University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Tucker Bradley
May 02, 2018 | Baseball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Tucker Bradley is from little Chickamauga, Ga., a charming, historic town of a little more than 2,000 people in the northwest corner of the state. It's home to a significant Civil War battlefield, it's gorgeous in the fall and Gordon Lee High School is one of those schools that seems to be good in every sport.
Bradley was great at Gordon Lee and he's kept it up in his first two seasons with the Bulldogs. The sophomore outfielder and leadoff hitter is batting .306, sharing the team lead with 56 hits, and he's hit the first two home runs of his career this season. As a freshman starter last spring, Bradley led Georgia with a .314 batting average; he also made seven appearances on the mound, something he hasn't done this season.
Bradley took a seat in the dugout Tuesday afternoon for a Quick Chat about walk-up music, baseball movies, growing up in a small town and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: What's the perfect walk-up music?
Bradley: I like a little dub-step type stuff, anything with a good beat — that's what gets me going before I get into the box.
Frierson: Do you even hear it anymore or are you so in the zone that it's just background noise?
Bradley: I still hear it. I have a little timing thing: I go down, wait until I get in the box to hear the part I want to hear.
Frierson: What's the greatest walk-up combination, is it Mariano Rivera walking in from the Yankee bullpen to Metallica's "Enter Sandman"?
Bradley: That has to be it, especially in his last outing. When you heard "Enter Sandman" for the last time in that situation. That was the coolest.
Frierson: Is there a pitcher out there that you'd love to dig in against?
Bradley: I don't know about "love" — I know two I would not like to see are Chris Sale and Aroldis Chapman. Those two have been on my list of not wanting to see any type of that.
Frierson: Is that just because of their velocity?
Bradley: It's velocity and them coming about three-quarters lefty sidearm.
Frierson: When you see Clayton Kershaw pitch, what stands out to you, someone that clearly can hit and knows a lot about hitting?
Bradley: It's the funky motion, the command, it seems like he can pinpoint wherever he wants to throw it, and then you've got the 12-6 curveball [picture an analog clock face and the ball dropping straight down] that seems like it just falls off the table from his big frame. That's pretty tough.
Frierson: What was your greatest strength as a pitcher? And I don't know if I should be putting that in the past tense.
Bradley: I'd have to say the different motions: I come from sidearm, over the top, just throwing different pitches from each spot.
Frierson: What's something from your childhood that you really miss?
Bradley: I'd have to say travel ball, really. I grew up playing with a team called the Bandits and we played together from when we were 7 years old until 14, so that little group, we were together pretty much every weekend. And about eight of us wound up going to school together.
Frierson: When you have a school as small as Gordon Lee, were pretty much all of you together from kindergarten through graduation?
Bradley: I would say 75 percent I started out with in kindergarten, yeah. That's pretty cool. It was awesome growing up there and I wouldn't trade that for anything, growing up in a small town, just getting to know everybody.
It's a great thing about Chickamauga, everybody knows everybody.
Frierson: There can be a down side to that.
Bradley: That's true. My mom found out anything I did before I even got back home, especially with her being an administrator at the school.
Frierson: There's more baseball movies than any other sport, or so it seems, so what's your favorite and which movie is quoted the most in the dugout?
Bradley: I'd have to say "Major League" is my favorite of all time. It's awesome. I was talking with my family about that, which movies we like best, and how "Major League" was very underrated overall.
In the dugout, it's the same movie: "Ricky, just give 'em the heater." We like to say that in the dugout when there's a big pitch coming.
Frierson: What's something that the whole team is really into?
Bradley: We're all into Fortnite, pretty much. We've got pretty much every console in the locker room playing right now, and when we go home everyone's getting online and playing together.
Frierson: I have to show my age and ignorance here: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Bradley: (Laughs) It's a new video game and it's basically you and up to a group of four against a team of 25 to 100 people, and you just battle it out to see who wins.
Frierson: What's the best live performance you've ever seen?
Bradley: I went to see Albert Pujols play once and he hit two or three home runs in the game. That was probably the coolest thing I've seen.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
