DeJong finds inspiration from his chemist grandmother

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- It is not uncommon for Major League players to be influenced by a professional athlete in their family. In the Nationals' clubhouse, Darren Baker, Luis Garc¨ªa Jr. and Marquis Grissom Jr. are among those whose fathers played in the bigs.

All-Star infielder Paul DeJong was inspired by his grandmother, Sharon Whipple -- an All-Star in her own field of work. Before he reached the Majors, DeJong considered a career as a doctor and graduated from Illinois State with a degree in biochemistry.

¡°She had some patents on reverse osmosis when she was working back in the day,¡± DeJong said. ¡°... As a kid, I always gravitated towards science and math because she was a big proponent of that, and also my mind kind of worked the same way.¡±

Whipple¡¯s career in chemistry spanned decades.

After graduating in 1969 from the University of Wisconsin, she worked with a biochemistry professor on the composition of synapses. In 1970, she began her 27-year tenure at The Dow Chemical Company.

Whipple joined Dow Chemical as an analytical chemist working on routine analyses for products and impurities in Midland, Mich., their second-largest chemical manufacturing plant. Three years later, she moved into technical service and development.

Whipple worked with antimicrobials, chelating agents and reverse osmosis and nanofiltration for water purification. Within reverse osmosis, she worked in municipal drinking water treatment and ultrapure water production for chip manufacturing.

¡°She's super observant and she has a willingness to learn,¡± DeJong said.

Even after she retired in 1997, she continued to work with the company in a consulting role. That hunger for knowledge stood out to DeJong, 31, as he grew up.

¡°If you recommend a book to her, she¡¯s going to read it. She¡¯s big on that,¡± DeJong said. ¡°She loves reading stuff like new fossil evidence or astrophysics. She really likes to stay on top of it with her mind. I think that that drive is what got me into reading. A lot of people don't like non-fiction, but I love non-fiction because I want to learn something.¡±

In addition to having childhood memories in baseball, DeJong had many in science with his grandmother. DeJong remembers visiting Whipple at her home in Wisconsin when he was only 4 or 5 years old. They dug worms in the garden, went fishing with the bait and cleaned the fish they caught. He also recalled doing a project together on fire ants when he was in elementary school.

¡°I never really liked analytical chemistry because that was like micropipetting -- like, 0.2 microliters of this and then add a little bit of this. It was all so precise,¡± DeJong said. ¡°I¡¯m more big picture, I guess what you would call an organic chemist.¡±

Years into his science studies, DeJong was selected by the Pirates in the 38th round of the 2014 Draft. He remained in school, completed his undergrad and was picked in ¡®15 by the Cardinals in the fourth round.

¡°I wanted to take the MCAT and become a doctor, but then baseball kind of took off for me,¡± he said. ¡°I got drafted twice, but I was a red shirt, so I got to go to my fourth year and I got my degree, which is super rare for guys in this position. I always was a high achiever when it came to education and athletics. I would sacrifice my social life, I would say, in order to get good grades and study, and I took pride in that.¡±

DeJong noted his grandmother always has been supportive of him -- as he pursued an education in her field of science and then as he paved his own path in the Major Leagues. In his ninth season, she remains a role model.

¡°I¡¯m proud of my grandmother,¡± DeJong said.