Catching up with Andrew Brackman, who played two sports for the Wolfpack

Andrew Brackman was at N.C. State’s Doak Field on Friday night, watching Wolfpack right-hander Jacob Dudan pop the fastball.

Dudan, a freshman reliever from Huntersville, was consistently above 90 miles per hour with his pitches and later said he has hit 99. He was the closer as the No. 17 Wolfpack earned a 2-1 victory over No. 8 Wake Forest that sealed another ACC series win over a ranked team.

It was a victory that left Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent sighing in relief after the game, after dealing with one of the nation’s best — if not the best — pitchers in Chase Burns. He, too, throws in the 90s and had 13 strikeouts in seven innings Friday as the Pack picked up the winning run against Wake relievers in the ninth with four straight walks.

Brackman was once that guy on the mound for the Pack, and at 6 feet 10 inches, the right-hander was an imposing presence. A two-sport athlete for the Pack and a forward on the basketball team, the Cincinnati native also helped N.C. State reach the Sweet 16 in the 2005 NCAA tournament.

‘Baseball player at heart’

Brackman loved basketball and was good at it, quick and agile and highly competitive. But baseball was his ticket to the big leagues and a nice contract and signing bonus, with Scott Boras as his agent.

After his sophomore year, after Wolfpack basketball coach Herb Sendek left, Brackman concentrated on only baseball..

“It would have been fun to play basketball, but I think I made the right decision,” Brackman said. “I’m a baseball player at heart.”

He threatened 100 mph with his fastball and showed enough promise to be a first-round draft pick of the New York Yankees in 2007.

“But all these kids can throw it in the 90s these days,” Brackman said Friday.

A familiar injury

Such is the rub. A lot of young pitchers also need “Tommy John” surgery after injuring the ulnar collateral ligaments in their pitching arms. That’s another product of the times and an obsession with velocity, the speed gun and gunning for triple digits.

Wolfpack senior Matt Willadsen, again slated to be a starter this season. was injured on the first day of practice this year and needed the surgery. More recently, freshman Shane Van Dam hurt his UCL, taking away a valuable reliever on a team that could contend for an ACC championship and has hopes of hosting an NCAA Tournament baseball regional.

Brackman had Tommy John surgery. His was performed by Dr. James Andrews, the Alabama physician who has gained a measure of baseball fame by specializing in the procedure and saving a lot of baseball careers.

Brackman’s career was curtailed by injuries. He pitched three games in the big leagues with the Yankees, spent time in the minors and later attempted comebacks with the Cincinnati Reds — his hometown team — and the Chicago White Sox before leaving the pro game in 2013.

“It was tough, leaving State and then the mental grind of being injured and having to recreate kind of how to throw and everything,” Brackman said.

Life after pro baseball

At 38, Brackman now lives in Hatteras and jokingly said he is “semi-retired,” He’s an assistant baseball coach at Cape Hatteras High and stays on the move — he recently returned from a safari in South Africa.

“I like being outside, just like baseball, getting your hands dirty and putting in the work and the effort,” he said.

Brackman is like so many pro athletes who have to make the not-so-easy transition after the games end and the cheering stops. They lean on their daily athletic routines for so long, then have to make an adjustment in their every-day lives.

“It was an experience I’ll never forget, but I miss the camaraderie of riding on the bus and being around my friends,” he said of pro baseball. “That’s what I miss the most.”

Brackman was able to renew some of his old college basketball camaraderie at the NCAA Final Four after the Wolfpack’s ACC championship and then NCAA tournament runs.

“Seeing some old friends and rooting on the Pack was fun,” he said, smiling.

And being back at Doak Field and seeing pitchers pop the fastball. That was fun, too.