What if the same rush that gets you drafted is the rush that nearly takes it all away? Jake Sanford is a professional baseball player in the New York Yankees organization, drafted in the third round — 105th overall — out of Western Kentucky University, where he hit .398 with 23 home runs and won the Conference USA Triple Crown. He's also a Halifax, Nova Scotia native who didn't start playing baseball seriously until age ten, cold-emailed nearly 300 U.S. schools looking for a shot, and worked his way from junior college in rural Nebraska to a Division I scholarship to the pros. We get into how an "innocent" trip to the casino on his 19th birthday with his grandmothers turned into a habit that spiraled once he signed his pro contract, the night in Biloxi, Mississippi that became his "aha moment" — down to $100, up to $3,500, and gone again within two hours — and why he says being a gambler is a lot like being a goldfish: you flush the last bet and move straight to the next one. We also dig into how the gambling ultimately led to his release from the Yankees, the financial reality of minor league pay, how he turned his story into a mission with Epic Global Solutions — presenting to 45 schools last year alone — and his advice for any athlete who might be quietly struggling right now.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Introduction — rehabbing a torn Achilles (twice) and the road back
01:44 — Growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia — hockey, baseball, and choosing a path
03:17 — Drafted 105th overall by the Yankees after starting baseball five years later than most
05:00 — The bad habits he avoided by not starting the game at five years old
08:14 — The “goldfish mindset” — the parallel between athletes and gamblers
08:27 — Cold-emailing nearly 300 schools to find a college opportunity
10:08 — Junior college at McCook, Nebraska — walking on, switching positions, and grinding
14:04 — Earning a scholarship to Western Kentucky University
15:48 — A .398 average, 23 home runs, and the Conference USA Triple Crown
16:41 — The pre-draft process — meetings, workouts, and getting scouted by the Yankees
19:44 — Gambling as normal entertainment — before things changed
21:57 — The Biloxi story — the slot machine, the $3,500, and chasing “that rush”
24:07 — Why athletes are especially prone to compulsive gambling
27:07 — The shame of gambling — hiding the losses, showing off the wins
29:05 — His first trip to the casino at 19 — and how the habit escalated
30:13 — The $600K signing bonus, “feeling invincible,” and living a double life
34:25 — Owing teammates money — and how it started to hurt the organization
36:37 — The financial reality of minor league pay
38:19 — Getting released by the Yankees
41:39 — The Instagram DM that led him to Epic Global Solutions
44:13 — “We're anti-gambling harm” — presenting at 45 schools in a year
46:36 — The moments that make it worth it — student-athletes coming forward
48:53 — What's next — Team Canada, the 2028 Olympics, and a possible coaching path
50:50 — Jake's closing advice: ask for help before it gets too late
🤝 CONNECT WITH JAKE SANFORD
Mike Huber (00:00.834)
My man Jake, what's going on? Good man. It's great to see you again. How are things for you?
Jake sanford (00:02.933)
Not too much, how you done?
Jake sanford (00:08.086)
Going good other than rehabbing a torn Achilles. So it could be a little bit better, but yeah, it's it's going pretty good.
Mike Huber (00:13.73)
Yeah, that's a pretty rough injury. When did when did it happen?
Jake sanford (00:17.216)
So it actually happened twice this year. the first time in January and then the second time three games into my baseball season at the beginning of May.
Mike Huber (00:26.828)
Okay. So you did it in January and then five months later you came back and you retoured it.
Jake sanford (00:32.457)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (00:34.232)
How did you get back so fast, I guess, is like
Jake sanford (00:37.206)
It's just the rehab was going well, everything was going well. Swing was feeling good. but yeah, it was the my first two games of the season I had a couple of hits, got the first base and everything, everything felt good, and then the the third game, just getting out of the box, I felt the same the same kind of snap I guess, and I knew it wasn't good.
Mike Huber (00:42.028)
Mm.
Mike Huber (00:56.6)
So now what's what what's the timeline for recovery based on injury?
Jake sanford (01:01.311)
probably so I had my surgery in May, my second one, and then I'm not gonna try to play this year again. I w don't wanna re injure it, so I'm gonna I guess until April next year, but take it slow and get everything ready to go for next year.
Mike Huber (01:09.038)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (01:16.45)
Mm-hmm. Sounds like a sound approach, probably hard to do. I mean, we could talk more about that. But so I don't want to meander too much, but I I asked Jake to join me on the podcast. So Jake and I are are friends. We know each other from a past life, my past life, his current life. Jake's a professional baseball player. Jake's a responsible gambling gaming advocate, and just an all-around really good guy. So I wanted to bring him on the podcast and talk about his story. So
Jake sanford (01:21.094)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (01:44.632)
Kinda with that background, Jake, why don't you just like share a little bit about yourself where wherever you want to go with it?
Jake sanford (01:50.206)
Yeah, for sure. as you can see is my hat. I'm from Canada, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. And yeah, I grew up playing all the sports in the world. everything, especially hockey, baseball, and volleyball. being from the same hometown as Sydney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, hockey was a pretty big thing for us. But had to have something to do in the summer. So I decided to start playing baseball. And then as as my as my career progressed in baseball as I got older.
Mike Huber (02:07.48)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (02:17.447)
I found out that I was better at baseball than I was at hockey and volleyball, so I decided to keep continuing that on.
Mike Huber (02:21.42)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean I I imagine being a kid from Canada, it was probably a hard decision ultimately to make to leave hockey behind and then stick to baseball exclusively.
Jake sanford (02:34.363)
sure, yeah. Cause our baseball season here, especially where I live on the East Coast, it's only about two or three months long each year. So I joke when I when I went to college, that I was probably about two thousand, two thousand bat at bats behind these guys that are there that are living in the States and playing all year round. So it was it was an adjustment for sure.
Mike Huber (02:51.052)
Yeah.
Well, I I mean I definitely want to talk about that, right? Like that idea that you started probably later than most. You had a lot less experience, a lot less reps playing the game, but ultimately got to really, in essence, the highest level of baseball, right? So, like at at what point, and we talk about that, Jake was drafted by the Yankees. What was it? A hundred and what? Yeah, a hundred and fifty-third. So a kid who came from Canada playing hockey.
Jake sanford (03:17.212)
Fifth overall in the third round in twenty nineteen. Yeah.
Mike Huber (03:22.796)
Started playing baseball when he was. How old were you when you started playing baseball? Yeah. Started probably five years later than most American kids, was playing two months out of the year instead of 10, and ultimately got drafted in the third round, 105th overall. If nothing else that you get from this podcast, if you're listening, that's a really important message. Like, hey, you don't have to be on that track where you start at five and you play all year round. You can, you know, get to where you want to go on a different path.
