Cubs field reporter Taylor McGregor on living for Christ, her dad's legacy and women in baseball

Taylor McGregor welcome to sports Spectrum it's so good to see you so good to see you thanks for having me on what an honor this is going to be cool I'm excited to talk to you you have one of the coolest jobs I think in the country both as a team reporter with the Chicago Cubs the iconic Chicago Cubs but then to be able to also do college football in the fall when baseball's done and to be able to travel to some of the iconic venues if you will in all of sports is awesome and uh just excited to talk to you but we always try to make first things first on this show so let's start with your faith let's start with Christ who is Jesus in the life of Taylor McGregor what does he mean to you yeah well I would say everything um I would say that's really the foundation um and you mentioned just the jobs and I sit back and every day I'm so grateful and sometimes it's hard to believe that I've been blessed with this career because it's something I've wanted for so long um but I think it's also a reminder that this could be taken away from me at any point and the more that I try to find fulfillment and satisfaction from the job the more that it usually just leaves me empty and unfulfilled and so for me finding my identity and finding my foundation in Jesus helps me really enjoy the process and not make it too big because the reality is this job can feel really really big sometimes um but if you remember kind of your your path to get here who who created this all for you it keeps everything into perspective and um so Jesus is everything to me but I would say he's the foundation of My Hope and and the foundation of who I am as a human and that's the tension in this business that you and I have both worked in for many years is how do you do your work with Excellence how do you go all in and make sure you're doing your job at a high level and still not make it everything in your life still not make it an idol still not make it your identity what's that been like for you in this process for the last I don't know few years that you've been doing this yeah I think the identity comes from the idea that we surrender so much of our time we we've sacrificed so much in order to have these jobs and to live this lifestyle um and then there's a sense I would say for me a competitive aspect of I have these hopes and dreams and I really want to achieve them um but if that becomes what drives you I would say ultimately what I found is then when I'm doing my job I'm unfulfilled because this stuff was never meant to ultimately satisfy me um and so it's been it's been a constant struggle and I would say it's still going to be for years to come you know the reality is we're battling a a strong force in Satan and Satan wants to bring us down and so I'm not going to sit here and say I have it all figured out and that it's going to be smooth sailing from from here on out because there are still times when I I let idolatry and all of these things sure bleed into my life because these jobs are so amazing and the people we encounter are are are wonderful and so to not let that be number one can be challenging you know I don't have it all figured out but I think just a reminder that it I've tried to make it satisfy me and it's never worked and so um you know I'd be silly to think that one day it would satisfy me even if I get to the biggest of biggest stages it's still never going to be enough yeah no that's really well said we'll talk more about your role and kind of the journey in a second but tell me about where the sort of PIV moment comes for you when you say yes to Christ like when you're all in with him because there's whether you grew up in a Christian home or not I did not there still comes a point where I have to make that decision myself what was that Journey like and kind of that moment for you okay so I did grow up in a Christian home and I was very blessed with wonderful parents um both of which you know are strong in their faith and when I was 17 my dad passed away um but before that I was 16 and you know 16 it's it's so funny just relative now to think about it but at the time I was dealing with you know I had my first boyfriend who broke up with me and you know there were just different life things that were happening which was the first time IID experienced any of that and I would say I was going through a challenging season of life and that was before my dad had passed and he really poured into me in in those moments and got me to believe and understand that God is who he says he is and if if I believe that that completely changes my life and that completely changes my outlook on all of the things that were I was experiencing and living through in that moment and so um I I'll never forget um this is funny but one of my friends had gotten my brother's ski pass pulled because I was ignorant enough to allow my friend to borrow my brother's ski pass he got it pulled and it was this big huge thing and I thought my world was crashing down because it felt like it at the time and I was in all this trouble and whatever and my dad sat I was balling crying and my dad sat me down and just starts reading out of Proverbs and and just starts reading about all the things that God says about himself and his character and again if if I believe that well how does that change my situation and it was probably the first time although I had grown up in the church that I started to realize like oh if this is real and if I really believe this like this does change my Outlook this changes the way that I am experiencing my life right now um and so that was probably the start of it and then I would say once my dad passed away which was only a couple months after that incident that I just described um that's probably really when I was like oh this