Trying to master his craft: Wild Things’ Brodsky is not a typical Frontier Leaguer
Wild Things’ Brodsky is not a typical Frontier Leaguer
Jack Brodsky’s story has all the elements you find with many Frontier League baseball players: a major injury, a struggle to get back to the sport, overcoming long odds and a never-give-up attitude.
However, Brodsky, a pitcher for the Wild Things, is not your typical Frontier Leaguer. His story is also one of getting into college baseball at the ground floor, plenty of disappointment, hard work, dedication, a love for baseball, accomplishments in the classroom and a detour into the business world. He’s an unusual Frontier League player in that he has a master’s degree in finance and spent almost two years working in the real estate world.
But he’s here, in Washington, and chasing his dream as a 26-year-old rookie.
Through all of it, Brodsky has maintained his love for baseball and this weekend he is scheduled to make his third professional start, almost in his backyard, when the Wild Things return from the all-star break with a weekend series at the New York Boulders that begins tonight.
Brodsky is from Woodcliff Lake, N.J., only 16 miles from Pomona, N.Y., where the Boulders play their home games. But to get there, Brodsky’s career went from New Jersey, where he was a third team all-state player in high school, to Emory University, a prestigious Division III school – the no-athletic-scholarships level – in Atlanta. He spent four years there but one was the pandemic-shortened year of 2020, for which the NCAA gave every player two additional years of eligibility.
Brodsky took those years of eligibility and transferred to the University of Tampa, a Division II powerhouse. He had a very good 2003 season at Tampa as a relief pitcher, which got him an opportunity to play in the Cape Cod League that summer with the top college players in the country. That’s when his baseball path showed the first signs of a detour.
“I was pitching in the Cape Cod League and my goal at that point was to throw as hard as I possibly could,” Brodsky explained. “I think I definitely tweaked my UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in my elbow there and I could almost see the injury coming. At the beginning of 2024, my velocity decreased a little bit. Then on March 2nd I hurt the UCL. It was in a game and I was throwing well. Then I threw one pitch and it felt like my whole arm was pulling down into my wrist. In my mind, I knew that I was done.
“I had an MRI a few days later and the doctors said my UCL was as torn as it could be without it being fully torn. At the time, when I was deciding whether or not to have surgery or not, I was thinking I’d like to be able to play catch with my son 20 years down the line. That was my motivation at the time. The thought of playing professional baseball was out of the question.”
During that 2024 season, Tampa went on to win the Division II national championship. Brodsky was able to watch his teammates while beginning his rehab.
“That was a bittersweet way to end my college career,” he admitted.
With pro baseball off his radar, Brodsky, armed with the master’s degree, entered the job market, the rat race, the corporate world.
“When I got hurt, It forced my hand to get a job,” he said. “I had been in Atlanta and Tampa but my whole circle of family and friends were in New York, so that’s where I wanted to try and find a job.”
He landed a real estate evaluations job, doing commercial appraisals of properties across the country. But his passion for baseball remained strong.
“I was still training on the side, throwing on the weekends. … I was like, 20 years down line, am I going to regret not pursuing this? It was the what if?
“I was throwing in a men’s league last summer and my velocity was back up to 93, 94, touching 95 mph. I made a connection there that got me into a handful of tryouts for professional teams this past winter, where I was noticed by a couple of Frontier League teams.”
That included Washington manager Tom Vaeth, who saw Brodsky at a Red Sox tryout in New York. He offered Brodsky a contract and invitation to spring training.
“My company, when I told them I had this tryout with a pro team in the Frontier League, they said this is the coolest thing we ever had, the best reason we ever had for somebody leaving,” Brodsky recalled. “They said go pursue this. You’ll have a job when you come back. That’s nice to have in the back of my mind.”
Frontier League spring training, however, can be a brutal world. It’s too short to get a true evaluation on some players. Brodsky pitched only two innings in exhibition games. He was the Wild Things’ final cut before the season began. Baseball had thrown Brodsky another unexpected curve. And it would quickly throw him another.
“That obviously didn’t stop me from continuing to play. In that short time span I continued to throw, and was trying to get on another Frontier League team. I didn’t give up,” Brodsky said. “Then, because of some guys here getting picked up and some injuries, (the Wild Things) asked me to come back. I told myself that I was dedicated to this at this point. So here we are.”
Brodsky pitched in relief until the Wild Things’ starting rotation was decimated after four starters had their contracts purchased by major league organizations. Desperate for anybody who could provide length as a starter, Vaeth turned to Brodsky. His first start at Schaumburg – his first since 2022 at Emory – included one rough inning and three good ones.
In his next start, last Saturday night during a doubleheader against Lake Erie, Brodsky allowed only two hits and no walks over six innings. He was calm and confident, just like his college days.
“That was a step in the right direction,” Vaeth said. “If you go back and look at the footage of him from the Cape Cod League, that outing (against Lake Erie) resembled that.”
Brodsky has a 1-1 record and 5.18 ERA over 11 outings.
“He spent a long time away from the game, so we’re staying patient with him,” Vaeth said. “He wasn’t brought here to be a starter. We’re going to be slow and cautious with him.”