"Every day for two years," Brett says, "the other kids in junior high would chase me around the playground and try to pull my underwear up above my pants. I would run and run and finally just run home. Every day."

For Brett, the perils of being small didn't end at age twelve. When he played football in high school, they had to go to the junior high school to get his pads because he was so small. He played quarterback and had to roll out just to see over the offensive line. His voice was so high that it cracked when he called the signals, and the opposition would laugh. But his dad told him something he never forgot: "If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will." That motivated him to give his best.

His high school baseball coach ridiculed him when Brett had the nerve to say he wanted to play baseball at Arizona State (one of the top baseball colleges in the country). But Brett grabbed his glove and went off to Arizona State anyway. He wound up as the leading hitter on their junior varsity team, but was not offered the scholarship he desperately wanted. So, he went off to tiny Southeastern Oklahoma State where he eventually became a two-time All-American. In 1979 he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves organization--in the twenty-third round! Brett is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 156 pounds, and wears size 7 shoes (the smallest in baseball).

Did Brett Butler made it to the major leagues on the basis of pure athletic ability? Of course not. Here is the secret truth that we need to tell every young person in this land--the very best work harder. It's true in sports, in business, in music, in every endeavor in life. The secret of life is passion, determination, Godly desire.

Ron Newhouse