Wednesday, January 9, 2019

University Of South Carolina Honors Two Baseball Alums: Bradley And Pearce

There it is, in all its glory. In the clubhouse of the University Of South Carolina baseball team is a huge mural depicting the World Series exploits of two of its program alums: Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Steve Pearce. Both of the former Gamecocks had illustrious post-season runs in 2018—JBJ copping the ALCS MVP award and Pearce getting the World Series MVP. The mural shows the two former USC stars celebrating key moments in the triumphant championship run of the 2018 Boston Red Sox. Interestingly, Pearce was originally drafted by Boston in 2004—but returned instead for his senior year at South Carolina. Said a teammate of Pearce, "We kinda all gave him a hard time because the Red Sox were his dream team. That's the team he wanted to go to, and he turned it down for his senior year, to come back and play at South Carolina again. That kinda shows his loyalty and support ... how much he cared about his teammates." Eventually, of course, he landed with that dream team of his youth and performed at the highest level in The Fall Classic.