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After getting a late start in pro baseball, Braylen Wimmer caught momentum in the Rockies’ system. He was having an MVP-type year in Class A, then moved up to Double-A Hartford for the last 45 games of the 2025 season.
Then Wimmer was one of eight hand-picked prospects the Rockies sent to continue in the Arizona Fall League. But in the blink of an eye, as the team bus was approaching the ballpark in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 1, things changed.
“I had a random seizure on the way to the game,” Wimmer said before a recent Yard Goats game at Dunkin’ Park. “No symptoms or anything; it just ended up happening. I was on the team bus, luckily Charlie Condon was sitting across from me, and I kind of tapped him on the leg and said ‘Something … something doesn’t feel right,’ and eventually, he stopped the bus.
“I had to go to the hospital, had an MRI on the brain, ended up having a brain tumor. Had surgery 19 days later.”
The right side of Wimmer’s face was seizing as he drank Condon’s water. Pitcher Cade Denton, now with the Yard Goats, was also on the bus.
“It was obviously a pretty scary moment,” Denton said. “You see one of your friends over there, struggling to get words out, things were happening and everybody was kind of freaking out a little bit. But to the best of his ability he told us what was going on, we got the bus pulled over, got him off the bus, got him some water. … What a trouper, man.”
Wimmer’s girlfriend, Peyton Gray, who has since launched a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of ongoing tests and treatments, got him back home to Oklahoma, where he met a survivor of a similar tumor, Ryan Sharp, who became a mentor through the process. Chris Forbes, the Rockies’ head of player development, who is a cancer survivor, urged Wimmer to find such a person and stay away from consulting “Dr. Google” about his prognosis.
Wimmer, 25, had 3 1/2-hour surgery, having to be kept awake throughout, while the golf-ball sized tumor was removed from the left side of his brain — a Grade 2 astrocytoma, considered malignant. As the surgeon performed, the OR staff kept Wimmer talking, so surgeons would know if they were affecting certain parts of the brain.
“It was pretty crazy, luckily that was something I was able to do, stay awake, because the tumor was close to my speech and motor skills,” Wimmer said. “I wanted to come out of that with all those still working properly. It was crazy, they numbed it all up so I didn’t feel anything, but I remember talking to the nurses that were in front of me. It was crazy.”
He left the hospital with his speech and motor skills intact, but in the weeks that followed he lost them, suffered another mild seizure, and gained them back, experiencing all the emotional highs and lows that came with it. As he recovered, he gradually began to put back some of the nearly 40 pounds he had lost. Within a few weeks of the surgery, he was hitting off a tee and tosses in the cage. By the time he reported to spring training, after an MRI had yielded encouraging news, he was cleared for full go.
“We all knew, once we found out he was having brain surgery, it was going to be a long road to recovery,” Denton said. “But seeing him swinging, we were keeping up with him, making sure everything was going good and it was really good to see how quickly he’s bounced back from it.”
Wimmer, who played at South Carolina, was drafted by the Phillies in the 18th round in 2022, but bet on himself and went back to school for his senior year and the Rockies took him in the eighth round the next year. He hit .285 with 14 homers and 64 RBI in 118 games at Fresno, Calif., in ’24. In advanced Class A at Spokane, Wash., he was hitting .302 when the Rockies moved him to Hartford, where he hit .284. At the two levels, he finished the season with 17 homers and 69 RBI, 37 steals in 40 attempts.
Dom Amore: Yale baseball’s build is complete, and they’re heading to the NCAA Tournament
Out of training camp, Wimmer was reassigned to Hartford, where he would likely have started the 2026 season if nothing had happened. He’s played in 14 games in centerf ield for the Yard Goats, hitting .275 with five doubles going into Saturday’s game against Altoona, Pa. His focus is on managing stress, calming the central nervous system down, so he hums a lot.
“There’s some science behind that,” Wimmer said. “It distracts me. I hear a song, start humming to it. Breathing, humming, distracting myself, being around my teammates. Managing stress, workload, you go through a lot in baseball. Coming out here and facing 95 (MPH fastballs), it’s pretty stressful. … It’s been fight or flight ever since the surgery.”
Wimmer has played everywhere on the diamond except first base, catcher and pitcher since he’s been in the Rockies’ system. With his bat and speed, he projects as a “super utility” player, and he has said he wants this to be a “crazy story,” with a storybook ending in the big leagues. But after all he has been through, Wimmer is less concerned with results, more concerned with making the most of every moment.
