by John Sorce
john.sorce@theleaven.org
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Niekro name is well known among baseball fans.
Phil Niekro is known for his knuckleball, won over 300 games and is in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. His brother Joe pitched for 22 years and is the Houston Astros all-time wins leader with 144.
But the family also has roots in the Catholic faith.
J.J. Niekro, Joe’s son, played parts of five seasons in professional baseball with the Atlanta Braves organization before retiring last fall.
Since then, he has spoken across the country with Catholic Athletes for Christ and was in town in February as a keynote speaker at Men Under Construction.
“The best part was being with 600 Catholic men trying to grow in their faith,” Niekro said about the event. “I think in today’s culture, we’re seeing a lot of people taking their faith seriously, but now it’s time to go deeper.
“I think if I can share [my experiences] with those guys and they can share theirs with me, we can all grow in the body of Christ together.”
Niekro also stopped at several area schools and parishes while in the area. Among them was Bishop Ward in Kansas City, Kansas, on the morning of Feb. 20 to speak with the student body, as well as the baseball team.
“It was awesome being with the kids,” Niekro said. “They were really energetic and they love sports overall, and it’s great when you have that continued excellence in an athletic culture.
“I just want to contribute to it any way I can, especially in putting our Catholic faith at the focus of that.”
Growing up fast
Born and raised in Florida, Niekro was a cradle Catholic and attended Catholic school from elementary school all the way through high school.
But he didn’t have the easiest childhood. His father Joe suddenly died when the younger Niekro was 8 years old from a brain aneurysm.
He then lost his Uncle Phil 30 days later to cancer and his grandfather 40 days later.
All the men in his family were gone in a matter of weeks. But he turned to his faith and kept pressing forward.
“I had to get to professional baseball on my own,” Niekro said. “Whatever you want to be, doing everything on your own is a special gift that the Lord gives you because it makes everything that much more important in the long run.”
A chance to make disciples
The night before his Double-A debut in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2024, Niekro was awakened by what he thought was knocking at his door.
It turns out they were gunshots and the person in the apartment next to him had been murdered.
That experience left a lasting impact on Niekro and his teammates.
But anchored by his Catholic faith, Niekro found himself ministering through this difficult time to his equally shocked teammates.
For some of them, that ministry was life-changing.
“The next day at the field, there were guys making millions crying into my arms because they realized that one day, their life is going to end,” Niekro said. “I had my heart ready to receive them and we started a Bible study.
“A lot of those guys are now out of baseball and don’t have the things they’ve known as their foundation. That Bible study changed a lot of their lives.”
1% each day
One of his messages to the students was to find something to work at every day for 1% of the day — totaling 14 minutes and 24 seconds.
“If you really want to get better at a skill, you dedicate one percent of a day to that,” he said.
That was one thing that stood out to junior Sal Contreras, who is also the catcher on the baseball team.
“I liked the one-percent rule to get better at whatever it is,” Contreras said. “Even if it’s not baseball, you can spend 14 minutes and 24 seconds in prayer or in your Bible.
“Taking that time out of every day can really transform you.”
Building chemistry
During his time talking with the team, Niekro helped the players come up with goals for the season, one of which was to build better chemistry among them.
A big way that will happen, he said, will be to stay committed to Christ.
“If we can keep our body, mind and soul intimately united to Christ and our Catholic faith,” he said, “then the team chemistry, wins and fun will come.”
That, too, resonated with Contreras.
“It’s important because when I’m struggling or the team is struggling, I can look up to the Lord, put my faith in him and give him all my worries and anxieties.”
‘To dust you shall return’
With Ash Wednesday just two days prior to his visit, Niekro referred to the phrase recited when the priest distributes the ashes: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
He tied that in to his experience of doing prison ministry in Florida, where he visits death row to pray with the inmates.
Keeping this in mind helps him remember how short life is — the inevitability of death.
“When you realize this, we are all living on death row,” he said. “We’re just not in a cell.”
“I encourage you during this Lent,” he told the boys, “to have that same ‘memento mori’ experience and remember your death. That’s something I saw through losing my father, uncle and grandfather.”
When he was on his deathbed, Phil Niekro took his nephew’s hands and whispered to him, “J.J., I would trade my entire career to spend one more hour with my family.”
“That hit me really hard,” J.J. said. “I try to use that quote in everything I do.”