Jake sanford (03:26.417)
I was probably ten.
Mike Huber (03:52.79)
Right. So then like at what point did you decide, hey, I'm gonna leave hockey behind and I'm gonna just stick with baseball?
Jake sanford (03:59.877)
I think it was I was in grade eleven and I decided like I wanna go play college sports, I wanna play university, I wanna do something after high school, obviously. And I think baseball gave me the best opportunity. I did actually have a full ride scholarship for volleyball in the university here in my hometown, but I I would decided to bet on myself and I wanted to go play some baseball. but I think what we were talking about earlier with like starting a little bit later.
Mike Huber (04:06.934)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (04:29.326)
I think that kinda helped me a little bit because I didn't create those bad habits that some of the younger kids create and they can't get rid of as they get older. they just keep going back to that same path. So I think that kinda helps with like so some of the less games actually help me and compared to playing more, I guess.
Mike Huber (04:45.996)
Yeah. I mean, can you think of an example specifically from a baseball perspective? I would imagine you're talking about your swing, right? So like what what are some of the habits that you feel like you were able to avoid by not starting so young?
Jake sanford (05:00.239)
my pitch selection was pretty good. So I think that was that was one of the big things was being able to see which pitches I could actually drive and like taking the the right pitches I could actually hit instead of like, this is a strike, but I can't do much with it and stuff like that. and then as a I was as a Canadian, there's a lot of left handed hitters. especially with golf and hockey. That's why we all sh that's why we all hit left handed, but I throw right handed, so it's a little bit different. but
Mike Huber (05:07.534)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (05:25.144)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (05:28.941)
Yeah, it was just kind of like a learning learning curve, learning experience and my swing was pretty erratic growing up. So I kinda toned it down a little bit and then got to where I needed to be and then that's where I I fall back into the basics all the time.
Mike Huber (05:42.604)
Okay. But but I like what you said about pitch selection because I I would have to imagine, and maybe I'm, you know, sort of extrapolating a bit here, but I I think, you know, what you what you described there is is being process focused, right? Like I'm making good decisions versus like kids in the US, they start playing at five years old. And it's all I'm gonna say all it's all about I'm exaggerating, but it's all about the result, right? It's all about getting on base, it's all about making the travel team, it's all about statistics and
They're not thinking about the process. They're not thinking about approach. They're thinking about, I gotta get a hit. I gotta generate a result. Right.
Jake sanford (06:17.773)
For sure. Yeah. One of the big one of the biggest things that like my coaches always used to say, it's not always a result. You're you're good if you fail seven out of ten times in baseball. It's a game of failure. like even last year when I was playing, I had probably 50 or 60 balls hit over 100 miles an hour exit velocity for outs. And then I have these little squibblers that are like 40 miles an hour, 60 miles an hour that are for hits. So like
If you do what you're gonna do, you're gonna you're gonna make out better more often.
Mike Huber (06:50.018)
Yeah. And and actually it's a really good example because I work with a lot of US players who are high school kids or are getting recruited and I tell them like the reason why exit velocity exists is exactly that. If I hit the ball really hard over time, I'm gonna get more hits. Doesn't guarantee anything in the short run. So like I'll the what you just said there, like I'll ask a kid when I'm working with them is like, would you rather go ten for ten with ten squibbers or would you rather go for ten with ten lasers, you know, right to somebody.
And that tells me a lot about their mindset, right? Because if you hit the ball hard consistently, in the short run, you might not get the outcomes that you want. But in the long run, right, you it things are gonna start to work out. And and I think, you know, I don't want to jump too far ahead to the gambling piece of this, but like as a gambler myself, right? Like we have the same experience. Like I used to think to myself, well, if I'm playing blackjack and I follow this process, right.
Jake sanford (07:25.535)
Sure.
Mike Huber (07:39.618)
Long enough I'm gonna I'm gonna see a good outcome because the process, the approach is really what matters, right? I'm following the rules. The problem with that was I let my emotions get in the way. And baseball's the same way, right? Like we let our emotions get in the way. Now we start to swing at bad pitches, we start to we start to overswing, we start to get anxious, right? So I don't want to jump too far ahead to that, but I think there's a lot of parallels between being an athlete and being a compulsive gambler in the sense that we're so competitive and we're so driven.
Jake sanford (07:51.285)
The ship.
Mike Huber (08:09.035)
that we can't a lot of times back off, you know, what we're doing. We'll get to that point, right? So
Jake sanford (08:14.027)
For sure. Yeah. Like I'll add one more thing to that. It's like basically mind of a goldfish. So as a gambler, you think or as an a as a baseball player, you think about that next at bat. As a gambler, you think about that next bet. you flush it. You lose, you flush it and get ready for the next one. Same same kind of mindset.
Mike Huber (08:27.073)
Yep. Yep. Yeah, I never thought about it that I never thought about it that way. And and and so like in grade eleven, you focused on baseball. I heard you say on Todd R. Kell's podcast, The Mental Approach, which I was also a guest on a while back. you know, that idea that you well, not the idea that you reached out to like 300 schools on your own, just cold emails or cold outreach.
to try to create a a a US collegiate opportunity. So tell me about that, because I I love that as a as a mental performance coach and as a parent, like I love the idea that you were looking for going after what you wanted, even though there was no guarantee that you were going to get the result you wanted.
Jake sanford (09:10.994)
Yeah, for sure. I went on a a prospect website and basically uploaded my stats and some video. But obviously stats from here don't really correlate compared to US US stats. So it was it was kind of tough. But yeah, I reached out to almost three hundred schools. I heard back from three total. One division three, NAIA and a and a junior college. And yeah, and then I ultimately made a decision to go to junior college as a walk on. So that still wasn't even guaranteed.
Mike Huber (09:18.976)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (09:28.215)
Wow.
Mike Huber (09:39.19)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (09:39.569)
It was and in junior college back then they would bring in seventy or eighty guys for the fall camp and basically test who who wants to be there. The first two weeks of practice when we got there was there was no baseball. It was all running conditioning just to basically weed out the ones that don't really want to be there. And that was that it was it was different for me because usually going to baseball practice, I'm used to go hitting BP and doing infield, outfield and stuff like that. But no, it was it was totally different just to see who would want to who could thrive in that mindset, I guess.
Mike Huber (09:55.969)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (10:08.309)
Yeah. So so I I wanna I wanna a I wanna learn more about that, right? So you went to a place called McCook Junior College, is that right in Nebraska? So so what did they what was the feedback or what was like their reasoning for bringing you on? Like what did they like about you? Like how did you present yourself that got their attention?
