Oh Brother

BrotherBlog isn't a bad guy, even if he is a lawyer. He does something with the Washington State Legislature's House Democratic Caucus. It's not a political appointment, and he's busiest when the legislature is in session.

Unlike his more moderate brother, BB leans a little to the left.

TigerBlog is proud of his brother, who made a big career change in his 30s, going from his work with terminally ill children and their parents into the law, where he felt he could better serve as their advocate.

And, okay, he got a little bit away from that when he started working for a giant law firm defending a major corporation against law suits. Still, his new legal path seems a bit more in line with his original intent. Plus, he also teaches at the University of Washington Law School.

So, what's not to be proud of, right?

Of course, there aren't websites out there ripping his decisions (at least TB isn't aware of them), questioning his workplace strategies, wondering if he should have his current job and on and on.

And he's not out there teaching his classes or writing his legal briefs in front of, quite literally, the entire world.

And so TB can't really relate to what Scott Bradley is going through these days.

Scott Bradley is Princeton's ultra-successful baseball coach. Himself a former college star at North Carolina, Bradley played nearly 10 years in the Major Leagues, and he caught Randy Johnson's no-hitter while with the Seattle Mariners.

Hey, he even has his own page on Wikipedia.

These days, though, his level of fame pales in comparison to two, and possibly three, members of his immediate family.

Bradley has two brothers, both of whom will be spending the next few weeks far away from the family's home state of New Jersey. On the other side of the world, for that matter. All the way to South Africa and the 2010 World Cup.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine who formerly wrote for Sports Illustrated; he will be covering the World Cup games there for ESPN and his blog.

And then there is Scott's other brother, and nephew. Bob Bradley is the head coach of the U.S. men's national team; Bob's son Michael is a midfielder on the team.

By now, the story of the U.S. team and its connections to Princeton is well known. Bob Bradley, of course, played at Princeton and then coached the team here to great success, including a run to the 1993 NCAA Final Four. Bradley also coached Jim Barlow, the current Princeton men's coach. Barlow coaches the U.S. U-15 national team, and he coached several members of the team that will play in South Africa.

None of that is what this is about.

This is about the Princeton baseball coach and how he wandered into HQ yesterday and talked about how his brother was about to coach the U.S. team in the world's biggest sporting event. And how his nephew is one of the team's keys to having a successful run.

After Scott Bradley left, TB started thinking about what that must be like. Here is your brother, whose every move is being scrutinized by the media, by fans posting comments under that scrutinization, even by TB, who asked Scott Bradley why Brian Ching didn't make the team.

Scott Bradley won't be making the trip to South Africa. Too far. Too expensive.

So he'll sit in front of his television and watch, like the rest of the world, to see what kind of performance the U.S. team puts forward. As TB said a week ago, the stakes are enormous for Bob Bradley. The reward can be immense.

Imagine watching your brother go through something like that.