Jonathan Cornelius- Springfield Cardinals

Jono Cornelius started playing baseball professionally in the Cardinals system in 2011.  The Cards obviously think highly of his pitching as he is already at AA!

He sent me a great note recently about his career, and he signed I photo I took of him last year in Davenport.

He tells me that he really enjoyed playing in the Midwest League, especially in a great atmosphere like Quad Cities.

Growing up, he and his dad shared a love of the Braves.  He became a Rays fan as soon as they started up in his home territory of Tampa.  He excitedly tells me that they had season tickets for a while and he was there for the first game in Rays history!  His seat was right behind the right field foul pole!

He says proudly that ever since the Cardinals drafted him, he has been a loyal Cards fan and he does not cheer for any other team.

Growing up, his favorite players were Fred McGriff and Tom Glavine.

He tells me that though he was in Florida, he didn't attend many spring training or minor league games.

Jono tells me that he loves baseball books, especially "The Mental ABCs of Pitching."  He gives that book a lot of credit for helping him while he pitched for Florida Tech.

I asked him about playing in Kentucky, and he says that he only passed through on a trip to Wisconsin.  He did play summer ball in Martinsville, Virginia in 2010 though.  He says that he loved every minute of that.  He loved his host family there and talks at length about how good they were to him.