is real and I'm all in and you know Jesus is going to be a big part of my life um and I want to just touch a little bit when my dad passed away the day that I found out it's hard for some people to understand especially if you're not a Believer but that day was one of the it was the hardest day of my life but it was also a day that I've experienced an unshakable peace like never before in my life and I really believe that God came to me in that moment and moments after I found out my dad died and was like I've got him I'm real I'm alive and like I'm going to walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death and and I'll never forget that it it I I I remember and I try to live in that moment at times and through seasons of my life where I don't feel as close to God or I don't feel like you know the quote unquote feel of some of the the things that we go through and just a reminder of like no God's been faithful and he's going to continually be faithful um and so I would just say kind of when I was 16 17 and those were moments that really shaped it of course like all of us we go through seasons of life God promises seasons and I would say there's there's been times when I've um probably not been as close to the Lord and and and in pursuit of his goodness and kindness and been in a tight relationship with him and he always finds a way to pull me in um so there's ups and downs for sure but I would say when I was 16 17 is really when I accepted him into my life and made him the Lord and Savior that is fascinating to me and I say that and I know your dad Kelly McGregor he was the former president of the Colorado Rockies and I do want to talk about kind of just growing up in that environment because I feel like you had some of the coolest experiences that all of your friends were probably jealous of because you were a child of someone who was um you know in such a high level for a major league baseball team but at 17 that's a pivotal time for a young lady I have a daughter she's 20 now just turned 20 years old so kind of in that same area of age it's a fun age to kind of go through those Middle School years were not fun but once we got through high school and into college it's really a neat time to be a dad but at 17 you lose your dad and and and yet you're growing closer to the Lord and I just that piece you're right I mean the Bible talks about it it surpasses all understanding even for me as a Believer and I talk to you I have a hard time understanding how you can have peace in that moment because those moments sometimes people just run completely away from God and like you're not real like you just let my dad you know pass away at a pretty young age he was in his late 40s I think right so like why are you allowing that and yet that didn't take place for you or maybe you did go through this grieving process of being angry at God for a little bit before you kind of Drew closer can you expand on that a little bit yeah I would say in the moment is really when I felt that peace I would say for me the anger towards God came later you know they talk about the different stages of grief and that came later and I'm so thankful that I felt that peace immediately after because I was always able to draw in and and remind myself of the Lord is still faith the Lord is still good you know this this life that we live is just a blip in compar in comparison to Eternity and the comparison to the eternal life that I will get to live with my father without sin in a perfect place and so I I I I draw so much on that piece but yeah I I don't want to sit here and say that I never went through the grief and I never went through the highs and lows that come along with that because I most certainly did um but I was able to always draw on who God is his faithfulness to me and the peace that he gave the overwhelming peace that I was given immediately after hearing a news of my father um which sounds hard for people to process but it's something that for me changed my life and I still think about that moment and I still explain it and um the Lord has been so faithful to me with that yeah and what a legacy that he can leave even after um such a shocking loss and being so young that's still a pretty cool Legacy I mean clearly he's left this Legacy for you I don't know if you have brothers or sisters but just this Legacy for your family um of knowing the Lord the most important I always say to people I don't know what my daughter is going to become I don't know who she's going to marry yet she doesn't have a boyfriend I don't know all this but all I care about is that someday she's gonna live for for Jesus for the rest of her life and that's been um I guess the only goal that I have if I'm being honest like I want to love her and support her as a dad but like I just want to see her have this amazing connection and relationship with the Lord and it's growing for her it's it's great to watch and that sounds like that was a priority for your dad even in the midst of being the president of the Colorado Rockies and I would say it wasn't just a priority for him with his children which absolutely was but I would say everybody he came into contact with and when he passed um there was a story that I shared at his funeral um from a couple months before he passed away around the time that I had mentioned I was going through tough times as a 16-year-old um and him and I it was Christmas day and we were at courfield and that was kind of our time to go work out at corfield because usually women are not allowed anywhere near the weight room but on Christmas day I was and we were down there and I was running on the treadmill he had gone to the sauna and he gets out of the sauna and we're kind of wrapping up our our uh time at the gym and he says to me I just heard the Lord talk and again I was coming into my faith and I remember thinking