I made my Major League debut for the Boston Red Sox in 2010, at twenty-two, and later played for the Chicago Cubs. I have two World Series rings, with the 2013 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs.
The game asked a lot of my body: fourteen orthopedic surgeries, among them a microfracture in my right knee and a fusion in my neck. Recoveries ran anywhere from two months to sixteen. Much of that time I spent alone, rehabbing while my team played without me. Each one taught me patience, perseverance, and the hardest discipline of all for an athlete: to rest and let the body heal.
When baseball ended, I lost the identity, the purpose and the certainty I'd had my whole life. The next seven years were very hard. I became a Pilates instructor. I stayed curious, read everything I could, and tried things. Then a psychedelic experience cracked something open. It was the doorway into the work I do now, though it would take me years to understand that.
Along the way I built a successful real estate business, met my wife, and became a father to our daughter. I'm also a co-owner of Birdman Bats. Ryan to confirm: Birdman Bats line
Underneath it all, something was brewing. In that experience I had felt the soul of Jesus touch my own, and I wanted to bring what I'd felt into the world. I didn't yet have the groundedness, the discipline or the courage to live it.
With the real estate business carrying us, the calling from that experience asked to be followed, and I finally followed it. Then came the street. Twenty service trips so far: nine to India, four to Uganda, two to Egypt, one each to Tanzania and Jordan, and three across America, plus local service at home in Phuket. A couple hundred beds, nearly two thousand meals, and a tuk-tuk driver named Mohammed who became the backbone of the mission.
I've given my life to service. I believe love is, and always will be, the answer, and I want to help leave a better world behind for all of us.
I speak to teams, schools and companies, I sit down with podcast hosts, and I work one-on-one with people who've been through something heavy and want to build what comes next.
I'm trying to be the person I wish I'd met after I retired: someone who would listen without judgment and help me get the best out of myself, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
"You can tell me anything: an experience you can't explain, a dimension you've touched, a truth you've never said out loud. I will not flinch. I don't judge, and I'll hold everything you say with love."