Former Major League Baseball and University of South Carolina standout Jackie Bradley Jr. has joined ESPN as a college baseball studio and game analyst. A two-time Men’s College World Series champion and the 2010 MCWS Most Outstanding Player, Bradley will begin appearing on SEC Network’s baseball studio coverage this Friday and Saturday (April 25-26).
A World Series winner at both the MLB and collegiate level, Bradley will be in SEC Network’s Charlotte, North Carolina, studio for surrounding coverage of Friday’s Texas A&M at No. 1 Texas game and Saturday’s No. 9 Vanderbilt at No. 23 Ole Miss game. Bradley will then recap the day’s action alongside hosts Dari Nowkhah and Alyssa Lang and fellow analysts Jared Mitchell and Tori Vidales each night on SEC Now (11 p.m. ET, SECN).
Bradley will make his debut as a game analyst alongside play-by-play commentator Tom Hart and analyst Kyle Peterson on Friday, May 9, when No. 6 Tennessee hosts No. 9 Vanderbilt (5:30 p.m., SECN). The trio will also call the remaining two games of the series on Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN2) and Sunday (3 p.m., ESPN2) live from Knoxville, Tennessee.
Bradley will return to his alma mater in Columbia, South Carolina. for the first time to call a game on Thursday, May 15, when the Gamecocks host LSU (7 p.m., SECN).
“I’m honored to join ESPN and can’t wait to get started covering the game that I love,” said Bradley. “College baseball has grown a ton since I was at South Carolina, and I hope I can contribute to the sport’s continued growth and popularity through our coverage of the student-athletes who give it their all.”
“We are super excited to have Jackie join the college baseball team here at ESPN,” said Scott Gustafson, coordinating producer of ESPN’s college baseball coverage. “He knows what it takes to win at the highest level, having done so at both the collegiate and Major League level, and the fact that he’s done it recently makes him someone the student-athletes we cover can really relate to.”
Bradley will also provide analysis during ESPN’s exclusive postseason coverage of college baseball. He will serve as a studio analyst for SEC Network’s coverage surrounding the SEC Baseball Tournament from Hoover, Alabama. (May 20-25). He will also call games from a NCAA DI Baseball Tournament regional site and will contribute to ESPN’s MCWS programming from Omaha, Nebraska.
The 35-year-old Bradley spent three years at South Carolina, winning back-to-back MCWS titles in 2010 and 2011. In the 2010 MCWS, Bradley batted .345 (10-for-29), including a two-run double in a 5-1 win over Clemson, a game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning in a 3-2 win over Oklahoma and a three-run homer in an 11-4 win over Arizona State. He was an All-SEC selection in 2010 and a Freshman All-American in 2009.
He was selected 40th overall to the Boston Red Sox in the 2011 MLB Draft. An 11-year MLB veteran, Bradley was a 2016 All-Star and won a Gold Glove Award in 2018. A clutch performer throughout his career, Bradley was a member of the 2018 World Series champion Red Sox and was named the ALCS MVP that season.
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