“Every game, I’m super grateful,” he said. “I just have a sense of gratitude after every game I get through.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Connecticut Sun coach Rachid Meziane and guard Leila Lecan, both from France, have crossed paths with Marine Dursus, the 20-year-old French guard who committed to UConn women’s basketball on May 22.
“I coached against her many times,” Meziane said. “She’s a great shooter, high basketball IQ, not surprising she would sign with UConn. She can be a player who can dominate a college league.”
Lecan, 22, who just rejoined the Sun, played with Dursus at INSEP, the elite Olympic training center in Paris that is know for basketball player development.
“I played with her at INSEP when I was 18, and played with her professionally two years ago,” Lecan said. “I hope it will be another step for her and I’m curious to see how she fits in the American way. She’s really talented. She’s a shooter, she’s a driver, too. She can do a lot of things. She’s a good offensive player. She’s pretty complete.”
*Knicks star Jalen Brunson’s father, Rick, was an assistant coach at UHart in 2009-10. People who were around the program then remember Jalen, who was 12 going on 13, running up and down the court at Chase Family Arena, holding his own like like he could’ve been a rotation player for the Hawks even then.
Dom Amore: Remember when Jalen Brunson, future Knicks buried UConn in Hartford?
*Former Trinity player Dana Smith Jr. is in the OKC Thunder’s organization as video analyst.
*Jake Richard, who said earlier that he would return to UConn for another men’s hockey season, changed course this week and signed a two-year, entry-level deal with the Sabres, who’d selected him in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft. Richard had 32 goals, 56 assists in 108 game for the Huskies, often skating on the line with Joey Muldowney and Ryan Tattle.
*The MAAC’s rebranding this week as The Metro Conference is long overdue, since it was always a minor irritant trying to keep the MAAC and the MAC straight. For those carping that the name once belonged to a high-major conference that included Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati … yeah, what’s your point? They realigned and gave up the name over 30 years ago. The Metro sounds about right for a Connecticut, New York, New Jersey-centric conference.
*Fairfield has threepeated as winner of the MAAC’s, uh, sorry, Metro’s Richard J. Ensor, Esq., Commissioner’s Cup for overall athletic excellence. Fairfield’s women’s programs won their Commissioner’s Cup for the fifth year in a row.
*Jessica Chrabaszcz, executive associate AD for competitive excellence at UConn, Ann-Marie Guglieri, Yale’s executive deputy director and chief operating officer, and Zach Dayton, Fairfield’s assistant vice president and deputy AD, all made Silver Waves Media’s list of top 100 rising stars/future ADs.
*West Hartford’s Casey D’Annolfo completed his quest for a third straight Division III national championship with Tufts men’s lacrosse, beating RIT, 17-11, on May 24 in the championship game at Charlottesville, Va. D’Annolfo, a Conard High grad, is 165-20 in his current position.
*Another West Hartford native, Bryan Haley, keeps stacking similar records with Endicott baseball. Haley has led Endicott (40-11) to the Division III World Series for the fourth year in a row, winning the opener vs. Salisbury on Friday night.
One of my old Yankees beat-mates, Ken Davidoff, a brilliant writer and baseball mind, has collaborated with parenting expert Dr. Harley Rotbart, to compile “101 Lessons from the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life,” a fabulous concept and must-read for the parents of young baseball and softball players. It explores hidden life lessons behind the fundamentals of baseball, for example, picking the right pitch to swing at is an exercise of good judgment; the runner leading off first base is balancing risk and reward. And it shows, now matter how long baseball is around, there is always a new way to look at it. The book is available on Amazon, and from the major book sellers.
Key Sens. Cruz, Cantwell look to break college sports logjam in Congress with a bipartisan bill
Always beware of oversimplified solutions to complex problems. Put another way, how the law works and the way sports fans think the law is supposed to work, are two different things. We can all agree that college sports has spiraled out of control, and there needs to be some regulation. Federal legislation may one day be part of the solution, but the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act introduced in the Senate this week, a well-intentioned composite of prior bills, has some dubious elements.
Take, for example, the “Lane Kiffen Rule” that would prohibit a coach from leaving a school during a season. Sure, we hate when a coach abandons a team before a bowl, let alone playoff game, but does the government have the right to tell a private citizen when they can change jobs? Would you like them to tell you? … Limiting how much athletes can make in a free market system without collective bargaining, or how often they can transfer, is litigation waiting to happen — with or without an antitrust exemption. Just how would “super leagues” be curbed? By breaking up the four that exist, or preventing, say, UConn from joining one in the future?