that's are you sure like that's a little weird like what did he say and he said to trust in him and it's a simple statement um but it's the foundation of all of our faith him calling us into obedience and him calling us into trusting him and I would say just that statement and that idea of trusting in the Lord as the foundation of Our Lives has been his legacy to me and to so many others and so to make it all full circle at his funeral I shared that story um and then we had all these bracelets made you know kind of like the Liv strong bracelets but they said trust in him um and so I hope and I believe I do believe that he not only impacted me and my siblings viewpoints and relationships with the Lord but hopefully a lot of others who he came into contact with yeah I can tell you the first time I really heard your dad's name mentioned was in my relationship with Clint Hurdle and knowing a little bit and be friends with him and you know he wrote a great endorsement for my second book and then we we're on a Bible study call every week now and with Scott Whitaker is that the one no it's it's one with uh Mike Lynch who is a pastor uh you probably know his daughter Kelsey or his daughter-in-law Kelsey Winger oh yes yes yes yes okay oh yeah I heard about and Dan O da is on that call too it's a bunch of like baseball coaches and Scouts and and uh College Pro whatever but I see Clint every week and I just hear him kind of share his his story and often times he points to your dad to talk about people who were influenced in so it's just really cool to see like you say this Legacy is not just with your family but it's with so many other people yeah well I appreciate that Clint um has been wonderful to me and I'm so thankful for the way that he's carried on my father's Legacy and he speaks so openly about the the relationship they had and and the relationship that they created because of Jesus being at the center of it all and so he um he he is so wonderful and um thanks for sharing that that that's cool what was 2007 like as a 13 14 year old oh my god daughter to you know uh and probably a sports fan and watching the Rockies make that incredible run so I actually was just at Fenway a couple weeks ago for the first time since 2007 in the World Series and I had one of those oh my goodness moments because it was kind of Full Circle for me I would say in 2007 is really when I fell in love with the game of baseball sure I had grown up around the sport but for the most part the Rockies hadn't been very good when I was growing up so I didn't even barely know what baseball in October meant and then they go on that crazy run in o or in September winning 21 out of 22 into the postseason and I was a freshman in high school and I remember the the first Series against Philly game three was the night of my freshman homecoming and I didn't want to go to homecoming I wanted to go to the game but I had a date and my parents were like you you've already committed to this like you have to go and I went and I did not want to go I was like I want to be at the game I ended up leaving the dance like halfway through and going to the end of the game and I saw them clinch and you know eventually go to the NLCS and the World Series but um it was it it truly was one of the best months of my life and it's funny as a kid you don't really have perspective of just how special and amazing A Moment Like That is um but now I look back and I'm like wow what a blessing for me for my whole family um but I think the coolest part about all of that it was a culmination of work for a group of people who had taken an organ organization that was essentially bankrupt and turned them into a team competing for the World Series and my dad was on that list Clint Hurdle was on that list obviously all the players deserve so much credit but it was really really cool to experience that um from the perspective of somebody who saw the amount of work that it took to get there and that's what I saw my dad do for years is wanting to turn things around the right way and um produce results and and that's what they did and so it was just so cool getting to experience October in Colorado that ballpark packed was amazing obviously fenway's historic and to go in there although the Rockies you know were terrible in those two games in Boston it was it was just it was the time of my life and I'm so thankful that I got to experience that Taylor McGregor is our guest here on Sports Spectrum so was that 14-year-old thinking about broadcasting or even the 16-year-old that was going through what you when did the idea of going into broadcasting take shape it's funny I think at 14 I still wanted to be in the CIA so the CIA yeah I know so random that was what I wanted to do probably until 167 I think when my dad passed is right when I started to shift from the idea of going into Central Intelligence and you know switching to broadcasting which couldn't be further apart but um it's funny I was able to meet actually with an agent a CIA agent he couldn't tell me his name really couldn't tell me much information but I do remember him telling me if you choose this profession you have to understand it's a lot of time away from family it's very hard as a woman to have children to have a family and so if you choose this path just know that and I remember thinking okay well I want kids and you know I want some semblance of a social life so maybe that's not for me and then I always joke then I chose a profession that's also a lot of time away from friends and family um and is also can be hard for women to have children especially in baseball just because it's an everyday sport so um it's funny how that transition happened but I would say yes to your point it was around then when I really started paying attention to sports TV and being really plugged into you know the jobs available to women