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MORGANTOWN -- If you can read, and you wouldn't be looking at this if you couldn't, you are well aware of what WVU second baseman JJ Wetherholt has meant to the surging West Virginia baseball team that has captured the state's imagination with its run of nine straight victories, the latest over Pitt as the Mountaineers moved to their highest ranking ever at No. 12.
It's been in all the papers and on all the websites and probably talked about in your local tavern or coffee shop.
The kid is hitting an unimaginable .470 with a 1.341 on-base-plus-slugging average with 12 homers, 51 RBIs and 31 stolen bases.
But, even seeing that, do you really understand how much he means to the team that will spend this weekend at home in the raucous atmosphere that has been created at Mon County Ballpark facing Oklahoma, trying to build on what seems destined to lead them to hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2019?
See, in sports, numbers are magnified but what a man does for the team by his presence, by his persona means as much as the numbers. The great ones not only raise the bar for excellence, but their presence helps lead the team over that bar.
Randy Mazey, the Mountaineer leader, understands that. He understands how a team works on personal relationships, and on how there's more to being a superstar than just individual performance.
"You guys follow stats more than I do," Mazey said, "but I'd be curious to know what Bradon Barry's average is after JJ hits a homer. It seems like Barry just smashes the baseball."
Well, we can't provide that for you, but we can provide what he does in games where Wetherholt hits a home run.
His average is .380 in such games, collecting 19 hits in 50 at bats, scoring 15 runs and driving in 9. In all other games during the year, he is hitting .271.
"JJ has that effect on people," Mazey went on. "Sometimes leaders have to talk to people but JJ leads them with his bat and his legs and his arm and the way he plays. Everything about JJ has leadership written all over it."
There can be false leaders.
Some guys talk big, play little, but the phrase "He talks softly and carries a big stick" was seemingly created just to describe Wetherholt.
"Real leaders can influence the people around them without saying anything and that's what JJ is doing," Mazey said.
Take a look at Wetherholt's home runs. He has homered in 12 games and WVU's record in those games is 11-1.
His performance level in those 12 games? Off the charts. No, more than that … out of this world. Out of this universe, really.
In those 12 games in which he's hit home runs, Wetherholt is -- better sit down for this -- 33 for 48. That figures out to a batting average of .688 in games in which he has homered.
Now it's true, many came in blowouts, but his homers seldom were hit once the outcome was decided.
His first homer tied the game against Arizona in the third inning and WVU went on to win, 6-5. His third homer, a two-run shot, came in an 8-5 victory over VCU. His next home run came with WVU trailing Canisius, 1-0, in the first, giving them the lead that would grow to 8-1.
His next home run came in a 15-7 victory over Minnesota, but it was the timing that mattered, for it came in the fifth inning of a game in which they held a two-run lead.
Then there was a 14-2 blowout over Penn State … but it started in a scoreless game in the third inning when he hit a grand slam. Next home run came in a 10-0 win over Baylor, again being far more important than it may have looked, for WVU was up 1-0 in the seventh when he hit it.
And then there was a game in which WVU led, 5-4, when he homered in the fifth, igniting them to an 18-4 win.
Finally, his last home run was Wednesday night against Pitt when, up 3-0, he put it out of reach with a three-run shot in the fourth.
Wetherholt has hit a home run in each of the last three games.
All the individual stuff has been fine, but great players do all they can to not let it separate them from their teammates and invade the locker room atmosphere.
"With the season I'm having, it would be easy to get a solo mindset and only care about yourself," Wetherholt admitted. "With how good the other guys are playing, I'm playing for them. I'm playing for everybody. It's like, I don't care how I do. I just want to help the team win. That's the biggest thing. With the way the team is playing, it takes the pressure off you and I can just go out there and have fun."
Hitting .460 can be a lot of fun.
But here's the real tipoff on Wetherholt. He has his own hero on the team in the grad student shortstop Tevin Tucker, who has risen to his greatest height quite unexpectedly this year.
After hitting .181 last year, Tucker has climbed to .367 this season, more than doubling his average. In fact, his average added together over the past two years comes to just .351.
Yet he has been the biggest influence on Wetherholt in the two years he's been at WVU.
"That guy's my brother," Wetherholt said. "He's been the best role model I've had outside of my family. He's taken me under his wing since day one and showed me the ropes. We're always talking, he pushes me, I push him. He's a big reason behind my success."