Avon Lake's Nick Brady Is Throwback to Another Era

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."

Those were the words of the immortal Babe Ruth.

Yes, the game of baseball is a team sport. You win as a team, you lose as a team, at least that is the way it was meant to be played.

In today’s world though, somewhere that philosophy seems to have gone the wayside. Players put themselves on pedestals, and more often than not  sports malfeasance has dominated the headlines as of late.

Then there is , a throwback to another era. One of Lorain County's top baseball players, he is a breath of fresh air, someone that younger athletes can look up to as a role model.

Ask about his season, you won't  hear him resting on his laurels, instead, the first thing you get out of his mouth is about the team.

"It's not a ‘we’ sport, it’s definitely a team sport," Brady said. "I can't win games by myself as a pitcher because we have to score runs and I can't win games by myself as a hitter, because we definitely need pitching as well."

A prime example of this came following an Avon Lake loss to Brecksville. The Shoremen lost the game 6-4 on a fluke passed ball after Brady had struck out the side to end a Bees threat with the game tied at 4. Most pitchers would be upset over that fact, even criticize the backstop.

Not Brady. Instead, he praised his catcher , stating only that he has been nothing but a stone wall all year behind the plate.

Avon Lake, without a doubt, is a football town, and Brady was part of that tradition. But baseball has been his first love since an early age.

"Back in Sheffield Lake where I used to live, the actually have a great little league program and I started off in t ball there and had a great time," Brady said. "Then we moved to Avon Lake and I had my first taste of success, I was on an expansion team and played with three guys from the varsity level and I really enjoyed the game and what surrounded it and how much fun it was."

Last year he went 3-2 as a hurler for the Shoremen, and with graduation losses was penned in as one of the top pitchers for this season after a great summer season. Admittedly, he learned a lot that has carried over to this year especially not getting rattled in tight situations.

"A lot of emotional control, because I used to get upset on the mound," Brady said. "And now if you kind of let things brush off your shoulder, your team can come back."

While baseball is his love, Brady also is involved in something that in most schools many athletes wouldn't participate in: choir.

No, that is not a misprint either.

"It's actually something of a cool thing to be in choir at Avon Lake, we have a really great director who makes it fun and it’s a bunch of friends who like to sing," Brady said with a laugh. "Yes, at a lot of other schools its the dorky thing to do, but at Avon Lake it’s a party in the choir room every day, and we have fun each day and this year even got to go to Disney for a week."

Brady's career will not end this season. He will be taking his talents to Marietta College in the fall, where he plans on majoring in sports business management and playing for the nationally ranked Pioneers.

And while there has been much said about his recent signing with the Pioneers, Brady is more interested in his team and their prospects the remainder of this season.

"We are a real close knit group of guys, and we all play for each other," Brady said. "If one guy is down, the next guy in the lineup will pick it up. If one guy makes an error in the field, the next guy makes a play. It's a reason I think we can take this far."