um is really was kind of when I made that transition and uh it was Carissa Thompson then Alana Rizzo as a reporter for the Rockies who I looked up to and thought those jobs would be really fun and then going into college when I went to Arkansas and it's big time SEC football getting to experience a Saturday in the South I thought I mean if I can experience this for the rest of my life every Saturday during the fall like sign me up so I would say you know end of high school early college is kind of when I made the transition so I'm gonna fast forward a little bit you end up working as a reporter with the Rockies which is really cool and had to be such a a unique um moment for you to kind of just be a part of this franchise in a different form as as a reporter but then there comes a PIV moment in 2020 welcome to 2020 where there was pivot moments everywhere for all of us but for you to Pivot and then take a job with where you are now with the Chicago Cubs covering them every day I really want to dive into what that was like from your mindset of feeling like hey I've been a part of this franchise since basically I was born right like the Rockies and now I'm gonna take this new opportunity and go with the Cubs listen that's an iconic franchise and be at Wrigley Field every day is about has to be the coolest thing ever but still there must have been some tension there I would imagine some wrestling maybe even with God to know that this was the direction you were supposed to go oh it was so hard there were sleepless nights and so much prayer that went into that decision and initially I said no I was like no I'm good in Denver I love Colorado I love the Summers there um it was I loved my crew that I worked with in Colorado we had so much fun they're still some of my very dear friends so the idea of leaving was really tough and the idea of leav leaving dick monford who's the owner of the team who's been nothing but amazing to me my whole life um was really challenging and I felt like I betrayed them in a way and I know and I well at least I hope that's not how they felt but I felt like I yeah I felt betray I felt like I was betraying them and I felt like I was betraying the Rockies which was such a weird internal battle for me because when you grow up around an organization you know I defended the Rockies my entire life um you know especially we always say baseball at the East Coast bias like yeah what do you mean like you can't forget about the team in the Rocky Mountains and um so there was just so much pride that I put into that organization and the idea of leaving them was so hard I I just kept my prayer was Lord give me the eyes to see and the ears to hear your your will and I ultimately felt that I was called to Chicago and I took a trip there for my interview and I remember Landing driving through the city in a car and being like I feel so much peace that this is where I'm supposed to be and that was really how I made my decision and there was a lot of other things that kind of happened that solidified the position for me and you know now I look back and it's it's just the Lord's faithfulness is amazing but in 2020 the world shut down and there was only 60 games played if I had stayed in Colorado I might have been able to work 30 games maybe um That season probably wouldn't have gotten paid a lot of money and so I probably would had to go out and find another job just to make ends meet um and then after that you know AT&T is no longer existent and so would I have been retained as a reporter I don't I don't know the answer to those questions and maybe not um and so I just I think just from a personal perspective when it comes to my career like the Lord was so faithful of like I went to Chicago and you know I still was paid for 2020 and I was still able to work a majority of the games that year and then you know Marquees is in a really good spot financially when all these rsns are struggling and so it it's just I look back and and the Lord had his hands over me and was was leading me and guiding me that didn't make the decision easier at the time but I I just look back and when he gave me that peace now I can reflect and say wow you know thank you Jesus for being there for me and you know for for knowing what was ahead of me before I knew and um I'm just so thankful I said it before and I'll say it again you have one of the coolest jobs because you get to be a Wrigley Field every day and get paid for it oh by the way tell people hey I used to get paid to watch football at ESPN how cool is that and they said sign me up and I'm like can you imagine getting paid to cover the Cubs every day at Wrigley Field but not only that because you and I I don't think we overlapped but you also work for ESPN in this in the in the fall and get it kind of scratch that itch that you talked about with Arkansas and hey let's hang out on Saturdays in the fall in the South and you get to cover games for college football so what is that like because you're a busy gal obviously that's a that's a lot of commitment but what's that transition like from being the reporter for the Cubs to then suddenly being sideline reporter at some of these incredible you know venues in college football it's a dream come true it really is I mean I stand on the sidelines on Saturdays and I have pinch me moments almost every week like I mean I'm getting chills thinking about it because being there is nothing more fulfilling for me personally than being down there on a Saturday afternoon when it is a packed house and those guys come running through the tunnel the crowd erupts and you know we're minutes from our the start of our show and it's why I got into the business if I'm honest like I wanted to do big-time college football and so I just feel so so grateful for the opportunity to do so um and it's it's just been so much fun I can't wait to