whether or not some things should even be considered problems at all? Last week, I asked you, Are you serious? Today, the question is, Am I? So let's get started. Am I mad? Now, if you listen to that episode, or even I think the second one I brought it up again, when I asked that question, it was in a twofold way. I was asking, Are you angry? That was one aspect of mad. The other aspect is, Are you mad in the sense of being outside of your mind? Well, let me answer those questions, or that question in the twofold way that it has been expressed. First, I am not angry. I am not bitter. I am not disgruntled with the game or those who play it. I am disappointed in some of the things I see. I am definitely concerned about some of the directions. I'll use the plural that I see the game headed and that's true at all levels. Now, though my mind isn't what it used to believe, I don't believe I'm holding to views that are outrageous or harmful that I'm outside of my mind. That said, the fact that I haven't broken out this clip yet in 2026 could possibly be an indication that I am losing my mind at least a little bit. Don't ever think that this game is about you. Like Hall of Famer Robin Yount, I believe that exhortation is fundamental, foundational to our approach, to our thinking, to moving in the right direction. I am most definitely ready to remain in school, to consider ways to better develop players, again at all levels, to win games and to win championships. I do firmly believe that the so-called old heads and the so-called young guns have much to learn from one another, and also much to be aware of about being either old or young. Every week, as I'm following the game and I'm looking at what's happening, I see ongoing, I guess I will call it correspondence. I cannot call it a conversation for a twofold way. It's usually in writing, but also it's not a conversation. It's correspondence, and that's probably a kind word. And what I see again and again week after week is a young person or maybe a group of them who never played the game professionally at all, being obnoxious and disrespectful to an older man or older men who did, including those who were perennial all-stars, including those who are in the Hall of Fame. This past week, I saw it especially as it regarded, Kurt Schilling and people corresponding with him about pictures and pitching. The Lord tells us, rise up before the grey headed and honor the aged. And in that same verse in Leviticus, he commands us, you shall revere your God, I am Yahweh. So, respecting and honoring the aged is very important in the eyes of God. Improvers were told that a grey head is a crown of glory, and were also told that the honor of old men is their grey hair. And Paul instructs Timothy, who was a young man at the time, he tells him, do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father. A lack of honor and respect to whom honor and respect is due is a massive problem in our day, in our culture and in our game. Now, does that mean everybody who is old, everybody who played Major League Baseball, everybody in the Hall of Fame is always right, has all of the answers, cannot possibly be wrong. Of course not. However, from my perspective, and I think the biblical perspective, you would have to be a fool to disregard their view on the game and how it ought to be played. Friday night, I watched, I guess you would call it a documentary on Mike Schmidt. And it was very good, I enjoyed it very much. And one of the men that appeared in it on a regular basis was one of his teammates for many, many years, Schmidt playing third base, and right next to him to his left was Larry Boa. Larry Boa has been in this game at the Major League level for half a century plus. Does Larry Boa have every single answer? Is Larry Boa infallible? To ask the question is to answer it. Does Larry Boa have experience? Has he seen and heard and had conversations about things and thought about things more than the vast majority of people that are on the face of the earth, let alone somebody who's not even been on the face of the earth 30 years? I hope that to ask that question is to answer it. Now on the other side of things, do you have to be old to be wise? Well no, you have to be wise to be wise. But the wisest mere human being declared, it is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools. And he reminds us in that same book, the book of Ecclesiastes, a poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction. In other words, he's not in school anymore. Eli who was much younger than Job and his three friends, and yet his anger burned and he finally couldn't take it any longer. And he rebuked the three friends and Job. And he said to these men much older than him, the abundant in years may not be wise nor may elders understand justice. Yet Eli who waited a long time to speak, he listened long and hard before rebuke. He we are told, waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he. Returning back to Paul's writing to Timothy, he told Timothy, let no one look down on your youthfulness. So whether you are old or young, we all are to remember these words, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Saying all of that, I will say this, I heard something in this past week, which gave me great encouragement. I believe it exemplifies very well, old and young together, respecting, honoring, working together. You know, they are just saying like never meet your hero or never meet your idol or whatever. And I think it is so wrong because this has been great. You know, you put that guy on a pedestal all the way growing up. And now I get to be teammates with him and just share kind of the process with him. And something that I will never get over is just every morning when he says good morning, I am like that is a hall of famer. And that will never not be cool. You know, and he is great at my son in there today, he is great with my son and just those interactions. I am like, you don't understand how cool this is to sit in his chair in front of his locker next to my locker. I am like, I don't think he will ever get that means too. So he doesn't understand it right now. But you know, in the future I take a picture, I am like, I am taking a picture of this. Yeah, it has been great. I am excited to continue that relationship. And then obviously kind of how he goes about it is pretty impressive. So I am excited for that. You just heard the voice of Tarrick Scouple back to back, Sy on the award winner is in the argument. Some people would say it is not an argument, but is in the argument as the man who is the best picture currently in Major League Baseball. He said those words on a podcast that is known as flipping bats. That particular podcast is hosted by a guy named Ben Verlander. And Tarrick Scouple was speaking about a man named Justin Verlander, Ben's older brother. So I suppose you could say that he was just kissing up. But I would say there is no chance of that whatsoever. Now I hope I have given you enough evidence that I am not mad, either angry or out of my mind, and also that I am earnestly ready to engage in ongoing education, ongoing conversation, ongoing discussion. I am willing to have a serious conversation, even a debate over something like this. We train them for 100 yard dashes and a sport that demands marathon. I think also these