2024 Drive for Life Preview with Aaron Zeigler and Baseball Legend Kirk Gibson| EP137

How about a luxury yacht trip to the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands? Three couples. It's a 114 foot powerboat. You've got a full crew, chef on board.

Welcome everyone to the driving vision podcast brought to you by the Zigler Auto Group. I'm your host, Sam Dark. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Like it if you do, and leave a comment. Do you have your ticket to this year's Drive For Life Foundation Gala yet?

It's 1 week from today, Monday, September 23rd in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and this year promises to be an incredible evening featuring baseball great Kirk Gibson. Purchase your ticket now to join us at the event by emailing mp@ziegler.com. Today's episode features a few short clips from a longer interview with Kirk at his office outside Detroit, Michigan. But first, Aaron Ziegler previews this year's live auction items.

Ride for life is coming up on September 23rd, and we have some unbelievable live auction items that you will not find anywhere else in the world but here. Starting with, how about a luxury yacht trip to the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands? Three couples. It's a 114 foot powerboat. You've got a full crew, chef on board.

You also have a 36 foot tender, a couple of jet skis, be an amazing time in the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands. If you'd rather do a sailboat, we've also got a British Island Catamaran trip, also for 3 couples for a, a week this winter down there. Virgin Islands are absolutely gorgeous. You get a a catamaran for a week down there. If you're a hunter, we've got a African hunting and safari experience for 4 people, includes 2 hunters and 2 nonhunters for 7 days.

You get to live out your African safari dreams as you hunt in the Mabatabe Safari main camp. Also includes a chef pairing, your cuisine, be a great experience if you love hunting. We've got a dinner for 16 people that is an ultra premium wine dinner. So you're gonna be able to experience some wines that you've never experienced before. Dinner is provided by an executive chef for 16 people out on Gull Lake.

If you're a horse racing fan, Tucky Derby, you take 2 people down to the 100 and 51st Kentucky Derby. That's on May 3, 2025. You're gonna be in a suite there, box seats, all the food and beverages, and you also get a private flight from anywhere in the Eastern United States. Lodging is included from Thursday through Sunday. Gonna be an incredible experience if you've never been to the Kentucky Derby.

Back by popular demand, we've got Green Bay Packers suite. They're gonna be playing the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, October 13th. This is for 4 people. Private jet from Kalamazoo to Lambeau Field. Every football fan's gotta see a game at Lambeau at some point.

So 4 people, Private Jet, you watch the game from a suite at Lambo Field. We've got a, a condo at Trump Towers in downtown Chicago for 2 couples. It's on the 74th floor of, Trump. Also includes a world class dinner at 1 of Chicago's finest steak houses, Maple and Ash. That can be used anytime in the, the next year for 2 couples, 4 people.

24th floor of Trump, it's a 2 bedroom condo, floor to ceiling windows overlooking downtown Chicago, and a great dinner included as well. If you wanna go further south, we've got a penthouse condo at Fort Myers Beach. It's 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom for 7 days, 7 nights for, 2 couples in the, the heart of Fort Myers Beach overlooking Fishtail Marina. If you're a sports fan, hockey fan, we've got a Chicago Blackhawks game. They're one of the original 6 teams.

We got a full suite there. Beverages, food, everything's included, parking passes for 10 people. Also have a suite in Detroit at Little Caesar's arena. This is gonna be for 14 people, includes all food, all beverage. On October 24th, the Detroit Red Wings are playing the New Jersey Devils.

So for 14 people, all food, all drink, parking passes, Detroit Red Wings suite as well. If you're a basketball fan, we've got 12 Michigan State basketball tickets that include 4 court side seats. You cannot buy these seats. You can't get them anywhere else, but we have 4 court side seats, and then we have 8 seats that are center court about 10 rows up. Also includes 2 parking passes.

Michigan State's gonna have an unbelievable team this year, and you'll have your choice of, different games for that. For you NASCAR fans out there, you get to be a part of a NASCAR team for a day. This is Carson Josevar, who's who's right now leading rookie of the year. He's gonna be at the event that night. He races for, team Ziegler.

He's having an unbelievable season. Last week, he qualified second at the race. He's had a bunch of top ten finishes this year, and he just keeps getting better and better. But you get to spend the weekend with Carson, all access behind the scenes. You get to stand, next to his car for the national anthem.

You get to go see his race hauler, get to hang out with the, the pit crew, and then you get to watch the race with a headset on. Listen to the driver talk to his pit crew from the pit box. So incredible experience if you're, like, you're a NASCAR fan. We've got a a suite for Western Michigan football this year against Northern Illinois. This is for 26 people on November 6th, all food and beverage included.

So Western Michigan versus Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois beat Notre Dame last weekend, so that might be for the match championship this year. Western's got a really good football team and so does Northern Illinois. If you're a Michigan State football fan, we've got Michigan State club seats. This is another thing that you cannot buy.

This is for 8 people. These seats are located on the, 50 yard line. All food and drink is included, and that's for them playing on November 10 against Rutgers or November 30th game against Purdue. Your choice on, either one of those games. And then our speaker this year is Kurt Gibson.

Kurt is, one of the greatest baseball players ever to play baseball. He had one of the most exciting moments ever in world series history. He's a legendary Detroit Tigers player, and, we're gonna have jerseys, bats, and baseball signed by, Kirk as well. Lots of great auction items, you know, so get prepared coming up and, you know, talk to some friends on some of those that you can combine, different, people with to, to bid bid high. It's for a great cause.

All the money goes a 100% to, charity for these auction items. Thanks a lot, and we look forward to seeing you at Drive For Life on September 23rd at the Radisson Hotel in downtown

Kalamazoo. The Gossage home run, it wouldn't have been that much except he refused to walk me. Uh-huh. Basically saying, I own you, and you won't get me. And, when I was in LA, the the Acker's lay home run, it's just like I played all year, and I and I knew I probably couldn't play, you know, all the innings, but I I could suck it up for 1.

And and it's just the fact that you suck it up and you Yeah. You try and do, you know, 60%. Healthy Curt Gibson might be better than a 100% somebody else. Much more powerful to play for others than it is yourself. Mhmm.

Because you always make the right decision. And when you play for yourself, you're selfish and you're just thinking about you. In 1988, I won the national league MVP, and we won the world series. So for the the MVP, we had a get together of 60 or 80 people, and it was all about me and it sucked. Mhmm.

We had a parade for the whole series, a 1000000 people. That was fun. Yeah. You just think of the party, think of the outcome. Anybody who played any kind of sports, competitive sports, if it was in a band or anything, they did things together.

It's a riot. They all miss the camaraderie. They all miss the togetherness. You know, how is it you can walk into a room, 50 people that you haven't seen for 35 years and immediately your language, your slang that you carried around with you, whatever that was, it's just right there. You know, some people are chucking out, the nicknames are coming.

It's good to do things together. It's fun. It's the Kirk Gibson Center For Parkinson's is what it is. What the name says, it's a center. I want it to bring people together.

Parkinson's is one of the fastest growing neurological diseases and there's so many people that are out there trying to do well, but there's so many people that need help. Yeah. And we're gonna create a center where we can have that teamwork, community, atmosphere. And, you know, we have a little fun and, we'll get serious at times, but ultimately, we wanna accomplish our goal and that's create a facility and fully fund it 10 years.

A special thanks to Aaron Ziegler, Kirk Gibson, and everyone who contributed to this episode. Until next week, how are you driving vision today?