00:01:53.440It's going to be one of those ones where when it comes into my head, it just takes priority.
00:01:58.460First and foremost, I want to say this.
00:02:01.160Matt and I have known each other since we were 14 years old.
00:02:05.240That does not mean he and I spoke every day on the phone or even spoke often, okay?
00:02:12.680We spoke through high school, a little bit afterwards, and then you kind of pick...
00:02:17.740The way it works is you kind of pick it up in pieces, right?
00:02:21.060You'll bump into each other at the grocery store or Facebook brought a lot of us back together or whatever. TikTok as it, you know, would be. But here's the interesting thing about Matt and my friendship.
00:02:35.740um i could have called matt in any situation over the past jesus 30 years
00:02:47.380and i know if i needed him and he could have he would have been there in an instant and i hope
00:02:57.620I genuinely hope he knows that about me so I'm gonna go back a little bit in time and sort of
00:03:08.420I think I have like three things ever the teacher that I've sort of classified in my head as things
00:03:15.260that I want you to know about him and not just know about him so you can know my friend and
00:03:21.640and remember him and honor him, but understand who he was so we can all, myself included,
00:03:30.280emulate those amazing pieces of, of this man. Um, okay. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go back
00:03:41.200way back. And, uh, I was a kid that, that played baseball with the boys, right? I lived up North.
00:03:49.820I always played hardball. When I moved to Oshawa and then to Whitby, I always wanted to play hardball, like regular baseball. I didn't want to play softball. And in Oshawa, I had a bit of a setback because they basically said, oh, she should be playing rep, but she's a girl and there's no girls on the team. Who's she going to room with? Yada, yada, yada.
00:04:07.960And it was a bit of a big kind of letdown.
00:04:12.000And when I shifted to Whitby, the house league, just house league, not rep, really didn't want me playing with the guys.
00:04:20.860And my mom had a bit of a fight in order to put me in that league.
00:04:25.280And as I got put in that league, I was met with some not lovely things.
00:04:30.940I don't really remember them being so overwhelming.
00:04:34.160I think I got very much used to a couple things. Number one, I had short hair and I was a back
00:04:40.640catcher. So a lot of people didn't know I was a girl right away. They kind of figured it out
00:04:44.380later. And as they figured it out, they'd already sort of established, oh, she's not a horrible
00:04:48.200baseball player. Oh my God, that's a girl. Oh my God. And then you get all those rumbles.
00:04:52.560But when I went to Whitby, it was something a little bit different. So I moved in the summer
00:04:57.040before grade nine. So I hadn't started high school yet. And in this league, I was getting
00:05:03.460chirped. I was getting a lot of, I don't know, 14-year-old aggression, coach aggression about
00:05:11.200me being a girl on the team. Now my team kind of took it because, and they weren't jerks to me0.87
00:05:18.280because they knew I could play. So the fact I could play well, like really well, allowed them
00:05:25.340to sort of, you know, be okay with the girl being on the team. It's like, in order to be a girl on
00:05:31.480a guy's team, you got to, you got to be in the top, like 10% of the team or else they don't want you
00:05:36.140at all. You know, completely negating the fact that the other 90% of the guys are just as crappy,0.74
00:05:41.220but nonetheless, I digress. So I started playing and very quickly I met Matt. I don't remember,
00:05:48.980I don't remember exactly when, you know, it's one of those things when you lose somebody and you
00:05:54.920think oh I just wish we would have talked about reminiscing more and and gone through those
00:06:00.700stories more because you want them firmly ingrained so that they can be forever in your
00:06:06.780mind right but here's what I do remember so I was a catcher and Matt was a pitcher all right now
00:06:15.200for those of you don't know Matt let me paint you a bit of a picture the kid was six five and like
00:06:20.900grade 10 he was huge and he was a big guy right and so when he pitched and his step to the plate
00:06:30.060it was like his left foot was on the plate right it was it was that long of a stride but he threw
00:06:36.020like thor yeah that's right the god of thunder i hope if maddie's listening right now he just
00:06:41.520understands i compared him to the god of thunder um and he he threw really really really hard
00:06:48.200so he was one of those pitchers he was the pitcher in the league that everybody's like oh god you
00:06:54.740know gonna have to so guys on his team were chirping you know that's a girl she's gonna
00:07:02.220be this she's gonna be that whatever thing they were saying they were on maddie's team
00:07:07.660what didn't play on my team and very early on before he knew me like knew me knew me
00:07:14.580he knew my name and he knew I was a good player. And at some point, this is how he chose to handle
00:07:21.720that. Now, remember, he's like 14, 15 years old. Matt was a year older than me. So remember this,
00:07:27.940he was that age, okay? He was that age and he heard all of these guys chirping the girl
00:07:35.500and he didn't join in. Number one. Number one. Okay. Number two, a natural guy's response,
00:07:47.560and he'll have this response later, and I'll tell you how he had this response later,
00:07:50.960but a natural guy's response maybe would be to protect me, right? To say, she's a good player,
00:07:56.320shut up, maybe even throw down, right? Maybe even get into fisticuffs. Yeah, I use that word,1.00
00:08:02.100fisticuffs. But that's not what he did. Matt looked at me and this was sort of before
00:08:12.100the game or in between games. I can't even remember. We obviously weren't in the midst of
00:08:17.820playing. And he looked at me and he goes, Joe, come here. And I walked over. He goes,
00:08:23.060get behind the plate. And I said, all right. So I had my catching gear on. I got behind the plate.
