Before I begin discussing a “Planet of the Apes” movie … and please stay with me on this, because the film is actually relevant to my daily weekday feature: The Cardinals Spring Training Question of the Day.
First, I must pound my chest like a gorilla, and hoot about something: I am burned out on “leadership” obsession as it pertains to the 2026 St. Louis Cardinals. A new era of Cardinals baseball began in the early-morning sunlight of Camp Jupiter.
This is a big deal, but the trading of Brendan Donovan did not plunge baby-bird Cardinals into an immediate leadership crisis. There is no emergency. A “new” team leader will emerge in time, and it will happen naturally.
The way Cardinals manager Oli Marmol fields these pepper-ball “Who Will Lead This Team?” questions that come at him with reliable frequency, you’d think he was standing in the infield dirt, scooping ground balls.
“People think of leadership where you all of a sudden are standing in front of the room and speaking,” Marmol said. “It happens way more organically. No one goes from not leading to ‘I'm the guy.’
“You don't just step into it … you start to understand and hear the principles that we stand for and by the second or third year and you start to live them out a little more and become a little bit more courageous about saying something to somebody … or if something doesn't align with what we're trying to do, then you're a little bit more comfortable (saying something) but it's not like this big jump.
“That's why when I say collective like we have a lot of people in that bucket you just described and if they all start to embrace some of the things that we've talked about over the last couple years like you just start to see it kind of take shape.”
A coupla question for the Leadership Worrywarts:
1. The 2023 Cardinals had Adam Wainwright, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Tommy Edman. Leaders. And in the worst full season by a Cardinals team since 1990, the leadership-heavy ‘23 Cardinals went 71-91 and finished 21 games behind the first-place Brewers. If leadership is so important, then why were the 2023 Cardinals the baseball equivalent of a septic-tank explosion?
2. Did the 2004 Cardinals win because they had more team leaders than team RBIs … or did they shred the opposition for a 105-victory season because they employed Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Edgar Renteria, Larry Walker, Chris Carpenter, Matt Morris, Jason Isringhausen and the fantastic catching duo of Mike Matheny and rookie Yadier Molina?
3. In the aftermath of their 2006 World Series title did the 2007 Cardinals have a losing season (78-84) because of an extreme leadership shortage, even though many of the championship-winning players were still in place? Was the team’s leadership on the IL? Or perhaps there was another reason for the lost season: the 2007 Cardinals ranked 11th in the National League in runs scored per game, 14th in slugging percentage, and 13th in runs allowed? Tough to say.
4. Given the intense interest and frantic urgency to identify, declare and immediately install a team leader, should we go to the polls and vote? Can the Cardinals set up an online voting process? That would be fun.
5. The 2024 Cardinals recruited and signed three starting pitchers in free agency – Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. All three gentlemen had outstanding reputations for their experienced, veteran leadership. The ‘24 Cardinals did have a winning season (83-79) but ranked 11th in the NL and 20th overall in starting-pitching ERA. Did the leaders fail to lead? No. That team was OK, but their attempt to contend was doomed by a depressing 5-12 stretch in August.
Derek Jeter: "Leadership is more about what you do, not what you say.”
The great Orioles manager Earl Weaver: “In 1971, we had four 20-game winners in our starting rotation, and five of the guys in our lineup received MVP votes that year. Sportswriters talk about leadership. I’d rather have four 20-game winners and five hitters good enough to get MVP votes.”
As for the search for a leader in the Cardinals clubhouse, two players are obvious candidates.
Masyn Winn.
JJ Wetherholt.
As the new era begins, I believe this is true of Winn and Wetherholt: this is their team, this is their time, and the leadership aspect will kick in and develop naturally. We don’t need to anoint leaders. Leaders stand up. They stand out. And teammates look to them. And follow them. There are no ceremonies. No one gives them a medal. There is no schedule, or a specific date on the calendar.
Winn is entering his third full major-league season. The NL’s 2025 Gold Glove shortstop, Winn’s age is 23 years and 10 months.
