Joe Wieland
Episode 252
27 NOV 2023
He has been playing professional baseball since being selected in the fourth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft by the Texas Rangers. He is a pitcher who has played in MLB for the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Seattle Mariners, plus he has earned numerous honors while pitching at the minor league level, and he even spent a couple seasons pitching in Japan and one other in Korea. As a student-athlete he had been named State Player of the Year by two newspapers while playing high school baseball.
Notable guest quotes:
“The Catholic faith was a priority with my parents, my grandma and grandpa, Sunday Mass, it was a necessity growing up. I went to Our Lady of the Snows elementary school and then I went to Bishop Manogue Catholic High School. While I was at Manogue I went – and actually led – a Quest Retreat … and then… Kairos.”
“Growing up the Catholic faith was – a cradle Catholic – it always part of my life.”
(waiting for the MLB Draft) “There was a lot of praying. There was a lot of just asking for guidance, and at the end of the day it’s going to work out the way it’s supposed to. God’s got a plan and we were fortunate enough that Texas came calling in the fourth round.”
“You can’t just be kind of a, say you’re Catholic, go through the motions, go to Mass sometimes; it’s, you gotta be all in.”
“That retreat was really what kinda lit and got my faith journey kinda more back on track and full head of steam.”
“I realized going through that whole rehab process, if I had not relied on my faith… I don’t know where I would’ve ended up.”
“That year I really had to trust what God’s plan was because the writing was on the wall; hey, you’re healthy, and you’re pitching, you’re gonna be in the big leagues… it was tough.”
“It’s God’s plan, it’s not ours. That’s what you really have to grasp, and you trust that it’s not your plan. And when you do, when you fully let go, you see all along that things are better when you trust, and you let God handle it.”
“Going through that consecration it brought me so much closer to Jesus and through St. Joseph… And then I’ve had a devotion to Mary for a while now. I feel like the rosary is a weapon against Satan that I think every Catholic should be carrying around and praying.”
Related links:
Joe Wieland on MLB.com
Joe Wieland on MiLB.com