see what the future holds for me when it comes to football in general because I just love covering the sport um but I will say to your point about the transition from baseball to football they're very different baseball's so much fun in a lot of ways and it's really great being with one team and really learning building relationships and and being in the grind of a full season with a group of players football obviously we get two new teams essentially every week so it's harder to build those relationships just because you don't see people as often right um but I love the aspect of football being down on the sideline and getting information that nobody else has and trying to contribute and make the broadcast better by the things that I'm seeing that again nobody else sees so it's a challenge um and it's something that I just I really really enjoy and I'm super thankful for it so forgive me for asking this if it comes across is is sort of negative but I'm not I don't mean it that way at all but how do you still find time for the Lord because that's a lot you know you're busy and and we're all busy like we could say hey this world we're just living in busyness all the time how do we find time for God but if he's a priority he says to seek him first so what does that look like for you in and even even out of season I'm so glad you asked that because I struggle with the idea of always saying yes and you know the climbing of the ladder if you will and the busyness that comes along with that and I would say one of the aspects of the industry that I'm in that I don't love is we glorify busyness and we glorify this idea of oh my gosh look at her she was in Chicago on Monday New York on Tuesday Dallas on Wednesday Milwaukee on Friday like and we oh the grind and I'm sitting there and and I I say this in two breaths one I'm very thankful for the opportunities I've been given and there's a part of that that's like this is awesome I love the fact that I get to do all this stuff then there's the other side of me that is like okay but where's my priority for my relationship with the Lord my relationship with my friends right my relationship with whoever I'm dating or whatever you know and that's hard um recently and this is still something I'm growing in I have felt the most empowered that I have felt in this industry is saying no because saying no to something in TV means saying a yes to something else and I was so scared of saying no for so long and recently I just had a situation I got asked to do something and I talked to my agent and I was like you know what no thanks you know I because I want to prioritize this in my personal life and investing in in this side of my life um more so than I want to do this game or whatever and um so I think that's the balance that I I'm trying to find um I'm very thankful for podcasts and for you know Bible apps on my phone because to be honest that's how I pursue the Lord in the middle of a really intense season um during the summer a lot of podcasts on the plane or wherever I'm traveling on the Bible app that I am able to read every morning so there's certainly things that I think technology have brought into all of our Lives as Believers that have been incredibly beneficial and a huge component of my faith um but to sit here and say it's been easy it's not been easy um I'm still kind of learning and um I think I'm encouraged by the fact that I can say no and I'm actually empowered by that decision no I appreciate that transparency and first of all I appreciate you saying yes to this because you could have said no to this too and said nope I got more important things but you said yes so I'm grateful for that what also I'm grateful about having a daughter and I only have one child and watching her kind of grow and Bloom and have opportunities is seeing so many women succeed in broadcasting but also succeeding in baseball and that's the coolest thing for me I love how it's just such an exciting time it feels like I watch a lot of you guys and we've had many of of these amazing women on the show that Jenny kavars and Melanie Newman and Trisha Whitakers and Kelsey Winger lynches as I mentioned earlier like it feels like you guys are all just each other's biggest cheerleaders and it also feels like obviously they're so talented but it's such a cool time to be in the sport of baseball as a as a female broadcaster yeah and I think that says a lot about the decision makers empowering women which I think is first and foremost the important uh part of all of this and people trusting women and the decision maker is making those decisions because they've seen women women really grind and know the sport and provide interesting Insight with Jenny Jenny is a huge mentor of mine and really somebody who I lean on in this industry and to see her get this opportunity it's something she's earned and she worked really hard to get there um so it's just been it's been so awesome to see and to your point about us all being each other's biggest Advocates I get asked about this a lot and to me it's like this job with would be so unfulfilling if it wasn't for the relationships that we all had the best part about what I do every single day is the people I come into contact with there's no question about it and going to the ballpark and whether that's the the oppon opposing broadcasters the players the coaches even the fans that we get to interact with they make this job fun so if you can't enjoy building somebody else up you're not going to enjoy your job very much and so I think it's it's just a culture that has been created with especially within baseball that is super beneficial and and I'm very thankful for all the women across the league who support each other yeah I love that I love watching and just even on social media how how much when people are posting something and then somebody else