Wetherholt is a strong NL Rookie of the Year candidate, age 23 years and 5 months.
Their personalities fit the leadership matrix. They will be central figures, and emerging stars, to lead this rebuilding project. As they go, the Cardinals will go. Sure, they’re going to need help. That’s the thing about leaders; they don’t do it alone. And you can have the best damn leader in sports in your clubhouse, and if the pitching stinks, the defense is terrible, and the lineup is easily disposed … Well, that leadership can’t prevent your team from sinking below .500.
People watch too many sappy sports movies – with a lot of fiction in the screenplay – and think that leadership is something that comes out of a casting call. Like the script is real life.
The authentic stuff – true leadership, not the acting – is a helluva lot more difficult.
MASYN WINN?
He has personality traits that add up to something rare for such a young player. He’s vocal and demonstrative without being immature. He sets the example with his work ethic and commitment to excellence. He’s confident – but humble. He’s really smart – but knows he has so much more to learn. When he makes a mistake, he owns it. He’s available. He’s accountable.
Winn has that swagger vibe, and teammates tap into it. In my experience covering pro sports, especially baseball, players gravitate to a teammate who is hardwired with an edgy attitude – but who also brings joy to the game because he loves it so.
Winn can connect with any type of teammate. And Masyn Winn is PROUD to be a Cardinal. He wants to be a Cardinal. He wants to help shape this new team’s identity. He wants to take ownership. He wants to be a building block. He wants to help set the foundation, and layer it with professionalism and magnetism.
Wetherholt?
Here’s some testimony from Randy Mazey, his coach at West Virginia.
“Some guys come along that can singlehandedly change the face of an entire program. JJ Wetherholt has changed West Virginia baseball forever.”
In another interview Mazey offered this: “He was our leader, our competitive engine. And his personality became our team’s collective personality.”
And some Cardinals fans and media say Wetherholt is too young to be a leader? Are you kidding me? Yo, pay attention! Dudes like him don’t come along very often.
OK, so what the heck was I talking about earlier in this column when I brought up a Planet of the Apes movie?
At West Virginia, Wetherholt helped lead the Mountaineers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since the 1960s.
And based on the local reporting on the team at the time, Wetherholt found a way to dramatically alter the attitude and confidence of a West Virginia team that was a little wobbly and slumping before the NCAA Tournament.
Wetherholt liked the 2011 film, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” And the underlying message motivated him.
JJ took a line from the film, and repeated it to his teammates. He did this many times to cultivate a collective underdog mentality
“Apes alone…weak.
“Apes together…strong.”
That came from the character “Caesar” in the film. And it became Wetherholt’s mantra. And his team’s mantra.
The WVU players followed JJ’s lead and bought into the narrative: Caesar led the apes by developing an unbreakable camaraderie to give them an advantage over the more technologically equipped humans.
The team meme took off. The WVU squad embraced it. Rallied around it. All because Wetherholt took the initiative to lead in a creative way when his team needed a re-chargeing. And in 2024, WVU reached the regional round of the NCAA tournament for the second straight season.
As Wetherholt said at the time:
“I just started being a gorilla in an intrasquad scrimmage. And I just figured (in the tournament) we were going to play some good teams – teams that were ranked higher than us [and] picked to win. So, I was just a gorilla all weekend, and it just helped some of the guys stay loose.”
Yep. Wetherholt thumped chest. Walked on all fours. Made hooting sounds. Did his best gorilla impersonation. His teammates cracked up. Loved every minute of it. Wetherholt took an uptight team and got them to relax and play good ball instead of fretting. The joy of the game returned.
That.
Is.
Leadership.
In the film, Caesar and the apes battled and prevailed – against all odds – by overcoming every competitive disadvantage. And so did JJ and the Mountaineers.
And people out there don’t think that this kid can lead because he’s a rookie?
That’s hysterical. Winn and Wetherholt are ideal leaders for this new generation of Cardinals. It will happen -- and probably sooner than expected. C'mon, worrywarts. Just go with it.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams.
Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball.
Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows.
And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.