{"id":20054,"date":"2013-03-14T14:48:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20054"},"modified":"2013-03-14T14:51:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:51:02","slug":"troubled-ex-baseball-star-attempting-to-change-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20054","title":{"rendered":"Troubled Ex-Baseball Star Attempting To Change His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elijah Dukes<\/strong> said when he was a teenager, and his father went to prison, that was the beginning of a series of bad decisions and displaced anger that cost him a career as a Major League ball player.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows about the problems I\u2019ve had, and I know a lot of people have written me off. There was one person, however, who never gave up on me, and that person is God.<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said right now, he\u2019s trying to get more involved with his five children, coaching, and giving back to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to move forward with my life, and I understand I must live by the laws of the land like everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve started attending church, and for the first time, I\u2019ve had time to concentrate on what I need to do to get my life together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said he\u2019s getting back into baseball, and trying to create a stress free life for himself and his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have rules to follow, and everything will be fine if we can do that. I have matured tremendously over the past 10 years, and now that I\u2019m able to take a step back, this is the time for me to be a father to my children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I was going through with the mothers of my children caused me to withdraw from them, and that should have never happened. Now, I understand I can be a part of their lives in spite of the differences I may have with their mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said as far as professional baseball is concerned, it\u2019s on the back burner right now, but not totally out of the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still young and in great shape. I plan to take a year to get things cleaned up in my life so I can move forward without all the stress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I was my own worst enemy, and now I plan to stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> has reunited with one of his former trainers, Joe Troupe<\/strong>, and he is mentoring Troupe\u2019s son as a baseball player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate what Joe did for me with the opportunity to play professional baseball. Everything that happened after that was my own doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said his siblings and mother are all riding with him in this growing process, and they\u2019ve started communicating better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a real plus in my life that I can actually talk to them face-to-face now instead of over the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I had pushed away from my family, and all they were trying to do is offer me support. With all I\u2019ve been through, they\u2019ve been there for me from the beginning to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said they are more personal now, and have the utmost respect for each other. He said he also understands that at the end of the day, family is all you have, so they should be the last people you turn away from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always respected my elders and family, and I plan to keep it going.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m working on creating an organization called \u2018Serving Wisdom In<\/em> New Generations\u2019 (SWING).<\/em> I want to bridge the gap between the church and the community, because I feel our clergy have not done their part in rescuing our children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the wisdom of our elders, so we need them to get more involved with the youth so they can develop a personal relationship, and teach them to hold themselves accountable for the mistakes they make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> plans to offer free baseball camps, tutoring, children activities, and a\u00a0 youth ministry in the future, but said he will need the support of everyone to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to raise awareness that our young people are not alone, and there are people out there who want to help them. I\u2019ll go door-to-door if I need to, because it\u2019s that important to me and them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to help kids work through their problems, especially the ones at home, and teach them to love and care about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes<\/strong> said he hopes that what he did in the past, will help kids having problems relate to him better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they see I\u2019ve made the same mistakes they\u2019re making, I can show them what\u2019s in their future, and turn them around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the kids to understand they have choices, and teach them how to make the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer Elijah Dukes said when he was a teenager, and his father went to prison, that was the beginning of a series of bad decisions and displaced anger that cost him a career as a Major League ball player. \u201cEveryone knows about the problems I\u2019ve had, and I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}