Jake sanford (10:14.258)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jake sanford (10:26.524)
Yeah, they they like the numbers. Obviously, like I said, it doesn't correlate that but well, but they like my size, they like my athletic ability, they liked a lot of stuff, but they already filled all their scholarships for their the year. But yeah, it was I guess they wanted left handed hitters, it was it was left handed hitter park. and they actually wanted me to come in and pitch. I never pitched in my life, but I threw hard. So I came in and I pitched in the fall, but after that I was like, nah, I don't wanna I don't wanna hurt my arm.
Mike Huber (10:43.061)
Mm.
Mike Huber (10:48.834)
Wow.
Mike Huber (10:53.377)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (10:56.049)
I could throw hard, but it's like wild thing. It's like I don't know where it's going. I never pitched in my life really. So it wa it wasn't really it wasn't too big. but yeah, I went there as a infielder. I've only played infield my whole life, when I got there and then I actually got moved out to the outfield, 'cause I was fast. I could track the ball and I could throw pretty good. So that's when I started kind of moving over to the outfield there. I played a little bit of first base during of my time there, but mostly in the outfield.
Mike Huber (11:01.111)
Wow.
Mike Huber (11:12.641)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (11:16.845)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (11:24.929)
Yeah, I think it I think it speaks to what you said before about betting on yourself, right? You made you took a big risk, right? I went to a place that I would never go to in my life, probably, right? But for to play baseball. I have no guaranteed roster spot, right? Like they want me to do stuff that I've never done before, and I'm gonna go and just bet on myself. So, like, what was your mindset making that move from Nova Scotia to Nebraska?
to a place you'd never been before with no guaranteed roster spot. How did you approach it when you know getting there?
Jake sanford (11:57.378)
I just I just wanted to get in there and play. That's all I wanted. I wanted to keep playing. I didn't want to stop playing, 'cause once high school's done here, really, there's senior league, but that's about it. So I just wanted to keep going and get my school as well 'cause that's it that's important too. And but yeah, I think junior college is it's good. As a Canadian too, as well, you don't have to take a SAT to go to junior college. So that's a big thing 'cause in Canada we don't really study for that. So you have to do that mostly on your own. So that's one of the big things as well. And
Mike Huber (12:02.391)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (12:22.721)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (12:27.213)
If you perform well, you can get drafted out of junior college after one year. If you go to division one, you have to wait three years to get drafted. So that was that was another big thing as well. But going to McCook, it was small town, 3,000 people, cornfields and cows, and then JUCO baseball. So it gave me a lot of time to like focus on getting better at baseball. There wasn't like all these distractions and stuff like that. So it was a lot of baseball focus.
Mike Huber (12:51.309)
That's really impressive. I'm sure you and I have talked about that on some level in the past, but like as I think about it now, like the idea that I'm a kid from the the most eastern part of Canada, which is remote in his own way, coming to the US in a place where there's nothing basically but baseball and betting on yourself. Like that's super impressive. And I think that like this will come out as the conversation sort of evolves. Like
And I'm biased because I again I've had this experience, but I think, you know, for a lot of us, especially in recovery, compulsive gamblers are like some of the most resilient people, right? Like you go through, like, think about, and we'll get to like the damage, right? And all the emotional and financial and the wreckage of gambling, right? But like we wake up every day and we're like, there's hope, right? I'm willing to like run into a brick wall, right? Like that, that quality as as
Jake sanford (13:43.435)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (13:45.953)
damaging as it could be for our lives is also a strength if we allow it to be.
Jake sanford (13:50.859)
For sure, yeah. It's it's definitely it's it's it's definitely huge because yeah, like when I was going through the stuff later it was yeah, it was tough. But wake up every day and it's gonna get better.
Mike Huber (14:01.035)
Yeah. So you spent one year at McCook?
Jake sanford (14:04.481)
No, I was there for two, but after the first semester, so the first fall, I ended up getting a full ride scholarship after performing well and then had two good years there and ended up getting a full ride scholarship to Western Kentucky University, division one. So
Mike Huber (14:19.125)
Okay. What what was the process? Like what was the process to get from McCook to Western Kentucky? Like the recruiting process? How did that work?
Jake sanford (14:27.778)
so yeah, just put up some good numbers. So our JUCO was the actually the only region that had wood bats. So the the stats played down a little bit, but the coaches knew what what could happen when we swing metal bats. so put up some good stats and then my my last semester there in the spring, I had multiple coaches reach out, multiple coaches come watch. they had to fly to the middle of nowhere and come watch me play, and that showed like that they had some
Mike Huber (14:42.593)
Yeah no.
Jake sanford (14:56.807)
some feeling about me that they they wanted me to go to their program and then I ended up going on three official visits and then landing on WKU was was the spot I wanted to go. I landed on campus and I was like, Yep, this is a spot for me. Yeah. We had a pretty good we had a pretty good football team when I was there. Bailey Zappi, Bailey Zappi was our quarterback. it was it was pretty good.
Mike Huber (15:09.015)
The hilltoppers. Did you
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Huber (15:19.115)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What what year was that?
Jake sanford (15:23.051)
Twenty nineteen. Eight eighteen, nineteen. Yeah.
Mike Huber (15:24.557)
Twenty nine. You're still young. So how how old are you, Jake? Are you twenty-five? Twenty-eight. Okay. Yeah. So did you spend one year or two years at WKU? Okay. And then you got drafted third overall. I mean third round, a hundred and fifth overall after two JUCO years, one walk on, and a year at WKU. Wow, that's pretty, that's pretty crazy stuff.
Jake sanford (15:29.96)
twenty eight, twenty eight.
Jake sanford (15:35.712)
just one.
Jake sanford (15:48.136)
Yeah, I don't know. It's I kinda got scared at the beginning of the season at WKU 'cause I didn't hit a home run for the first two weeks. So March first I actually hit my first home run and then by the end of March I had seventeen. So it was a pretty good year a pretty good month for for college baseball.
Mike Huber (16:03.895)
You hit seventeen home runs in one month? Damn boy. How many do up in the year?
Jake sanford (16:06.225)
Yeah. ended up with twenty three.
Mike Huber (16:11.329)
Wow, that's a h that's a hell of a month.
Jake sanford (16:13.778)
Yeah, and I hit I was pretty mad. I was my last year in the college tournament, I was hitting three ninety nine. So I was either gonna go to four hundred or three ninety eight, and I hit a line drive to the second base and got out, so I ended up with three ninety eight.
Mike Huber (16:28.705)
Three ninety eight with twenty three homeowns. Yeah, I guess that'll get you drafted.
Jake sanford (16:32.007)
Yeah, I ended up winning the triple crown for Conference USA, so yeah.
