A Baseball Star Who Lost It All—and How He Got It Back

About The Podcast

Blake Russell says he was “19 years old but with a Hollywood-sized ego” when he went from merely doing drugs to selling them. That arrogance would cost him a promising baseball career, a girlfriend—and, eventually, his freedom, as he spent years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine. In prison, though, he had a “sentimental moment” that guided him to God and forever changed his life. Blake, now out of prison and serving as ministry director of Take the City in Columbus, Georgia, talks with Paul Amos about that moment of salvation, the bad decisions that led up to it, and how his life has taken on newfound conviction, humility, and meaning since then.

Show Notes

Additional Resources:

• Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind by Joyce Meyer

Timestamps: 

0:00—Intro/”lightning round”

1:34—Blake’s background in baseball

3:59—Blake’s descent into drug addiction

11:57—How Blake ended up in prison

22:05—Blake’s prison journey, from drug dealing to sobriety and redemption

36:54—Blake’s relationship with Krista/what does redemption mean to you?

43:16—Where Blake is today/Krista’s health struggles/outro