Mom-Grandma-Dennis Rodman Stories

Welcome to the Mike Hartman show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome to another episode. This episode is so special to me because it's so special because I have my mother with me. Mom, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. This is called Giving Back. And we hear people that, that talk about their parents or their mom, but I am probably one of the most appreciative sons that could be on the planet. I was one lucky person. I mean, my mother stood by my side forever. She has always been there for me. She did it with everything I did. Not just sports, but everything in my life. So I thought by starting out this series called Giving Back. I am happy to have you with us, Mom.

Well, thank you.

Now we are going to talk a little bit about grandma. We will start with grandma because talk about giving back. I mean, there is somebody that worked on her feet as a waitress. We grew up in Oak Park, Michigan, middle class area. All she did was give back, especially for the holidays and holiday gifts and everything she did. She'd work at the restaurant all day long and grandpa would do the same thing. I mean, is that, I mean, we miss her so much. Share a little bit about grandma.

Oh, she was wonderful. She was my best friend. I could tell her anything and she would tell me the truth. She was very honest, very, very caring and she was crazy about my children.

Well, do you remember what she did with the basketball player Dennis Rodman?

She took a picture. We were at the hall of Fame in, I think it was in West Bloomfield. No, Southfield, Michigan. And she stood next to him and he was tall, really tall, and she's short. She was only 4 foot 8 or 9. But she definitely wanted to be there in the picture.

Well, not only that picture, but back then, but I remember Dennis walked into the restaurant and Dennis expected to be waited on and grandma had a rapport with everybody. And Dennis said, here, excuse me, come on over here, I'm going to order. And she goes, you're not going to order. I'm not going to. We don't swear on our podcast. You're not going to order blank and you're going to wait, Dennis, like everybody else. I don't care if you Guys won the championship here or not. You're going to wait. And that was great. He just laughed and that's how Grandma was.

Yeah, she was great.

Now we talk a little bit about Grandpa and we'll talk a little bit about sports. He didn't like anything with Detroit. He didn't like the Detroit Tigers. He didn't like the Detroit Red Wings.

No. Yeah.

Well, tell us why.

Well, he was born in New York and all his favorite teams was the New York Rangers. The baseball team.

Yankees, Dodgers. Brooklyn Dodgers.

Yeah, the Yankees. No, the Yankees. And a lot of times I come over and he loves sitting on the back porch with the TV watching the Yankee game. But it was his favorite. And hockey too.

Yeah. And it's so sad. And I know you believe in psychics, and I never did up until probably the last five or six years. And I have my own story for that. But you love psychics. I mean, that's something that you've always done.

Well, what really happened was I was working in a beauty salon and the girls were going to a psychic and I'd never been to one in my life. And this psychic was in Windsor, Ontario, which is very close to Michigan, where we were. And we went to his house and he told us things that are going to happen. Of course I didn't believe at the time, but whatever he said came true. In fact, he worked for the Windsor Police station finding missing children. And I had several different times I met with him and I couldn't believe, believe he's the only one. It was like, how did he know these things going to happen? And they did.

Well, this leads me into Grandpa because he kept saying, I don't know if he understood. He kept saying, so, Michael, when are you going to maybe play for the New York Rangers? And I said, grandpa, it doesn't work like that. I play for the Buffalo Sabres and I'm really happy there. And I kid you not, a few years later, Neil Smith, who is one of my all time favorite people, was with. He was with the New York Rangers. And Neil said to me, I was in Buffalo. He says, maybe our paths will cross one day. And what happened was the night that grandpa passed away, I had a fight in Madison Square Garden. So Tampa Bay was playing New York and I flew out after the game to the funeral. It was devastating, it was tough. I wasn't able to say goodbye. And then shortly after that, that year, he passes away. I get traded to the New York Rangers. That's when I started believing in everything you were saying with the Psychic stuff, because I was never really one to believe.

Yeah, I could tell you a story that happened as far as that goes. The psychic told me I would get a signal that my father was there. And so one night, I couldn't get the game on my tv, so we used to go to a sports bar and watch her game. And when I came home, I was alone, and I said, oh, I wish. I wish my dad was here just to see Mike. All of a sudden, the tv, you were on the ice, and it started jumping like crazy. I said, this can't be. Something's wrong with my tv. But no, when the next group of guys went on the ice, the TV was fine. And then again, it happened only when you were on the I. So I guess that was my signal.

Yeah. So I have to believe in it, and then I have to share a story. And people could sit back. You could ask my girlfriend Cheryl. I can't exaggerate this, but there was two times a year he didn't want me to play. We didn't grow up religious. But he says, please take off two times. I said, grandpa, I'm not a superstar. I can't take off for Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah. He says, well, you know, you should. And I never did. I never. I never did. I couldn't. I mean, being a career fourth line in the NHL, you're. You're fighting to get into the lineup every night. That's not going to happen. So later on, I decide to end my career. I've had enough. After Hershey, you know, after I got hurt really bad and had the stomach surgeries with Colorado, I. It was time to quit and come and be a player coach in the minors here in Charlotte. And that's not why we moved here. And Grandpa said, I want you to look up this family, Laxer. They're from Montreal. And I say, okay. I look him up. He's a hockey fan. He happens to be an orthopedic surgeon. His. His wife is a dentist, Judy. And I knew them. I wasn't that close with him, but we'd talk hockey once in a while. Well, what happens five years ago? I'm in the car. I mean, this is. Charlotte's a big place. I'm in the car. It's Yom Kippur. I'm driving to go let the dogs out at Cheryl's place. We were. She was living in her place. I had my place here. And I had a terrible accident. And look, guess who pulls me out of the car. Eric Laxer, he was walking home from, you know, from the holiday that day, and he pulled me out, Called Cheryl, says, hey, this is Eric Laxer. Now, come on.