Mike Huber (16:35.671)
Yeah, man. So like at what point did you know you were on draft radars?
Jake sanford (16:41.083)
so after that month of March, after I had all those home runs, April came around and next thing you know, I had five meetings a day with the MLB teams. They came into the campus of the the area scouts and we had to do all this like testing stuff, kind of like talk about your family, talk about baseball, talk about IQ and stuff like that. And it was like every test was kind different. but yeah, so I had to do thirty of those in in about a week, two weeks and
Mike Huber (16:51.245)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (17:09.82)
My my brain was kind of fried after that. But that's when I kind of figured out what was going on. And then near the end of the year, two clubs asked me to go to their pre draft workout. So it was the Yankees and the Rockies. They were the ones that were on me the most. And yeah, so I ended up going going out of Tampa after my season and going to the pre draft workout for the Yankees and I performed pretty well.
Mike Huber (17:30.977)
Yeah. How what was it like? I mean, you said your brain was fried, but like how did you how did you handle the pro the pre draft sort of interview process or the evaluation that you were going through there? Like what was that?
Jake sanford (17:41.198)
I just try to stay calm with it. Like I was getting excited, obviously, but didn't want them to see that, I guess. Try to stay calm 'cause it was still during my season, so I still had to perform the rest of my season too as well. So it was but yeah, they were coming out watching BP, watching the games and stuff like that. So I knew there was people watching. It was just it actually made me play better, I think. I like if my like that's like when I play now too, like when my family's in town, I always play better. when I I guess when I when I guess I like to show off when people are in town.
Mike Huber (17:46.348)
Yeah, sure.
Mike Huber (17:50.849)
Yep. Yeah.
Mike Huber (18:00.12)
Okay.
Mike Huber (18:11.053)
But but I but I think that's an interesting point, right? Because I think for some people, typically, when they're being evaluated, it tends to create stress and anxiety, right? But it's a really good example as an individual, and again, as a mental performance coach to a lot of baseball players, like that idea that everybody's different, right? Like for one person, it might be stressful. For another person, I might use that.
circumstance to their advantage, right? They're able to reframe it into something that's actually motivational, allows them to focus in. It gives them a good feeling like, hey, I feel really supported. Right. So like everybody's different. And it sounds like you handle that process really well, which I'm sure is really impressive, right? As as they come in, right? It's not like you were a power four guy. They're coming into a mid-major, you know, school to evaluate mid-major guy. And it could have been something that either
Jake sanford (18:49.22)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (18:57.148)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (19:04.491)
you folded under the pressure of the process of being evaluated or it could have had a negative impact on the way you played on the field and it didn't. So from a s from an evaluator standpoint, it's like, hey, this kid holds up pretty well. I would imagine that that was part of their, you know, a process of of figuring out whether Jake's a guy we wanna we wanna draft.
Jake sanford (19:22.139)
For sure, yeah. I think with for my story, I think I was under the least amount of pressure. I just keep playing. It's the same game. Nothing changes.
Mike Huber (19:30.187)
Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. So so let me ask you a question then. So I'm gonna jump into sort of the gambling side because I think it's a good place to sort of insert it. Were you gambling at that point while you were going through that process?
Jake sanford (19:44.011)
so I was, but it was just like entertainment. I was never gambling Kentucky didn't have casinos, where I was or not close. And so basically Christmas break and stuff when I would go home, I would go play a couple hundred bucks here and there. That's all it was though. It wasn't like I was going and taking out thousands of dollars to gamble and stuff like that. It was just I get home, see my buddies at Thanksgiving, Christmas, we go hang out, go have a couple drinks or whatever, and then go
Mike Huber (20:11.424)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (20:13.412)
Go play a couple hundred bucks of blackjack and stuff like that. Like it wasn't a problem at that point. So
Mike Huber (20:17.441)
Yeah, you were you were able to gamble like a normal person.
Jake sanford (20:20.964)
For sure, yeah. Like I always say like most of people in the world can gamble their whole lives and keep it as a form of entertainment.
Mike Huber (20:28.257)
Yes. Yeah. And I think f personally for me, like I've adopted that point of view in recovery. Like, there are people out there who can gamble normally and not have it be an obsession. Like, I'm not one of You know, so like I'm not anti-gambling for other people. Like a lot of people do a lot of things that they can do normally and they they don't you know, it's not consume doesn't consume their life. Gambling is just one of those things that consume my life from a very young age. And actually I think, you know.
In some ways there's some similarities between you and me as well, because I started gambling in casinos when I was in college. And it became it was probably the first time of my life where I knew I had a problem. I said it out loud at like 19 years old. I was in fact, you know, ironically, I was going to Canada, right? I went to school in Michigan. I would go to Windsor and I would go to the casino. And the first time I ever said I had a problem with gambling was when I came home from the casino in Windsor, Casino Windsor, at like eight AM on a on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
Jake sanford (21:16.823)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (21:24.258)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (21:27.807)
After an overnight bender. And so like it it it it happens almost like some people can do it normally. And we'll talk about your work because I know you're you you know, we've done some of the same work and you're working for FanDuel now and you know, that. But like so when did the gambling like I know you were exposed to it? You said you went to the casino on your 19th birthday, was listening to the podcast, you with your grandmothers, and you kind of did it recreationally. And like so like at what point did gambling become a bigger thing in your life?
Jake sanford (21:57.9)
I think it's I stu I think I had that aha moment that you had, kinda at the at the conference tournament there at WKU. we were staying in Biloxi, Mississippi. If you know Biloxi, it's it's kinda like Vegas of the South. There's casinos everywhere. And we stayed at the Golden Nugget. That was our team hotel for the week. we got our our per diem. It wasn't much, but at this time there was no NIL. So and me being out of state, out of country.
Mike Huber (22:03.821)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (22:25.371)
just trying to find some ways to make some money, I guess. And we went down there five days in a row while we were there. We played roulette, we put our per diem together and out of the five days, we only won one time. But in my mind it was kind of crazy how we kept going back and chasing and chasing and chasing. just those wins. But at the end of the tournament, one of the seniors texted us and said, let's have one last hurrah together. Let's just go hang out. It's we're going on the bus in the morning. Who knows we're gonna see each other again.
So went down there. I had about 300 bucks left and went and played some slots. I lost 200 bucks within five minutes. I was about to walk out with my hundred and just leave. And then I saw one more slot machine that I I saw people online playing and I was like, let's try it. And next thing you know, the hundred dollars left turned into thirty five hundred dollars. And that was my next big rush, my dopamine rush that from winning that. but within two hours of that, I was down the original 300.