00:08:28.120He just proceeded to rifle fastball after fastball after fastball at me to the point where, to be honest, I thought my left hand was going to fall off.
00:13:46.180I hope he's listening right now and he's internalizing this.
00:13:48.560He went and found Chris, had a chat with Chris, walked Chris over to me, and in front of, oh, all God and country, I don't know, it was in the cafeteria, so it was a good audience.
00:14:06.240Matt looked him dead in his face, and he said, apologize.
00:14:11.160now here's the key he wasn't looking for whether or not whatever he was saying was true
00:14:21.100the whether it was the truth or the lie it didn't matter to matt didn't matter what i did with a
00:14:27.640boyfriend what mattered was this kid was trying to utilize this fine as a falsehood but was trying
00:14:35.840to use this to make me feel less, to make me feel embarrassed, shameful, whatever, right?
00:14:48.120And that was his problem. That was Matt's issue with him. And I don't even know if I'm explaining
00:14:56.660this right, because a lot of guys would have been like, is he lying? Well, I'll go beat him up if0.93
00:15:00.280lying no no it wasn't about beating him up no no no no it was holding him accountable0.94
00:15:07.160and holding him accountable in front of me and in front of that cafeteria full of students where
00:15:15.960he had to apologize for using any information and at that point he obviously apologized and said he
00:15:24.680lied but it didn't the lie didn't matter because it didn't matter if i did whatever he said i was
00:15:30.360doing that wasn't the point the point was how dare this individual try to utilize that to shame me
00:15:40.840you guys get how different that is and how important that is and again
00:15:45.080as a kid i didn't get that matt still never asked if it was true
00:15:49.720didn't ask then didn't ask later we've since had a conversation about he never asked
00:15:55.960he didn't care because the point of the of the story and the point where he was standing he was
00:16:04.020standing up for me in a way that everybody should stand up for everybody somebody's trying to shame
00:16:14.180you who cares if it's true or not who cares what they're talking about their intent to utilize
00:16:22.180information to try to shame and belittle and harass because they got dumped or because they
00:16:30.260whatever the case may be that's what we have to stop you know what i i think forward like i i i
00:16:39.620get pushed forward to the me too movement i get pushed forward to all of these people
00:16:44.100and especially when women don't defend women because they'll only defend them if it's not
00:16:49.460true they'll only defend right right the whole me too movement want to know why people couldn't
00:16:55.860say what happened well because they were so ashamed that it parts of it were true
00:17:03.540that they they couldn't even foresee holding anybody accountable for abusing that power and
00:17:13.440abusing their um you know placement in order to shame harass and and eventually at that point0.99
00:17:21.000kick out of the industry we were still doing that hell we still do that to women we still do that to
00:17:28.080people right somebody tries to make somebody feel like garbage about something they have no business
00:17:35.440talking about and we are still drawn to did it happen or didn't happen and matt didn't care
00:17:42.400i would love to say that it was just me you know what i mean like well maybe not that he just
00:17:47.280protected me and it was beautiful but i'll tell you he was that person to everybody that was around him
00:17:55.920He was that beautiful, authentic soul that no matter what the circumstance, that kind of strength and that kind of character was clear, crystal clear.
