There are some good examples of players in professional sports who started out at community colleges, but many people do not know that MCCC has had a few. Two MCCC alumns who went into Major League Baseball are Heath Fillmyer who played for the Kansas City Royals and Dave Gallagher who played for the Oakland A’s and other teams.
There are also more recent graduates who are on a Major League trajectory. Denny Brady and Greg Delgado both used to be a part of the Mercer Vikings baseball team and are moving forward in baseball at different levels.
Dennis “Denny” Brady graduated from Mercer in 2017. He was drafted in 2017 to the Los Angeles Angel’s in round 7 and currently he’s a double-A affiliate for the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The double-A league is the second highest league in baseball.
In a recent interview Brady was asked how playing on a minor league sports team was compared to Mercer’s baseball team. He said, “Pretty similar actually. Obviously Mercer doesn’t have a lot of funds so the players have to do a lot on their own. It’s very similar to minor leagues except the funds are there. They are very minimalistic of what they give us so there’s a lot of money that comes out of the minor leagues pockets to help sustain our life I guess you could say…”
Reflecting back on his time as a Viking Brady said, “At Mercer I really learned how to, I guess, stick up for myself and take my career into my own hands since there wasn’t no D1 schools…It was all about the people, like the teammates and the coaches. They didn’t have much to give you but you know you could feed off of them they could feed off of you.”
Current baseball head coach Fred Carella, who was an assistant coach in 2017, remembers Brady well.
“Denny’s performance in 2017 was phenomenal. He was a 1st Team All-American and the Division 2 Junior College Pitcher of the Year. Every time he took the mound, we felt like we would win the game,” Carella said.
Denny has fond memories of particular games from his time as a Viking.
“Yeah so I pitched in two games in the [NJCAA] World Series. It was the second game that’s the most memorable for me. Yeah that was just the team we played, like we were going punch for punch with them…I knew it was my last time playing with that team because I mean [if] we won that game, we were gonna play one more game, [but] if we lost, we were done…” he said.
Coach Carella remembers the Series, too saying, “Denny had an outstanding performance in the World Series. I think the game he pitched in the District tournament, against CCBC Catonsville, was even better. He threw a complete game shutout in that game and was in complete control from start to finish.”
Asked if he had thought Brady was the kind of person to make it to the minor leagues, Carella said, “Yes, I believed Denny would get drafted and play professional baseball. I still believe he has a chance to make it to the Major Leagues”.
He added, “It felt great knowing that I played a small part in helping Denny achieve his dream of playing professional baseball. As coaches, it is our goal to help all of our players advance to the next level of baseball. That could be a four-year school or a professional opportunity.”
Another student who isn’t on a minor league team but has been rewarded for his excellent baseball ability, his willingness to play and good attitude is Greg Delgado.
Delgado was a former MCCC Viking for the baseball team who graduated last spring and is currently attending Nova Southeastern in Florida and continuing to play baseball.
At the end of his season last spring, Delgado was given 3 titles by the NJCAA. He was the “First Team All-American,” “Garden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year” and “Region 19 Player of the Year.”
Coach Carella says Delgado was, like Brady, a first team All-American player.
“He hit in the middle of our lineup and was a team captain. He is attending Nova Southeastern on an athletic scholarship and I expect him to have a big impact for their baseball team in the spring.”
Delgado says of his goals, “I hope to win a national championship this year.”
Asked to recall any games that were the most impactful, Delgado said, “Due to COVID I was only able to compete for one playoff berth my freshman year, but if I were to recall one game that was very impactful it had to be an away game late in the season at Morris County College. This game was to clinch first place in our region and we did just that. I had a day with 2 home runs with 5 RBIs and as a team we played really well.”
Asked about his pregame strategies Delgado said, “During my time at Mercer before games I would stick to a mindset where I was visualizing success in many different situations before the game, and then when it came game time I would just stick to my approach and play with a passion.”