Down the 3500 at one and I went back to the ATM, took another 500 out. And that's when I realized like this this could be an issue. I I was just chasing that rush. it kind of gave me the same feeling of when I hit a home run, basically. That's what I always use as an analogy. It's like that's that's what I got as a better. It was like if I hit a home run, I felt the same as winning a big jackpot.
Mike Huber (23:41.826)
Yeah, absolutely. And that's the way our our brain works. It can't really differentiate. It just knows the feeling. It knows the the rush that comes with that that that success, that feeling, right? And sometimes it's not even the success, sometimes it's the rush that comes with the the action, the risk, right? Whatever it is, but our brain doesn't know the difference, but it really, it really likes it. And
Jake sanford (24:03.368)
Yeah, be being an athlete's just basically trying to find that dopamine rush, basically.
Mike Huber (24:07.947)
Yeah. But you know, and and and and having had the experience of speaking to college student athletes myself, and I know you're doing it now currently, about the dangers of gambling, right? There's the the connection between being an athlete and being a problem gambler, compulsive gambler, whatever you want to call it, like there's research to back up the idea that athletes are more prone to it because of the nature of
the behavior and the circumstances, like you said, around it, whether it's financial or if I'm injured or if I'm stressed out, like gambling can be used as an escape, as a way to disconnect from the stress of the sporting environment, or it can be a way to sort of multiply or add on to the those feelings, right? So it's a lot easier for an athlete to get hooked into gambling than it is maybe a normal person.
Jake sanford (25:01.789)
For sure, yeah. And then as well, like ADHD, that that helps a lot too. Like it hurts you a lot with that. you always want to find that rush. yeah, but being being an athlete, yeah, especially baseball. You're with the guys twenty four seven pretty well. You're on the bus, you're on the plane, you're in the locker room. There's always card games going on, there's always stuff like that. That's the entertainment side of it. 'cause when you're playing with your friends, you're not trying to take all their money, you're not trying to take thousands of dollars from them.
Mike Huber (25:16.951)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (25:29.623)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (25:30.739)
It's just like the I guess the team bonding. It's just a thing to kill time. but like when you start owing people money, owing or taking money out and that you don't have to spend your rent money, your food money, that's that's when it starts to become a problem.
Mike Huber (25:44.952)
Yep. Yeah, I had the same I had that same experience. Like when you're talking about going back to the ATM in a casino after having lost all the money that maybe you won. Like I've had that experience. Those multiple trips to the ATM and you know like it feels like crap, but you still do it anyway because you you're you're so intent on getting your money back, chasing losses, right? And then the the team element, I wanna talk about that because I've also had that experience in different ways, just in terms of
the social aspect of gambling, right? So like it's a team bonding thing. It's the thing that athletes do sometimes, especially male athletes, they do together to connect. But, you know, for the 30 guys that are doing it normally, there's probably one or two or three that are not. Right. So like can you you talk about that? Do did you feel compelled to be a part of that? Or was it just like there was no thought given to to participating?
Jake sanford (26:42.036)
so I did play some poker games here and there, but I was able to keep it under like under control with that. but I don't know what for me, mine was mon most of my gambling was casino based. I think it was just being in that environment. being surrounded by people, just I don't know what it was. but yeah, it was just I guess being in the actual physical casino 'cause like even
Mike Huber (26:52.533)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (27:07.224)
Like now, like I never I never bet online. I never did any that stuff. I didn't want to have to hide it from anybody. I just wanted to basically have it as that entertainment. But it for me it was just I just kept going there, I kept going there, and then it just ended up getting becoming a problem because I would go so much and I'd end up, like I said, going back to the ATM taking more money out. If I was with my friends, I would always try to go to a different ATM so they wouldn't see me take more money out. it was like
As a gambler, you like to hide a lot of things. especially a male gambler, you'd like to talk about your wins, but you never talk about your losses. like I have a presentation, I have a picture in there, it says I won 8,500 bucks. But who knows how much money I put in to get that? Or like say I could have taken out 15,000 and just left with money, right? Like, but at that time I didn't want to say that. I it was it was it was like, I won some money. Nice. Instead of, I lost this to get this.
Mike Huber (28:05.41)
Yeah. There's a lot of shame in it, right? There's a lot of shame in gambling, right? And and it's yeah, it's losing money, but it's also just the idea that I can't control myself. And we want people to see us in the world a certain way. So we we portray the good stuff and we hide the bad stuff, but then all that bad stuff just eats away at us on the inside, right?
Jake sanford (28:08.505)
For sure.
Jake sanford (28:18.575)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (28:28.174)
But like I even had times like where I was with players at the table I didn't know, they were like, you're up, you should probably leave or even like dealers and pit bosses are like, you should leave before you give all this back and like I was I was like shameless, I guess, and I was like, I'm good, I'll keep winning and then next thing you know, I'm walking out with nothing.
Mike Huber (28:37.454)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (28:46.222)
It's a terrible feeling. Yeah. So so tell me about the progression of the behavior when you got to Pro Bowl. Like how did that sort of like what were you doing when you were playing in in the minors? Like where how did the gambling take place?
Jake sanford (28:47.873)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (29:05.1)
Yeah, well I'll start for the rest of the people at the beginning a little bit. started off at nineteen, legal age to gamble here in Nova Scotia. I went with my grandmas. They they go every Friday. They're in that entertainment people. Like they can they can go every week and if they win some money, they'll leave. If they lose the money, they don't go back to the ATM. So I went there the first time, they both gave me a hundred bucks, and next thing you know, I walked out with twelve hundred. So that was that first dopamine rush.
And then it slowly progressed, like I said, going up with my buddies and stuff like that. But it still stayed under wrap. So I had a controlled limit. I didn't go back and stuff like that. then I get to Pro Bowl and I get my signing bonus. I signed for six hundred thousand US at twenty-one, so almost a million Canadian. And I kind of felt invincible. I was like, this money's never gonna run out. I can go spend five hundred here, five hundred there, and I'll be fine. but those five hundred dollar days turned into a thousand dollar days, turned into five thousand dollar days, and ultimately
like $10, $20,000 days, because I kept chasing my losses. and it was just chasing that rush. like you said, I was still playing, I was in my prime of my career for baseball. And I was basically living a double life. It was between the white lines, all I thought about was baseball. But after I got off the field, it was like, where are we going? What are we doing? what casino are we going to? even like spring training, there's so many casinos down in Tampa.
area and we only had to be the field from eight to noon every day. Had to figure out what to do with the rest of the day. Golfing, fishing, stuff I love to do. But I found myself with a group of guys that love going to the casino. But for them, they could keep it under control. And at the start I could we'd go to dinner, grab some drinks and play a little blackjack and go home. but then I saw it started progressing and it was like, I'll catch an Uber later or I'll
I'll stay up a little bit later and then I'll see you guys at the field tomorrow. Ultimately staying up all night and then going right from the casino to the field. So it was it was kind of a crazy it happened all within almost a year. So it was crazy how it progressed so quick.
