Hall of Fame
A lot of boys and men dream of playing professional baseball, yet few get the opportunity. Jim McCready used grit and determination to do so.
“He wanted to be a professional baseball player,” longtime baseball coach Bob DeFelice remembered prior to the 2002 induction ceremony, “and he had to overcome a lot of things to get there. He had arm problems his junior and senior years, and he didn’t play on good teams at the Division II level, so the fact that he did get drafted tells you about him and his determination.”
Over his career at Bentley, he accomplished many things. He was named first-team All-Northeast-10 and was Division II All-Northeast Region as senior after posting a sensational 2.07 ERA and a 7-2 record. That year, he set a school-record, since broken, with 57 strikeouts in 69.2 innings.
DeFelice recalled his pitcher’s motivation. “In his first game his senior year, there were 30 scouts watching our game, in the top of the first he walked three, hit a guy, had an error and gave up five runs. By the time we got to bat in the bottom of the first, 29 of those scouts had left, he was devastated obviously, but in the next seven games he pitched against every tough team.”
Owner of 14 victories as a Falcon, he still owns a share of the Bentley career record for shutouts (5), is second in career ERA (3.55) and is fifth in career strikeouts (176). Each of the latter two were school records when he retired.
The right-hander, who hailed from Norwood, Massachusetts, improved every season, with his ERA falling from 5.50 as a freshman to 3.98 in 1989 to 2.87 as a junior, a season in which he pitched much better than his 2-4 record would indicate.
After his senior season, Jim was presented with the Coach’s Award. Jim is regarded as one of those guys that you love to have as a teammate. The kind of person that would sell their soul if it were to the betterment of the team as a whole.
Jim represented what hard work and determination can get you in life. After Bentley, he went on to play six years of minor league baseball in the New York Mets’ organization, climbing as high as AAA as a relief pitcher. He won seven games in 1993 and had a pair of six-win seasons.