kids are taught at a very young age that velocity is king, not pitch ability. If you are 17 years old and you can throw 93 miles an hour, someone is going to give you $8 million. And then I will take one guy in particular, and I am not pointing him out. Paul Skins, I just love watching him pitch. For him not to be pushed more, I think is not good for the sport, it is not good for Paul Skins. I think about it this way, if we reverse it. If Tom Seever was drafted from USC today, he would be sent to the minor leagues. He would have a pitch count of 40 or 50 his first year in rookie ball. They might get it up to 70 or 75 his second year. He would make the big leagues, and all of his 61 shutouts would be gone. All of his 250 plus innings per year would be gone. He would probably keep to saw young because he would probably in the 6 innings they would allow him to pitch. He would give up zero runs as opposed to maybe one or two runs who wasted an entire generation because we were trying to be careful with something that never needed to be careful with. Are we going to have injuries that take guys out? That is part of sport that always has been. But shame on baseball. Any generation can play the sport any way you want when you have wasted a generation of talent. To me that is a shame. Those are strong words. For some they are fighting words. Those words came from a man who is of the older generation. I believe he is slightly older than I am. A man who spent a very long time as a mage league baseball pitcher. Has since his playing days ended spent a very long time as a mage league baseball announcer. The man is also a graduate of Yale. By now you may know if you did not recognize the voice that was the voice of Ron Darling. What he said in that clip you just heard ought to be given the utmost consideration by people in the game. You may be thinking right now. Okay, do you've answered some broad questions? You've dealt with some general topics. A little bit more particular with those words from Ron Darling. But are you willing to speak to something more concrete, more particular, a hot topic of conversation in mage league baseball over this past week? You may want to ask me, what do you think about Max Clark? Well first of all, I do not know the young man at all. I know that he is a very good baseball player for the Detroit Tigers. I know that he is 21 years of age. I know that he hasn't played a single day in mage league baseball thus far. And I know that he's brought a lot of attention to himself, including criticism by many already in a matter of a week or more of spring training. I can say this. I am not a fan of bling. And Max Clark has, it looks like a couple of tons of bling hanging around his neck. Now, I'm not a fan of bling period. Some people would say he's too young. He hasn't earned it when he's in the big leagues and he performs for an extended period of time. Then he's free to wear bling. I'm not, that's not my point of view. But here's the point. The fact that I'm not a fan of bling and Max Clark obviously is, that in and of itself doesn't make me right and Max Clark wrong. Anyone who like me doesn't like all the bling can express that, can make their views known and many people are. Yet there are others who are defending Max Clark. They're saying something like he needs to be true to himself. How do we settle this? Forget settling it. How do we even engage in an adult conversation about it? Now, Max wrote this on X again sometime in the last few days. And it's a little bit choppy and it's just the nature of X. But he wrote, quote, comfortable in my own skin and always will be. Opinions from those scared to chase their dreams. World needs more love imperfect. End of quote. Now, of course, he is getting criticized by people that not only chased their dreams, but achieved their dreams and spent many, many years playing out their dream and majorly baseball. But again, that's not the point. Now, I looked at Max Clark's X-feed or his bio. And the very first thing that he has in his bio on X is God fearing and then an emoji, I guess, of a cross. So if I were speaking to Max Clark or any player, but especially one who declares that he is God fearing and has a cross next to those words, I would ask this question. What does this love that the world definitely needs more of look like? Right? World needs more love. I honestly don't know if anybody would disagree with that regardless of where they're coming from. But the question I have is, okay, what does it look like? A follow-up question. What does a God fearing life entail? And of course, I'm assuming by now you know that I would ask Max or anybody else by what standard. And if it is slipped your mind that I've yet to answer the final question, are you serious? It's possible that's exactly what you're asking right now. But in this way, come on, dude, shouldn't we leave all this God stuff to be relegated to our hearts, our homes, our churches? I mean, do you seriously believe that how we teach the game, play the game, watch the game, discuss the game, debate about the game, is actually going to be better if we do these things from a biblical perspective? I trust by now you know my answer to those questions. But I want to read some words that I read this past week in a post sent to me by Dr. Andrew Samlin. Just want to quote just a brief portion of what he wrote. Quote, theology can no more be limited to the church or liturgy than the Bible can. Bart and Ivan Jellikols, who follow his view today, practice what Joseph Boot terms, churchyality. They ecclesiasticize the faith and the kingdom. They care little for God's authority in education, politics, music, science, technology, and entertainment. In the culture outside the church, that is in the fuller kingdom. But there is a better way. The church shouldn't simply be training quote unquote full-time church workers, but encouraging Christians to develop a distinctively Christian worldview, and apply it in the field to which God has called them in their nine to five vocation. The goal of the kingdom is to capture and reorient every area of culture presently in the grip of sin. That is in Satan's rebellious sub-kingdom within God's righteous kingdom. This task is obviously much larger than the church end of quote. Dr. Samlin didn't mention baseball as such unless he kind of subsumed it under entertainment. And that's disappointing, but sanctification works in different degrees. People, that's a joke. Obviously, Dr. Samlin is a very godly and wise man. But here's the thing, though he didn't use baseball directly, I guarantee you that I inserted it. He'd say, yes, I'm talking about that too. And they apply to our national pastime. And yes, I am very serious about declaring that truth on this podcast or anywhere else I have that opportunity. I hope that today I have adequately answered all three questions I previously asked of you. But now I have another question for you. If you are a Christian and you are involved with baseball in any capacity at any level, are you striving to develop a distinctively Christian worldview and then to apply it to the field literally to which God has called you? If not, there is a better way. But that's a conversation for another day. Join us next time for In the Bullpen on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Thank you for listening. .