What Makes Someone Elite? | JJ Wetherholt | St. Louis Cardinals

[Music] Where did the JJ moniker come from? Yeah, so it’s my grandma, my nana on my uh mom’s side called me John John when I was younger. And then um we moved to Pittsburgh, start signed up for football and my coach was like, I’m not going to call you John, so I’ll call you JJ. And then that just stuck ever since. So what are you excited about right now at this point in your development? Just continue to play every day. It’s kind of like the home stretch of the the season. And these are kind of the months you got to try to show some mental toughness cuz it’s easy for your brain to wander about, you know, the end of the year and all that type of stuff and get complacent, but just trying to show up every day and have that extra fight to to try to get better even this late in the year. So that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to. So where does your confidence come from? Yeah. So that’s for me is like that’s something I’ll talk about is like my faith and just just having that um belief that you know God has a plan for me. Like that’s where my confidence comes from. So it’s like it’s resting that and just just trying to play for him. So I call it like a audience of one. you know, whether you go 0 for four, four for four, um, it’s your efforts there. You know, the Lord doesn’t care. So, that’s just just what I believe in and I just try to put that to to the test every day. Are you liking getting some starts at third base? And what was that process like for you as far as understanding, you know, that you were going to be getting some starts at that position? It’s been a ton of fun. Um, I haven’t played there since freshman year of college and, you know, that whole year was new. I’d never really played third before that. So, always kind of been like a up the middle guy. It’s a little bit different, but I mean my skill set kind of gives me opportunity to play really good third base. Um I’m quick quick off the ball, have a good arm and a good glove. So kind of just trusting that working different feels and footwork and um being able to make consistent throws has been the biggest thing lately. But um I was excited for it. Like it’s an opportunity to grow as a player and just continue to to boost my skill set. Um and got a good intro of doing some early work there and then transition to the games and it’s been fun. What makes someone elite? If you’re talking to like a player on the field, off the field, like what you do each and every day, just putting yourself in the position to have success. But I mean, at the end of the day, like it’s going to come from results on the field. Like you’re not going to say somebody who doesn’t do well on the field is an elite player because, you know, there’s standards for that. And you know, when you look at elite players like Mike Trout, Mike Trout just has some of the best stats ever. So, um, but that guy’s just super consistent mentally. Um, works his butt off all the time. and like I don’t know him personally to to know exactly what he does, but I just know that, you know, he’s great and I’m sure his routines and practice and everything is great. So, um I think there’s just a testament to to guys like that that are just so smooth, consistent, and calm through everything they do. Um what’s your favorite hobby? Um I would probably say fishing. Um it’s kind of tough like just being able to get out there during the season, but anytime I get the chance to, it’s just kind of when I’m just at peace, you know, just out in nature and and catching some fish.

JJ Wetherholt discusses the origin of his “JJ” moniker, where his confidence comes from, and what he feels makes someone elite.

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