Mike Huber (31:17.698)
Did anybody call you out on it? Did anybody say anything to you about it or did they let you just sort of do your thing?
Jake sanford (31:25.586)
No, it was kinda like do my thing and like I said, I felt invincible. So I was like, I'll be fine. I'll get out of this hole. And ultimately a little bit later they started to realize and then there was more like jokes about it. And that's when you feel more shame then. And the guy's like, you got your meal money, you're gonna go to the casino with that and stuff like that. And st so it was just like yeah, I was trying to hide it, but for me it was all casino stuff, so people knew I was there. It wasn't like I was
In the bathroom on my phone.
Mike Huber (31:56.557)
Right. Yeah. And I I I've had that experience. I'm much older than you, but it was the same thing for me when I gambled, right? You kind of get that reputation, right? And then people make fun of you for it, right? Or they Right. Yeah. So d I guess and and I know again, we you and I've talked about this privately still at least a little bit, but I think it's really worth sort of getting into for other people to understand. Like, did it affect
Jake sanford (32:09.609)
They're like, Why can't you just stop? Like Yeah.
Mike Huber (32:25.442)
Did you feel like it was affecting your play on the field?
Jake sanford (32:28.563)
So like I said, I wasn't living that double life. I actually was performing pretty well. I think in the minor leagues I was a two ninety hitter, which is not bad in the minor leagues. had like twenty seven home runs within two years. So it was it was pretty good. but yeah, it was that's kind of what saved me because I got to get away from the stress of everything else, text messages of of this and everything like that. So it was just like it kind of like helped me get through it a little bit.
Mike Huber (32:37.976)
Great.
Mike Huber (32:55.374)
So if I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like baseball was actually an escape from gambling.
Jake sanford (33:01.723)
Mm, yeah, for sure.
Mike Huber (33:03.17)
Yeah, I think that goes back to what I I I was saying earlier initially when we we first got on. Like that's a like to me, right? Like maybe it's weird for somebody to think of it this way who's not a gambler, who doesn't have the experience. But like I see the resilience in that. Like it could have been really easy for to for that gambling to seep into your performance, right? The anxiety, the lack of sleep, right, the the obsession with it. But in your case, you were able to compartmentalize it, which I guess in some ways probably hurt you because
You were sort of protected because if i if your performance was tanking, my guess is that the organization would have had some say in it, but they didn't even know because you're still playing. So it's like, who cares? If he can if he could perform on the field, let him do what he wants in his private life, which I think is a very common sentiment. I mean, do you feel like that was the case with the with the Yankees? Do you feel like they're like, Hey, as long as you're playing, you're good?
Jake sanford (33:42.791)
Uh-huh.
Jake sanford (33:55.379)
I think so. Like yeah, that's one of the biggest things. was yeah, it was like I was still performing. So I wasn't hurting the organization. Obviously being at the casino all the time was not a good look. But yeah, a little bit later when I started to lose money and ran out of my signing bonus is when it started to kind of hurt the organization because we'd go with the group of guys and we'd loan each other money every now and then it's like, just get us back next week. And we do that. Did it multiple times. And
Mike Huber (34:01.362)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (34:06.765)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (34:25.04)
But I got to the point where I bore the money and I I didn't have it to send it back right away. So I had to come up with like a plan of I gotta pay you guys this much each month or whatever. And that's when it kind of started to hurt me and the my teammates and the organization, because it was like they don't want it to come out that a a top prospect has a gambling. Especially especially in the New York in the New York media, one of the biggest franchises in the world for sports.
Mike Huber (34:44.855)
Course.
Mike Huber (34:51.959)
Yeah. So were you a couple of questions on that, right? You were still in Tampa, you were in Tampa the whole time?
Jake sanford (34:59.511)
no, so I played in New York and stuff, but everything led back to that 'cause that's where our spring training is. So every time I landed in Tampa it kinda felt like I fell back in the same kind of routine.
Mike Huber (35:09.239)
I got okay, so were you in like single A ball like somewhere in the northeast?
Jake sanford (35:12.835)
Yeah, so Ta I was in Staten Island and then Tampa was my low A team. So I played in Tampa like f for f like six months of a season and then I went up to high A and then double A. Yeah.
Mike Huber (35:24.493)
Gotcha. Okay. I gotcha. All right. So you started in Tampa at the complex in in Lowa. You moved to Staten Island, right? The Staten Island Yankees. And then you went to double A. Okay. That's what I was trying to understand, right? Gotcha. So so how much money income were you making? I know you had your bonus with six hundred thousand, but like what was your income?
Jake sanford (35:34.521)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (35:43.69)
it was seven hundred dollars a month as a minor leaguer. And that did not include living. So they took out ten bucks a day for hotel, so that's three hundred bucks right there. And then no food money when you're at home. And in Tampa, the league there, it's just all the complexes. So you play you do BP at your own field and then you go to their complex to play. So you don't get meal money that whole season.
Mike Huber (35:46.381)
Right. Right.
Mike Huber (36:08.545)
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, people who are not familiar or like intimate with baseball, like, yeah, you might get drafted high and get a big bonus. And most guys don't, you know. But you, you're not making a lot of money at the minor league level, right? So you kind of it sounds like you ran out of the bonus money, you started borrowing money from your teammates to gamble, and you were making eighty four hundred dollars a year basically gr gross.
Jake sanford (36:20.503)
Yeah.
Mike Huber (36:37.161)
And you didn't have the money to pay them back. And so how did that that manifest itself in terms of like what what happened next? Like how did all of this sort of come to a head within the organization and with your teammates and and the Yankees?
Jake sanford (36:51.435)
Yeah, so well the last time I bore from them there was a week it was like a Thursday and I owed them the next Friday. That next Friday came around, I was in I was in Bigley camp at that time. so we actually made a hundred bucks a day every day we were in Big League camp. So helped a little bit. But yeah, next thing you know, I was playing against Bryce Harper and all those guys. And then boom, Brian Cashman walks in. We're gonna be shut down for the weekend. It was COVID.
