Bradley enjoying life at Princeton winning six league titles in six years

ESPN baseball analyst Peter Gammons quoted Tampa Bay center fielder Rocco Baldelli in a column on ESPN.com as saying that " 'if I had gotten into Princeton, I would have gone there mainly because of Scott Bradley.' No argument here."

Gammons is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, the same alma mater as Bradley, the head baseball coach at Princeton.

"[Gammons] has followed me throughout my career," Bradley said, "and he's always looking out for his fellow Tar Heels."

Bradley is on the verge of winning his sixth Lou Gehrig Division title in his six years on the job for the Tigers, though he plays down his role in the process, saying that he "was able to inherit a program that was on pretty solid ground."

Bradley played in the major leagues as a catcher with the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds from 1984-1992 and then coached in the minor leagues for the Braves and Rockies.

"I think the first thing you learn [from the major league experience] is that you can never treat your players the same way," Bradley said. "Everybody has to be motivated differently. There is no one way to arrive at success."

Bradley has achieved success in baseball by following the advice of those who have come before him and by never getting complacent.

"On the first day of spring training with the Yankees, [current Florida Marlins manager] Jeff Torborg called me aside and he said, 'Make sure that you listen. Listen to all the conversations going on. And remember one thing: no matter how long you've been in this game, there's always more to learn.' "

Bradley learned from no one more than from his father, who helped raise three sons into the sports business.

An athletic household

"My dad taught me more about baseball and how to act on a baseball field and how to respect the game than any coach or manager that I ever played for at the professional level," Bradley said.

Bradley's older brother, Bob, is the head coach of the New York/ New Jersey Metrostars and rumored to be in line as the successor of Bruce Arena for the head-coaching job at US Soccer.

His younger brother, Jeff, is a sportswriter for ESPN the magazine and ESPN.com. He has also worked for the Associated Press, the United States Olympic Committee and the New York Daily News.

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"I used to tease Junior all the time, saying 'You think you're so special, playing with your dad? How many people in the world right now can have a player, a coach and a member of the media coming out of the same family?'," Bradley said yesterday. The "Junior" in that story is Ken Griffey Jr., who played with his father, Ken Griffey Sr., and Bradley with the Mariners early in his career. Bradley and Junior both went into the business that their fathers had worked in before, but Bradley stresses the lack of pressure put on him or his brothers by his father.

"He wanted to make sure that we had a chance to try everything that we wanted to try," Bradley said.

Bradley came out of a family with three boys, and now he, with his wife, Mary, has three boys of his own — Kevin, age nine, Kyle, seven, and Scott, six.

"There's not a better environment in the world to raise our kids than here in Princeton," Bradley said. "All three of my kids run around campus like they own the place."

Bradley has no worries leaving his children with what he considers great role models in the members of his team.

"They came on spring trip with us, and it's so funny because my kids walk on the bus and walk right past me sitting in the front," Bradley said, "and they all have their favorites, and they're going in the back, they're going to go and hang out in the back of the bus with those guys."

The baseball team is now 22-18 and 12-4 in the Ivy League. With a win in one of its final four games, to be played this weekend in a home-and-home with Cornell, Princeton will clinch its sixth straight Lou Gehrig Division crown. If Cornell wins all four games, it will force a three-team playoff between Princeton, Cornell and Penn.

Bradley summed up his career at Princeton so far, saying that he has "been very successful in creating a successful environment in which our kids just love to play."