NORFOLK, Va. - When he's not beating people on the diamond, he's dropping beats at the turntable.
St. Louis Cardinals pitching prospect and Great Bridge High School product Connor Jones doubles as a ballplayer and DJ.
While music in his craft once only meant a pitch that's high and in, in high school it took on a new meaning when he took up DJing after attending concerts in Norfolk.
"I was fascinated and really curious by what the DJ was doing," Jones said. "That kind of sparked an interest and I was just looking all over YouTube.
"I learned a lot just from watching those videos."
Now, Jones is the one providing videos.
While Jones's professional baseball career is at a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic, he streams videos on Twitch multiple days a week. At 2 p.m. Eastern Time on weekdays he plays a variety of genres. He also hosts Electric Tuesday, Friday Fiesta and the Good Vibes Lounge on Saturdays.
While playing college ball at the University of Virginia, DJing went from a hobby to the opportunity to play paying gigs.
"When the opportunities arose at college I met with coach [Brian] O'Connor at UVA and I said look, this is an opportunity that has presented itself. Are you okay? I'd do it responsibly and I'm not gonna be DJing the night before I pitch or anything like that," Conner said. "They were like yeah.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself and sometimes when I didn't do well that was really hard when I didn't have an outlet. I didn't have anything else to go to really. DJing, that helped me a lot, just mentally having an outlet. DJing did the same thing for me in quarantine. Every time I got on Twitter there was just some negative news or a lot of divisiveness and tension. I felt like there was no escape from it and little did I know I would find it on Twitch."
