When Jonathan was six years old, he was deemed too big to play with other children his age.

"They kicked me out of T-ball. They wouldn't let me play T-ball," he said. "They said I was going to hurt somebody. I went and played with the 12-year-olds and I actually made the All-Star team and they wouldn't let me play that. They said I was too young to play that."

"My whole family's been around ball," he said. "My brother Chris went to a junior college on baseball and hurt his shoulder and my sister Jeanne had a chance to go play fast-pitch softball and she turned it down to stay closer to home."

He grew up and still lives in Waynesboro, Georgia, a town of 6,000 people that is known as the Bird Dog Capital of the World. He was a fan of the Atlanta Braves. His family was all into the Braves and all sports. His father was on a competitive traveling softball team. His mother also played. His older brother was a junior college pitcher and his sister was offered a softball scholarship that she turned down to focus on her studies.

Broxton's father, Randy, had numerous trophies and pictures in the house.

"But I'd never hear him talk about it," Broxton said.

Broxton said he liked that about his father and tried to be that way himself.

"I don't want to be arrogant," Broxton said. "I don't like to sit there and brag about it."

He said that's why he didn't say much when he made the All-Star team. Or why he has few words to say about any of his saves.

He doesn't talk about baseball with his wife, Elizabeth, he said. Humility isn't the only reason. Baseball is too personal, too sacred to talk about, he said.

"I'd rather keep it to myself because it's not just a job," he said. "It's something God's given me a chance to do. You have to treat it as more than a job."  (Dylan Hernandez-LA Times-8/25/09)

Broxton's hometown of Waynesboro, Georgia has four traffic lights. There are the usual fast-food places and some Mom and Pop restaurants. The place to hang out when he was growing up was a gas station parking lot.

"But my parents would never let me hang out," Jonathan said.

During the offseason before 2007 spring training, Jonathan and Atlanta's Chipper Jones went hunting. That was a real treat for the pitcher.

"When I was in Little League, I wore number 10 because Chipper was my hero growing up," Broxton said.

Jonathan is a bit of a "soft-talker," like from the Seinfeld episode. You have to get right next to him to hear what he is saying.

"I've been kind of shy my whole life," Broxton said. "I don't speak out real loud. I just like to take care of my business and not show my business."

He speaks in a hushed voice and rarely offers more than a couple of sentences at a time. In the hours leading up to games, he's often seen sitting quietly in front of his locker playing video games.

Russell Martin started catching Broxton when they were playing for Class-A Vero Beach in 2004 but, when asked how long it took to get to know the reliever, laughed and said, "About seven years."

June 11, 2009: Jonathan's wife, Elizabeth, delivered their first child, a son, named Jonathan Brooks Broxton in Waynesboro, Georgia. The Daddy was there, but less than half an hour before Elizabeth delivered the little guy.

"He loves the outdoors," Jonathan says of his son. "We've got a boat in Arizona to go fishing during spring training. He loves it."

During the offseason before 2012 spring training, Broxton got to hang out with Ned Yost, Royals manager, before he had even signed with the club.

As it happened, Broxton loves to hunt and, heck, there was Yost also living in Georgia and his buddy, funnyman Jeff Foxworthy, had all these acres with deer running around and ... it was come on over and hunt a spell.

"He's an everyday hunter, he loves it. He's in Luke Hochevar's class," Yost said.

So they went bow-hunting. Broxton was given a crossbow—no sense risking that pitching elbow by pulling back on a string—and he and Yost, fellow Georgian Jeff Francoeur and the gang got out in the woods and had a good ol' time.

Reds pitcher Homer Bailey has a few mementos from his two no-hitters within 10 months. On September 9, 2013, Bailey received one that qualified as out of the ordinary. It was a finely appointed leather saddle, courtesy of reliever and teammate Jonathan Broxton.

Off the field, Bailey likes to ride horses and practice roping, and keeps some equine in nearby Butler County during the season. Embossed on the sides of the saddle are the dates of Bailey's no-no's—Sept. 28, 2012, (vs. the Pirates) and July 2, 2013 (vs. the Giants).

Jonathan said the his father was his biggest inspiration in the game.

"My Dad was always at the field with me, working with me from when I was 4 years old until now. He still talks with me, and I try to do the same with my kids."

In 2014, he was driving a Ford F-150 pickup.

Broxton says his favorite sport other than baseball is basketball.