Mike Huber (37:02.913)
Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (37:20.386)
And then that weekend off of baseball turned into 18 months off of baseball and no pay. So I ended up going back home, working at the container yard to make money to pay these guys back. And so it was kind of a blessing too, because I was able to make more money and be able to make more of a dent in what I owed these guys. but then we came back from COVID, we had like a big organizational meeting, included some gambling because I knew a bunch of guys and loved to go to the casino. but then they pulled six of us up and we went to this meeting with
the head office and they're like, We know what's going on. If you guys owe each other money, it has to be paid back by this certain date, or we're gonna have to let you guys go. But then we're back in spring training and you don't get paid in my league camp. So I was sitting there performing, playing well, played a couple games in big league camp and that day came around and I didn't have the funds to to pay back 'cause I didn't I I couldn't borrow from anybody. Like I didn't want to make the whole dip deeper, right? So
Mike Huber (38:18.241)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (38:19.433)
Ultimately I ended up getting released from the Yankees for that.
Mike Huber (38:22.197)
Okay. So I I I have a few questions. So how much money did you owe?
Jake sanford (38:27.273)
I think it was about eight thousand, but like I said, I wasn't making much. but I was making monthly payments and they were fine with that. Most of them were big leaguers anyway, so it was just the concept of giving the money back.
Mike Huber (38:39.679)
Through that to t in order to pay that money back, were you gambling to try to pay that money back or no?
Jake sanford (38:45.085)
No, I was just working. So I I many times I wanted to gamble, but I would like I would get up some money and I was like, Okay, I gotta pay these guys back so I'm on time. Like if I didn't pay them back, that's would be it'd be an issue 'cause then they would go to the organization.
Mike Huber (38:54.775)
Got it.
Mike Huber (38:59.063)
So how okay, so did the org find out or did the guys did were they I I don't know, this might not be the right way to describe it. Were they holding it over your head where it's like you owe us owe me the money, so you gotta pay me or else I'm gonna
Jake sanford (39:12.921)
most of the group was really good about it. There was one guy I think that started started saying stuff and that's when they kinda they kinda yeah.
Mike Huber (39:18.317)
Okay. Got it. So they got wind of it. There was one guy who you owed money to who who kind of let the guy.
Jake sanford (39:25.117)
I was the guy that I owed the least amount to. Yeah.
Mike Huber (39:28.811)
Yeah. And I mean listen, obviously we could talk about
Jake sanford (39:32.179)
Obviously it's not good, but like still it's like I was in a place where I was like, I don't wanna like get in trouble. I wanna make this better. I wanna I wanna pay you guys back. That's not what I don't wanna do. It's just I don't have the resources to do it 'cause we're in spring train. You know we're well you know when we get paid. We get paid the same day.
Mike Huber (39:38.529)
Yes.
Mike Huber (39:50.05)
Yeah. But but but I think I mean listen, I mean I think there's a lot of people based on my experience and I don't speak for specific people, I'll speak for myself. If I was in your position, I don't know. I might have thought about gambling to try to win that money back. Right. And so the fact that you didn't do that to me kinda tells me that you knew it was coming to an end. You kinda knew like, hey, I wanna get out of this life. It sounds like the decision in a lot of ways was made for you because the Yankees, they ultimately
Jake sanford (40:03.679)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Huber (40:19.863)
Did they ultimately release you because of it? Was that the explanation?
Jake sanford (40:23.038)
So on paper I got released before for poor play. Like I said, I still don't think they want me to get out that the I had a gambling addiction. but I had seven home runs spring training, so I and it was in big league camp and stuff too, so I don't think it was per poor play.
Mike Huber (40:26.988)
Okay.
Mike Huber (40:40.181)
I understand. Okay, but it was in their mind it was too much risk to continue to employ you as a player.
Jake sanford (40:47.461)
Risk to the brand for sure, yeah.
Mike Huber (40:50.017)
Ha have they ever I mean, I I don't know, you don't have to answer this question, but I I have to ask it 'cause I'm so curious. Have they ever sort of contacted you about it? Like now? Like now
Jake sanford (40:58.363)
Not not really, no. So I still have some contacts there, some good connections. I still talk to the the site there a couple of times a month and yeah, he's checking in on me and everything. And that's about it though really. checked in in a few times 'cause people I work with, they were heads of the Pittsburgh Pirates. So they know them pretty well. And then he checked in on me actually a couple of weeks ago. So he sees the work that I'm doing now.
Mike Huber (41:10.241)
Good.
Mike Huber (41:25.047)
Good.
Jake sanford (41:28.091)
And going into sports teams and stuff like that. So and that's one of the biggest things why I do what I do now is just not sit and dwell on what I did. I wanna help other people avoid following the path that I did.
Mike Huber (41:30.967)
Okay.
Mike Huber (41:39.029)
Yeah, that's a and that's a great segue, right? Because I I had that same experience myself being a speaker at Epic Global Solutions for three years, speaking to college student athletes about the dangers of gambling. So talk more about that. Like what are you doing now that allows you to sort of share your story and try to help others?
Jake sanford (41:59.939)
Yeah, it was kind of funny. it was on an Instagram DM that I got a message from one of the people that worked at Epic. I didn't actually see it for a few weeks 'cause it went to my the hidden DMs. so I I I saw it and I was thinking to myself, Can I do this? Like I suck at I suck at speaking. I I'm a baseball player. That's what I do. And I started to realize that, like I said, I don't want to sit and dwell on what I did. I wanna
be able to help people avoid the path that I took and any way I can. Even if it reaches one person in a room, it can help a lot of people. Cause gambling doesn't just affect the gambler, it affects everybody around them, their family, their friends, their teammates, coaching staff, everybody. so yeah, even if it just hits with one person, it can it can save a lot of people.
Mike Huber (42:50.977)
Yeah, and I think that that that speaks to me about the kind of person that you are because I I know firsthand that speaking was not something that you were necessarily completely comfortable with, but you were willing to learn how to do it for the impact, right? For the purpose, right? There's a there's a very clear purpose in what we're do we're I'm not doing it anymore, but what you're doing in the work of speaking to student athletes, right? And so that that desire to live that mission.
Jake sanford (43:06.934)
Okay.
Mike Huber (43:20.637)
Is greater than the fear, the anxiety, the difficulty of speaking in front of a group of people. Now you layer on, and I've had this experience because I used to speak. I spoke before I got to Epic. But when you stand in front of a room of two, three, four, five, six hundred kids and you start telling them about, I'm a gambling, compulsive gambler and I did all these things, like that is shit's not easy. How did you sort of get through that?
Jake sanford (43:30.168)
Which almost.
