Brady Singer walked out of the dugout at TD Ameritrade Park in 2017 heading towards the mound. There were 25,679 people in attendance that day but pitching in the first game of the College World Series was something he’d prepared his entire life for.
This Saturday Singer will walk out to midfield as the honorary Mr. Two Bits prior to the Florida Gators game against South Carolina. To Singer, the 18th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, that walk will be much more nerve-racking than the one he made back in Omaha.
“That one there, I was ready to go there,” Singer told Gator Country on Tuesday. “You obviously gotta think about tripping. You see a lot of people and your legs kind of lock up. I’ve pitched in front of quite a few people but that kind of comes easy. Doing a move like Mr. Two Bits in front of a lot of people is a little bit different.”
Singer has pitched on the biggest of stages and he’s now living in Tampa with his college roommate Jackson Kowar as the two train in preparation for their first full seasons of professional baseball in the Kansas City Royals organization.
Singer won both of his starts in the 2017 College World Series, striking out 21 over 15 innings of work. He’s one of the most decorated baseball players to ever play at the University of Florida. He was awarded the Dick Howser Trophy in 2018 — given to the player of the year. He was named the National Player of the Year by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com, a First Team All-American, the SEC Pitcher of the Year, the ABCA National Pitcher of the year and, well, you get it. Those awards and trophies are nice and he can argue with Kowar about where they’ll go in the apartment they share together but adding his name to the list of distinguished athletes to be honored as Mr. Two Bits is different.
“That’s something else. I kind looked down the list of people with (Danny) Wuerffel and all of the guys that have had such an impact on the athletics at Florida and to kind of put my name anywhere next to those people is really exciting,” Singer said. “That was the thing that I looked at, that’s a really cool thing to be a part of. I’m ready to get there and do it.”
Back on that 2017 National Championship team Singer followed Alex Faedo in the rotation. He’ll also follow Faedo’s act as Mr. Two Bits. Faedo, now in the Detroit Tigers organization, led the Two Bits cheer before the LSU game this season. Singer and Faedo were competitive with each other as teammates, with Faedo setting the tone on Friday and Singer trying to match it on Saturdays. It’ll be the same this time around as well.
“I think I’m going to watch his video and copy exactly what he did,” Singer said with a laugh. “Nobody really said anything bad about him, so I’m just going to go with what he did and hope the same thing works.”