But Jonathan doesn't watch much TV, especially in the offseason. Then, he's always out in the woods hunting or fishing.

TRANSACTIONS

July 31, 2015: The Cardinals sent LF Malik Collymore to the Brewers, acquiring Broxton.

December 10, 2015: Broxton signed with the Cardinals, getting a two-year contract, for $7.5 million.

Broxton is a big, dominating righthander. His sinking four-seam FASTBALL is 92-98 mph and has good life. That heater has touched 100 mph on a few occasions. He has a two-seamer that reaches 95 mph and is a weapon against lefthanded batters and diving down-and-in on righthanded hitters. His filthy SLIDER is in the 84-88 mph range.

He also has a CURVEBALL. In most outings, his CHANGEUP is effective.

He throws his changeup kind of like a palmball and tends to raise his arm angle, telegraphing that the pitch is coming. But in 2005 he was working to correct that flaw.

In 2006, Jonathan added an 84-86 mph SPLIT-FINGER pitch. He said he was messing with it in the bullpen one day and it was good, so he incorporated it into his repertoire.

2016 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 40.2% of the time; Sinker 17.8% of the time; Change .1%; Slider 31%; Curve 1.4%; Cutter .3% of the time; and Split 9.1% of the time.

Broxton pounds the strike zone. He likes to pitch inside to hitters, showing a tenacious attitude on the mound. He has learned to shut out all distractions and instensely focus when he is on the mound.

Jonathan had nothing to do with the playing of "Big Bad John" or "Johnnie B. Good" when he jogged in from the bullpen to the mound at Dodger Stadium. He was so focused, though, that he really doesn't hear the music.

"If a team wanted me to go back to starting, I'd rather be relieving," he said. "I'd rather go out for one or two innings and let it loose than try to stretch it over seven or eight innings. This is a lot of fun."

Jonathan has been a starter, and he has been a reliever. Which one does he like best?

"I'd rather be a reliever," said Broxton, who was shifted to the bullpen midway through the 2005 season when it became apparent that Eric Gagne's physical problems weren't going away.

"It's so much fun," Broxton said. "There's so much adrenaline and you just let it go. Starters have to hold back so they go deep in a game. Relievers just let it all go. They made the change when Gagne got hurt, and the first time, there was so much adrenaline, everything was coming out firmer and crisper.

"I really like the way it's gone for me, a lot better than starting. It's a lot of fun down there." (August 2007)

When Broxton is pitching, the ball rarely leaves the yard. In 2006 and 2007, Jonathan set the Los Angeles Dodger record for consecutive appearances without allowing a home run, at 94.

That is the fifth-longest streak in baseball since 1958.

On the mound, Broxton is intimidating, focused and determined. But he is a gentle giant, soft-spoken and reserved off the mound.

As of the start of the 2017 season, Broxton has a career record of 43-37 with 3.33 ERA, having allowed only 49 home runs and 557 hits in 660 innings and striking out 742.

May 5, 2011: Jonathan was on the D.L. with a bone bruise in his right elbow. He had to be 100 percent to be able to begin rehab, which was not until August.

Broxton said he was first told he would be shut down for two to three weeks to allow dissipation of fluid in the joint, then resume throwing. But it took over three months to begin rehab.

He said he also had a pre-existing bone spur in the back of the elbow that showed up in a 2010 MRI, but that wasn't the cause of his latest trouble.

He was examined by team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who told him the injury was probably the result of his joint opening and closing at high velocity "and the bones slam against each other. It takes a while to get the fluid in there."

Finally, on September 16, 2011, it was announced that Broxton would have arthroscopic surgery on the elbow on September 19 to clean up loose bodies and remove a bone spur. The procedure was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.

June 14-August 7, 2013: Broxton was on the D.L. with a right elbow flexor mass strain.

"It actually turned out better than we thought," Baker said. "[Losing Jonathan to the D.L.] was our worst fear, but at the same time, there's no structural damage and no ligament damage, which is a big plus." Along with the strain, Baker said there's "inflammation in the joint."

August 22, 2013: Jonathan was on the D.L. with a flexor mass strain in his right forearm. Surgery took place on August 23 to repair a torn flexor mass in his right forearm. Team medical director Dr. Tim Kremchek performed the operation.

March 21-April 8, 2014: Broxton began the season on the D.L. while still recovering from the forearm surgery.