Jake sanford (43:46.578)
Yeah, for sure. Like when I first started, my story was pretty linear. it was just pretty straight to the point. It was pretty short, because I didn't really know what to talk about. But it's for me, it's just cool to be able to resonate with these guys because I was sitting in their seats five, six, seven years ago, doing the same thing there, walking into a meeting, think it's a compliance meeting, like, this guy's just gonna talk to us about a bunch of numbers and just tell us all this stuff not to do. But
Mike Huber (43:51.227)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (44:13.622)
With Epic, we don't tell people like it's it's not anti gambling. We're anti gambling harm. So we want to just help people avoid getting past that entertainment phase of gambling. And yeah, it's it was it was yeah, tough. but over the last I've been working with them for three years. it's been getting a lot better for sure. Been I've been I went to forty five different schools last year just to go present. So it's it's definitely ramping up and gambling's not gonna slow down. It's it's only getting higher.
Especially with prediction markets and everything as well. it's not gonna go away. just being able to like mitigate and how to be responsible about it.
Mike Huber (44:49.389)
Yeah. And and I think, you know, it's similar to me. There's a parallel between your career as a speaker, as somebody who's trying to educate people, and as a baseball player, is like that your your your core personality, your being is somebody who's willing to sort of fail, right? To get to what you want. And I think like that's really admirable that you're willing to.
to to just continue to get better and challenge yourself and take those risks because it's hard. It's and and and I know 45 schools in a year, like I did it, it's draining as fuck. Excuse my language. Right. Like getting on a plane, you're traveling more than you're speaking. You might travel like some places, I travel five or six hours to get to a one hour speaking engagement and get back on a plane to come home. And you're doing that all the time. And you know, that's it's hard to kind of, you know, stay with that and you're willing to do that.
for the cause and to be a better person. And I think that that's should be, you know, recognized by people because I think it's it's really hard thing to do. and maybe I'm tooting my own horn horn in a way, but I I just know that what you're doing is just really cool. And I'm I'm proud of you for it. I think it's it's awesome. I I wanted to
Jake sanford (45:56.49)
I think
Mike Huber (46:09.793)
I wanted to ask you a question and then I got completely sidetracked on what I was thinking thinking about. But but I guess I'll say it this way, like it has to be cool to be that guy in front of the room who you were there probably ten years ago. So like do you ever have kids come up to you or talk to you after the fact, after like you give a speaking engagement about like something that's going on in their life, whether it's with them or a family member or somebody else, an experience with gambling that you're able to connect with them on?
Jake sanford (46:36.587)
Yeah, for sure. most of the schools we go into, we do we either do big presentations with all the student athletes or we do like team of individual ones. but some of the a lot of team individual ones ask good questions because they don't want to ask in front of 600 people. They'd rather ask in front of their teammates. another big part is the coaching staff. if somebody asks, or says that they're they're going through something, they don't want to ask that in front of their staff. So I have a lot of people that come up after.
Mike Huber (46:43.133)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Jake sanford (47:04.338)
I leave my info as well. So if they don't want to ask me personally, just message me. But yeah, they come up after and they're like, I'm going through this or my teammates going through this. What can I do? And now I have like the team and right directions and contacts to send people if if I can't help them directly, I can send them to somebody and help them get the help they need before they lose eligibility, before all that stuff. Because that's a big thing right now. you can see in college basketball, it's huge.
lot of el eligibility stuff. Not all the like I guess all the laws aren't really written out for the athletes. So they don't know what they can do, what they can't do. And it's tough 'cause one wrong move they can lose all their eligibility.
Mike Huber (47:44.727)
Yeah. Yeah. A a couple more questions as we wrap up. Like how does it make you feel to be able to help somebody like that?
Jake sanford (47:53.841)
No, it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's it's awesome. Cause like I said, I wish I had something like that when I was going through it. would it probably give me a knock on the head? It's like, I'm actually doing something bad and I need to be able to fix this before it gets out of hand. 'Cause I seen what I did to my family or my family and my friends. I don't want that to happen with them. That's that's one of the biggest things is yeah, just be able to keep it under control.
Mike Huber (48:16.493)
Yeah, and and right, exactly. I think the idea that we can relate to somebody else who has experience, like that's the real value in it, right? It's a relatability of hey, this guy's a human being, he's telling me his story, he's sharing with me all the tr challenges he went through so that I don't have to endure them. And I think I don't know how I would have done with that if I was a student, you know, if I was younger and someone would have said that to me. It probably would have helped a lot. So I think
I felt a lot of the same things you feel. It's really cool to be able to do that and to be able to help because we're all human beings, we're fallible, we make mistakes, right? There's always a road back if you do the work. And I think you're doing the work and I think that that's really cool. So what does the future hold for you? Like what where do you want to go in the future with your work as a speaker? Talk about like your future of your baseball career. Like what where do you want to be next?
Jake sanford (49:09.657)
Yeah, I just wanna keep doing what I'm doing right now. like I said, game looks not gonna go away. It's only gonna get mo more in your face, I guess. so I just wanna keep going down the same path, keep getting my knowledge up and so I can help everyb everybody as much as I can. And yeah, after this Achilles injury is healed, hopefully play again next year. and look forward to seeing if I can make the Team Canada roster for the Olympics in twenty twenty eight. and also I've had some opportunities to become a coach in baseball.
Mike Huber (49:21.429)
Yeah.
Jake sanford (49:39.761)
see what my leg does, I guess. And if I if I can't play anymore, that's probably the next path I want to do because I think with my work now I can kinda understand a little bit more about the athlete, what's going on and how it can help them in each and every aspect of the game or in life.
Mike Huber (49:58.263)
Yeah, and I think your story is really powerful and valuable in that there's life after. There's life after an addiction, which we hear a lot about nowadays, which is great, but you can can never have enough stories because everybody's story is different. So people are going to relate to that just life after that. There's also life after injury, right? And I think that that's also a a core message, right? And Achilles is very serious injury. You did it twice. There's a there's a path back. There's a path back to play, there's a path to
Coaching, there's a path to all this different stuff in your life. And I think that that's really important for people to hear. So the last the last question I'll ask you, and I ask this of everybody, like if you had to if you had to give one piece of advice, particularly to a student athlete who might be in struggling with gambling, what would it be?
Jake sanford (50:50.095)
I know it's hard, but ask for help if you think you're something going going through it. I ask for help before it gets too late. It's easier to fix it while you're going through it than at the end. that's one of the biggest things is I wish I would have asked for help earlier, but I was too ignorant, I think. And I was like, I got this, I can figure this out. And yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things is just just ask for the help that you need.
Mike Huber (51:12.385)
That's a great piece of advice and a great way to end the podcast. Jake, thanks so much for joining me. It was great to catch up with you and hopefully we'll have a chance to to do it again so we hear what you know what else you're doing in the future. Thank you.
Jake sanford (51:24.193)
Sure, yeah. Thanks for having me.