Hey.

Anybody in Charlotte could have pulled me out of the car. The ambulance wasn't there yet. Thank God I'm okay. Everything, you know, I'm fine now. There's. Yeah, but it was a bad crash. Ended up going to the hospital. My son met me there. But besides that, a laxer pulled me out. So I'm starting to really believe this, Mom. I mean, you have me as a believer with some of this stuff now.

Well, sometimes the psychic would tell you positive things that will happen, and he also told you not so happy things that would happen. Unfortunately, the unhappy things were told to me. He also had said that my father only had five months to live and that's about how long it was till he passed away. You don't want to hear those things, but they tell you good and bad.

Yeah, and we can't forget. I mean, we had a very close knit family. You know, your brother, both of them were great. Uncle Sheldon was great, but Sherman used to, he worked at the post office. We'd go down and he would say, he'd tell me after school, we're going to go to Tiger Stadium, watch a Tiger baseball game. Or he would take me to Joe Louis arena back then, sorry, it was Olympia, then Joe Louis. And he would say, hey, we're going to the hockey game, but we're not going to go in yet. We're going to have to scalp tickets cheap. And boy, was he amazing. So, mom, you're just, you know, I think we're very fortunate. We have good people in our life and I am probably the most fortunate in the world to be with you. I'm sorry I can't be with you more in Florida, but we do what we can do now.

I love you. I mean, even when you come here, you always seem to surprise me. And the kids knew you were going to come and I didn't know. It's so great to see you whenever I can.

Well, you know, everybody here, it's like when you look at Facebook, everybody has, oh, look at this. This person's doing great. This person, you know, oh, wow, everything looks great. You know, when you're visually looking at the, you're looking at your computer, your phone and say, boy, everybody has such a perfect life and Facebook. But, you know, in all reality, we don't. And I don't have a problem. Remember, we can't use bad language. But if you want to share a crazy story about me, something, maybe something stupid I did, let's conclude with something that's going to maybe make people laugh because it can't always be. Listen, I wasn't the easiest kid growing up, so I know that there was.

A time you wanted to skip school. And I said, why are you not going to school today? And you said, well, Bobby or is going to be at the Oak Park Ice arena, and I am definitely going to see him. And you went and you went and I think they took a picture of you. You were in the newspaper. I mean, I wasn't even aware of why you were skipping school until it happened.

Well, well, that type of thing. I mean. Yes, and that was funny. I was in the paper and I didn't even get in trouble for that one. But there were times where I remember and people probably think, no, I was not a deviant, but I wasn' afraid to stand up for myself. I had two fights in school. One that was. Was really bad. And the other one after school where I think I was fighting some kid. I can't remember even remember his name. I was fighting him on top of your Grand Prix in the car and you're breaking up the fight like so we. I guess up until probably sixth or seventh grade, I wasn't. I don't think I was a bad kid, but I probably wasn't the easiest kid. I have to have people know the. The real truth.

You were a hyper kid, let's put it that way. And you were always doing something. You couldn't sit still for a minute. And so, yeah, you had to do things. That's why you got into sports and it kept you busy.

Yeah, well, now I'm accused of. Of being too laid back. I don't know what happened. Who knows? But. But anyways, mom, you know, this is like a little, you know, just kicking this off for. For the Mother's Day, and I just. There's. I. I really wanted have you on. We hear, we tell a lot of stories and we do stories. The mindset and champions and I just. I love you with all my heart. And I. I knew you would be good. You're a good interviewer. I could say one of the best here. And anything else. Anything else you have to say?

As I'm sitting here in this room, I'm looking at a picture that you gave me for Mother's Day. You were sent down from Buffalo and what was the city you were in? And you saw Rochester, right, Rochester. And you saw an artist in the mall. And you had a picture of the three of you and me. And you thought that would be a great Mother's Day gift. Well, it really was. And I have it hanging up right in front of me. I'm looking at it right now. And I keep all your memorable things. I have all your trophies and I have all your everything saved. All the pictures, all the articles. As a matter of fact, going in my garage, I have newspaper articles of you. When you were in Sweden. You were only 12 years old. You had a big tournament then, and that was quite an experience. We were there. In fact, you were supposed to visit the Queen because your team came in first place, but two boys were going back to the United States. And I could tell you stories about that trip, but we don't have time to go into that.

Yeah, I remember you fell. Did you fall on the ice?

Oh, my God, yes. They said there was a boy injured from the United States, and we were the only parents there that represented the United States. And it was 50 degrees below zero. You played in the month of January. I ran outside, I slipped on ice. I swear it's the first time I actually saw scars. And all these people were surrounding me. And I finally got up and I heard they said the boy was okay. I don't remember which one was hurt, but he was okay. Wow.

Well, that's. Well, that's going back a long time. I mean, that's going back a long, long time.

You did get the MVP of veteran.

Oh, but you know, people don't want to hear that.

They believe you. They gave you a fish, a blown glass fish and a stainless steel knife. I guess that's what they're known for in Sweden. But it was quite an experience.

Yeah, it was going back and we were just playing a hockey with the Berkeley Shamrocks and we went to Sweden. It sure was a lot of fun. Well, listen, happy Mother's Day. I love you.

And I miss you.

I miss you, too. And we're going to see you when the world gets normal again and we can get to Florida. It's definitely going to happen. So, love you, Mom. Have a great day.

Okay, you too. Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.

Sam.