Bernie Carbo made Boston Red Sox and World Series history in Game 6 of the 1975 Classic, hitting a two-strike pitch for a three-run home run with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning, evening the score with the favored Cincinnati Reds, leading to an extra inning win for the Red Sox.

That swing of the bat landed Bernie Carbo in the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.

Bernie would play 12 major league seasons before leaving baseball, addicted to drugs and alcohol.

While in the hospital recovering from it all, he was told about and finally discovered Jesus Christ as his Savior. That experience saved Bernie, allowing him time and the chance to turn his life around.

Now, and for many years, he has given, and continues to give, scores of speeches to whomever will listen. Through the founding of Diamond Club Ministry, he hosts once a year a three-day Fantasy Baseball Camp for young people and their families.

Bernie uses the game of baseball to teach these people about his relationship with Jesus.

As Bernie tells it, "I tell the greatest story ever told through the greatest game ever played.

Meet and listen to Bernie Carbo, starting Monday, February 12.

We all tell stories, almost every day of our lives, to most of our friends and many of those whom we have just met or known for long. It is what we do.

Trial lawyers do this for a living, in opening and closing arguments to judges and juries.

In a book titled In the Interest of Justice - Great Opening and Closing Arguments of the last 100 Years, Joel Seidemann, then an Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan selected 15 cases to include in his book.

They are the two verdicts in the O.J. Simpson case, the Oklahoma City Bombing trial, In the Name of 6 Million, the trial of Adolph Eichmann and the Jeffrey MacDonald triple murder case.

I hope you will sit back and listen to the words of lawyers trying to win their cases, each passionate in the cause of their clients.

The long-ago poem Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, includes, near the end, these two lines...

"Tis not too late to seek a newer world...

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

This podcast is about change, which happens all the time to all of us, some benign and some not. We are told that it is not what happens, but how we respond, that is most important.

Still, change can be tough, challenging and a little fearful. But we have no alternative but to try.

From seeing firsthand the move to Winston-Salem from Wake Forest for the school that bears the town's name, to my own time as a federal prosecutor, private law practice and the subsequent years reinventing myself, I have experienced major change close up.

I am today, as the song from South Pacific goes, a "cockeyed optimist. I want to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.

I hope the same for you as well.

In a criminal courtroom, there are three important chairs, not including those for the judge and jury. First, there is one for the prosecutor, next, there is one for the defense attorney and finally, there is one for the defendant.

In this podcast, with a little lightheartedness along the way, I discuss three trials from my past, all involving Wade Smith on the other side.

In 1979, there was the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial. In 1981, there was the PCB Buck Ward case, dealing with a large environmental spill in northeastern North Carolina. Finally, in 1983, there was the prosecution of the then sitting Lieutenant Governo, Jimmy Green.

In their time, these were important matters, and their stories still have lessons that resonate with me, and I hope you, today.

I learned that in stressful situations, there is a place for calmness, graciousness, and even kindness. There is absolutely a place for humor.

Albert Camus, a French writer and philosopher, winner of the 1957 Nobel prize for Literature, once wrote "In the depth of winter, I found there lay within me an invincible summer".

Winter represents adversity, tough times in the world, and summer is hope, the future and resilience.

Each of us faces winter at some point in our lives, and all of us, I believe, have an invincible summer within us.

First, though, one has to find it and embrace it.

This podcast is my personal story of finding my own summer with the sure knowledge that everyone's path may well be different.

Mainly, I had to learn to do things I had never done before. But as the ancient Chinese prover tells us, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

Remember, as Nelson Mandela once wrote, "Hope is the greatest weapon in the world, when all else seems lost.

Regardless of whether you are responsible for the lemons in your life, or whether they are beyond your control, lemonade is what you want.

With Monday, January 8, being my first podcast of the new year, I focus on starting all over again, personal goals for this year. I do not talk about my usual topics of losing 10lbs, going for extended walks, finishing my book for the umpteenth time, practicing the piano once again, drinking less, but perhaps better wine and generally doing a better job with whatever it is I am doing.

Rather, I speak about what I have learned these past years in making presentations to lawyers and paralegals, business and civic groups, even churches.

I talk about beating depression many years ago, and wanting it to stay beaten, transparency, faith, happiness, passion, honesty, and making the right choices.

I want to follow the wisdom of Robert Frost...

" Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

I am taking a Christmas Pause for Podcasts this month and will have a new epidsode on January 8 in the new year. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to listen to one or more of these podcast since April.

I look forward to new and exciting episodes starting early next month with really interesting new guests. I will give a preview of a number of them soon.

Meanwhile, I wish you Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!

Jim

Earlier this year at a gathering in Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, after the funeral services of Wade's dear brother Roger, I saw Ann Smith, who spoke to me, introducing me to someone with the general words of "this is Jim Blackburn. He and Wade have so many stories, they can go on and on."

That story began for me in the spring of 1979, when Wade was co-counsel to Jeffrey MacDonald, and I was on the other side. From that moment on, like so many others, I was taken with the charm, wit, personality and just interesting person that was Wade Smith.

In the years that followed, we tried cases against each other, with each other, and then finally, I was his client as well as the client of my good friend, Rick Gammon.

This is one of those podcast interviews where you can just sit back, relax and enjoy story telling at its best.

From the beginnings of the law firm where he has practiced since 1964, to the high-profile cases he participated in, to other cases, not as well known, but still very important, to his philosophy in how to be a good lawyer, Wade takes you inside and tells you all about it.

But law is not all that Wade does. He sings, plays the guitar, writes much of the content of the Christmas cards he and Ann send every year, paints, loves photography, and yes, was once a great running back for the football team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He truly is a legendary lawyer with a passion for life. I hope you will enjoy the time you spend with him.