'Huge relief': Dad's surgery a success as Bradley plays in RBI WS

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- For as long as Xavier Bradley has played baseball, he’s always remembered his dad being by his side.

On July 25, that nearly took a turn for the worse.

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Xavier’s father, Keith Bradley, was in the emergency room as doctors ran a series of tests for a persistent headache. With Xavier and his mother, Deadra Bradley, at Keith’s side, the scans revealed that he had a brain aneurysm larger than any his doctors had ever seen. Keith was airlifted to another hospital that could take care of him.

“I thought that was the last time I was going to see him in person,“ Xavier said.

With his father at the hospital, Xavier had a difficult decision to make. Would he stay in Atlanta with his dad? Or does he go with his team, the Atlanta Braves Nike RBI senior team, to Vero Beach in pursuit of winning a championship?

“My dad is the reason I started playing baseball,“ Xavier said. “I started off with soccer. I loved the game, but then he showed me the side of baseball, and I fell in love from the start. Just going to every tournament, grinding with me, he’s been there from Day 1.”

Ultimately, Xavier went with his team at the wish of his parents to play in the Nike RBI World Series at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex.

“I wanted to be with my dad [and] be with my mom just to give them support,“ Xavier said. “I knew I made a dedication to the team to be down here, so I didn’t want to let them down. I talked to my dad about it, and he said, ‘If you want to go win it, go win it for me and do everything for me.'"

Keith was set for surgery on Monday. Risks ran from loss of speech to partial paralysis on the left side of his body and even death. As nerves took over Xavier’s body while his father went under the knife, he finally received the call he was waiting for from his mother.

His father’s surgery was successful, and upon waking up, he immediately asked about how Xavier was doing and how he’s played in the tournament.

“It was a huge relief off my shoulders,“ Xavier said. “Surgery is very scary.”

Xavier is a catcher for Atlanta Nike RBI and is in his first season as a part of its RBI Program. Even with the adversity he’s had to overcome, Xavier has been the Braves’ leading hitter at the RBI World Series. Atlanta made it all the way to the championship game before losing to Houston, 5-4, on Friday.

“He’s a huge testament to how strong you can be at a young age and how to keep the faith -- just continue to handle his business despite adversity,” Braves manager Willie Slaton said.

Slaton is in his first year managing the senior team after coaching the junior team for the last two years in the RBI World Series. Atlanta’s senior team is making its first appearance in the RBI World Series since Braves center fielder Michael Harris II was on the team.

Everything Xavier has had to overcome has grounded Slaton and showed there is more to life than coaching and playing baseball.

“To have one of the players’ mothers call me and tell me that his father is essentially fighting for his life, it brought it all home to me,” Slaton said. “Not only because this is just a game, but for one of my players to reach out and want to tell me and share that experience with me and look for support, for me as just his coach, it really put things into perspective about what we’re doing here.”

Xavier has been able to FaceTime his dad and calls his mom after every game and nearly every instance that time permits. Seeing their faces and hearing their voices has kept Xavier close to his support system as he plays without either parent being there for the first time in seemingly forever for him.

"Just to be able to see him is great for me,” Xavier said. “There was a point where I thought it was going to be bad. Just to be able to see his smiling face, my mom's smile and everyone's smile is wonderful for me.”

When Xavier heads home on Saturday, Keith will be waiting for him after he gets discharged on Thursday. Over the last week plus, Xavier has lived up to the family mantra of being “Bradley Strong.”