South Carolina Baseball: Gamecock legend lands with new pro team

After about a decade in Major League Baseball, South Carolina baseball legend Jackie Bradley, Jr. was reported as retiring from the game this winter. However, the flashy-gloved outfielder denied those reports, and this week, he confirmed that he will play in 2024 as he was signed to a contract by the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

Over 40% of Atlantic League players have Major League Baseball experience, and Bradley, Jr., being just under the needed service time to hit the 10-year threshold, could earn his way back to an MLB roster if he plays well with the Ducks. He joins fellow former MLB player Wei-Yin Chen as recent signings by the Ducks.

Whether he makes it back to the Show again or not, Jackie Bradley, Jr. is a South Carolina baseball legend.

With the Gamecock baseball program potentially looking at a sub-standard season in 2024, Carolina fans often find themselves reminiscing about their favorite team's magical run to back-to-back College World Series National Championships.

After losing their opening contest against the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2010 College World Series, the Gamecocks rattled off 22 consecutive wins in the postseason (obliterating the previous record of 15) to win back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011 and make it to another College World Series Championship Series. USC won the final College World Series in iconic Rosenblatt Stadium and the first in TD Ameritrade Park (now known as Charles Schwab Field Omaha). Some of the greatest and most popular South Carolina baseball players of all-time were on those teams.

Arguably, none were more popular than Jackie Bradley, Jr.

He was one of the top offensive players on a loaded USC squad, and he, arguably, is the best defensive outfielder in program history. He was so good, in fact, that he was drafted in the 1st round of the 2011 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox.

With the Red Sox, Bradley, Jr. made an All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and was the ALCS MVP en route to one of his two World Series titles with the Sox. He also spent some time with the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Kansas City Royals.

Bradley, Jr. and the Ducks will begin their Atlantic League season at the end of April.