00:18:17.040and that's why i i would love to think that i that i emulate some of that
00:18:23.660um because what he did and how he did it was incredibly beautiful which is why i want to do
00:18:32.860this podcast because i i want everybody to understand who he was and i also want everybody
00:18:41.280to understand like the ripple of who he was is sitting right in front of you
00:18:49.600hundreds of other people hundreds of other people who are going to have stories and are going to say
00:18:55.360you know incredible things about who he was and how he helped them and made them something
00:19:03.520that's the important part what i love for him to
00:19:11.280you know combat his illness be able to overcome it sure absolutely of course 49 years old it's
00:19:22.400it's tragic it feels tragic it feels overwhelming it feels
00:19:30.560it there's a level of anger and a level of of
00:19:59.380I come back to how many people in his 49 years
00:20:05.280did he change how many people did matt anderson
00:20:11.280help grow past like and and and feel stronger and feel more empowered how many people's lives did he
00:20:22.080change because that as much as i hate him not being here that is still the power he has
00:20:35.280that is still the power that is that is rippling from his existence his 49 years
00:20:42.320should have been 49 more but his 49 years what he was able to accomplish and the people
00:20:48.300he was able to impact and he was able to love and loved him
00:20:51.980I don't even know if well I can't I can't measure it
00:20:55.860now all of this you know in high school high school goes on and then we all go away to university and
00:21:04.620we kind of part ways. Um, and we just keep in touch every now and then, you know, a text message,
00:21:13.100a Facebook message, whatever. And when I started this podcast a few years ago, Matt was on this
00:21:19.020incredible journey and, and, and I think he saw my TikTok again, like this thing that just sort
00:21:24.920of reconnected to us. He, you know, he followed me, we got each other's numbers again, back and
00:21:29.540forth, back and forth. I said, Matt, he started talking to me about what he was doing. And Matt
00:21:34.520for a very long time had been battling diabetes and health concerns. He was a big guy and he
00:21:40.320understood that his weight played a part in that. And, and he came and sat for an hour and please,
00:21:46.440again, it's the one where I catch the fastball. It's like my third podcast. If you go way back
00:21:51.300to the beginning, I'll put everything in the, in the comments. The one where I've catched the
00:21:58.400fastball anyways he he came on this podcast and he talked about basically his comeback
00:22:08.480and I don't mean he ever went anywhere I just mean he got to a place where he started
00:22:15.020understanding his health and understanding what he needed to do to take control of it and how
00:22:21.240important it was and if you saw I want you to go to his TikTok page I want you to go to his
00:22:28.160Instagram. I want you guys to go, and I'm going to put it all down here. I want you to go and
00:22:31.680get a feel for who he was and who he is. Because again, it's rippling. Because he set his sights
00:22:40.260on eating healthy and getting healthy, both physically, emotionally, and mentally.
00:22:49.720You know how powerful that is? Do you know how hard it is for somebody that has dealt with
00:22:56.560health issues for so incredibly long and he discusses them in that podcast and then to make
00:23:02.880a decision where like nope today's the day this is enough is enough and this guy worked out
00:23:09.080he worked hard every day he like everything about the way that his mind worked and the way that he
00:23:19.560adjusted his mindset and he wanted that to be inspirational he wanted people because he knows
00:23:25.340there are so many people in this world that have all sorts of injuries and health issues and weight
00:23:31.480issues that that it's not hopeless it's not a lost cause you don't just have to let it be
00:23:38.860you can fight through it and he did guys he did and I listened to him talk about it
00:23:50.060And probably the most impressive thing of all was the way that he spoke about his mental health journey, not just his physical, not about the diabetes, not about his weight, none of that, his mental health.
00:24:05.380And he talked inspirationally about what it is to put yourself first, not being selfish, different, but to put yourself first, to love yourself first, to ensure that what you need in this world,
00:24:28.880You are giving to yourself in order to make yourself happy, healthy, content, in order to feel loved.
00:26:12.800gave him the, gave him the ability, gave him the choice to figure it out.
00:26:23.940Because I really do think that not only was he a beautiful person for all of us his whole life,
00:26:32.180But I think by, by 49, he figured it out. And he figured out that loving himself in a real, authentic, physical, emotional, and mental way was the key to everything that matters.
00:26:55.140so please go listen to him listen to the podcast listen to his his tiktok his instagram if you can
00:27:07.860um there's also a gofundme for his family to help pay for funeral expenses and all that i'm going
00:27:15.280to put all of that in the in the description section for the gofundme for matt anderson i'm
00:27:22.760sure you can look up GoFundMe and type in Matt Anderson, but I'll put it all, the link down
00:27:27.520here. Um, but go watch all of that and then take a breath. And I want all of us to figure out
00:27:38.520what we have to do next and what we still have to do in order to figure out how to love ourselves
00:27:50.420better in order to understand this world better.
00:28:01.260Maddie, you will be incredibly missed, but I have no doubt that the ripple effect you
00:28:09.520cause will change this world and change me forever.
00:28:15.280Thank you guys so much for hanging out.