comments you like just cheering each other on it's just awesome to see and as a like I said as a a dad girl um I want to see more of that and I can't wait to see what what the future holds with that um all right story time and we'll finish up with this what is what is what would what do you remember was your first sort of wow I can't believe I get to do this moment in the role that you've had as a as a broadcaster uh the first one that just jumps off the page to me was probably a couple years ago I did the Florida Florida State game and it was Prime Time Abc the day after Thanksgiving it was the biggest audience I'd ever been in front of um and it was a packed house at dope Campbell and that rivalry is historic and I remember sitting on the sidelines pregame just oh my gosh I can't believe that I get to do this and I can't believe I've made it this far you know because it had been a dream for so long and then to be on a stage like that was really really cool um there's a lot of other moments I mean I'm actually up in New York right now I I host some shows for EML Network I was an intern at MLB Network 10 years ago when I was in college and I've had a lot of people come up to me in in the past few days that I've been here and talk about those days when I was an intern and those are kind of Pinch Me moments too that if you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be in the position that I'm in I would have thought oh my gosh I've made it um and so it I I have to celebrate those wins along the way um but then just to kind of Bring It all full circle like we talked about I think it's also a really good reminder for me that this job is amazing and I'm so grateful for it but it was never meant to s satisfy me um and and my relationship with the Lord and my my identity being found in Christ is the most important thing because yes I'm so grateful for everything I have but it's like the more you get the more you want and I've learned that pretty early and that's why I think it's just so important to be grounded in your faith in Christ and probably having a moment too you mentioned that it's good to be grounded but to be at Wrigley Field on a walkoff and you're kind of being that person with the microphone interview like I that's probably happened a few times at least I would say over the years yeah but that's still gota gota kind of be one of those Pinch Me moments too like I'm at Wrigley Field here interviewing whoever it is about this walk-off that's got to be the coolest moment too as far as being baseball's concerned for sure and I would say there's daily moments at Wrigley that are just whoa this is cool you know Friday 1:20 and it's a packed house and um you know because I'm there so often and I do it every day it probably doesn't hit the same um and I probably lose sight a little bit of how cool it is but I'm always reminded of people from people like you or even friends who visit Wrigley for the first time or who don't get out to Wrigley a lot and they make comments like that and it's a good reminder to me of oh yeah this is really really cool you know and I need to enjoy every single moment that I get to do this because I won't do it forever um but this season of my life has been amazing and I I just cherish all the moments that I get no that's good yeah I've been to Wrigley one time it was like 2014 I think or 2013 right before they started going on the run and eventually winning the World Series but it was cool like it I was you know I don't know what I was 38 at the time or whatever I thought it was the coolest thing ever to walk into Wrigley so I got my my Wrigley experience and I can I can understand though where you kind of get immune to that's how I felt at ESPN every day I thought like this is where I get to work look at where I get to hang out yes and I needed those reminders from people to say don't forget where you get to go every single day right uh and have a job so but is such a just just to really quick kind of bring it all back like I also believe again that's why being grounded in your faith and never letting your work be your identity because over time it's eventually going to wear off and I have a dream you know one day I would love to be the sideline reporter for a Super Bowl and I might get there I might not but if I get there eventually if it keeps happening over and over you know you probably doesn't hit the same um so that's why if if you're trying to find Ultimate joy and satisfaction out of these worldly things there's going to come a time when they let you down because it feels really good at first but then it wears off a little and um and our faith is so important to just stay grounded and constantly find that Joy because the joy of Jesus never wears off yeah and I don't doubt that you'll get that opportunity to be a sideline reporter at the Super Bowl but guess what you're going to wake up the next morning and it's done and then what else do you have then what you know that's the question I always I I think as I have come up in this business and I'm evaluating what I want what I want out of my life my question to myself is now what now what and if I'm living my life that like this it's like am I even enjoying the moment and am I always just looking forward to what's next and what whatever will be okay now I'm satisfied and I don't know if there is an answer that I will ever be satisfied with a job actually I know I will never be satisfied with a job because that like lingering question is reminded me of that so we can talk all day about that but I really appreciate you having me on this was so much fun to chat with you yeah Taylor you're awesome thanks so much for joining us and uh let's talk again soon for sure thank you hey thanks for watching sports Spectrum here on YouTube you can click our next video or you can check out our website sportspectrum tocom