No, this genie is not going back into its bottle without a fight, or without some very sophisticated problem-solving.
Continue reading...
Then Wimmer was one of eight hand-picked prospects the Rockies sent to continue in the Arizona Fall League. But in the blink of an eye, as the team bus was approaching the ballpark in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 1, things changed.
“I had a random seizure on the way to the game,” Wimmer said before a recent Yard Goats game at Dunkin’ Park. “No symptoms or anything; it just ended up happening. I was on the team bus, luckily Charlie Condon was sitting across from me, and I kind of tapped him on the leg and said ‘Something … something doesn’t feel right,’ and eventually, he stopped the bus.
“I had to go to the hospital, had an MRI on the brain, ended up having a brain tumor. Had surgery 19 days later.”
The right side of Wimmer’s face was seizing as he drank Condon’s water. Pitcher Cade Denton, now with the Yard Goats, was also on the bus.
“It was obviously a pretty scary moment,” Denton said. “You see one of your friends over there, struggling to get words out, things were happening and everybody was kind of freaking out a little bit. But to the best of his ability he told us what was going on, we got the bus pulled over, got him off the bus, got him some water. … What a trouper, man.”
Wimmer’s girlfriend, Peyton Gray, who has since launched a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of ongoing tests and treatments, got him back home to Oklahoma, where he met a survivor of a similar tumor, Ryan Sharp, who became a mentor through the process. Chris Forbes, the Rockies’ head of player development, who is a cancer survivor, urged Wimmer to find such a person and stay away from consulting “Dr. Google” about his prognosis.
Wimmer, 25, had 3 1/2-hour surgery, having to be kept awake throughout, while the golf-ball sized tumor was removed from the left side of his brain — a Grade 2 astrocytoma, considered malignant. As the surgeon performed, the OR staff kept Wimmer talking, so surgeons would know if they were affecting certain parts of the brain.
“It was pretty crazy, luckily that was something I was able to do, stay awake, because the tumor was close to my speech and motor skills,” Wimmer said. “I wanted to come out of that with all those still working properly. It was crazy, they numbed it all up so I didn’t feel anything, but I remember talking to the nurses that were in front of me. It was crazy.”
He left the hospital with his speech and motor skills intact, but in the weeks that followed he lost them, suffered another mild seizure, and gained them back, experiencing all the emotional highs and lows that came with it. As he recovered, he gradually began to put back some of the nearly 40 pounds he had lost. Within a few weeks of the surgery, he was hitting off a tee and tosses in the cage. By the time he reported to spring training, after an MRI had yielded encouraging news, he was cleared for full go.
“We all knew, once we found out he was having brain surgery, it was going to be a long road to recovery,” Denton said. “But seeing him swinging, we were keeping up with him, making sure everything was going good and it was really good to see how quickly he’s bounced back from it.”
Wimmer, who played at South Carolina, was drafted by the Phillies in the 18th round in 2022, but bet on himself and went back to school for his senior year and the Rockies took him in the eighth round the next year. He hit .285 with 14 homers and 64 RBI in 118 games at Fresno, Calif., in ’24. In advanced Class A at Spokane, Wash., he was hitting .302 when the Rockies moved him to Hartford, where he hit .284. At the two levels, he finished the season with 17 homers and 69 RBI, 37 steals in 40 attempts.
Dom Amore: Yale baseball’s build is complete, and they’re heading to the NCAA Tournament
Out of training camp, Wimmer was reassigned to Hartford, where he would likely have started the 2026 season if nothing had happened. He’s played in 14 games in centerf ield for the Yard Goats, hitting .275 with five doubles going into Saturday’s game against Altoona, Pa. His focus is on managing stress, calming the central nervous system down, so he hums a lot.
“There’s some science behind that,” Wimmer said. “It distracts me. I hear a song, start humming to it. Breathing, humming, distracting myself, being around my teammates. Managing stress, workload, you go through a lot in baseball. Coming out here and facing 95 (MPH fastballs), it’s pretty stressful. … It’s been fight or flight ever since the surgery.”
Wimmer has played everywhere on the diamond except first base, catcher and pitcher since he’s been in the Rockies’ system. With his bat and speed, he projects as a “super utility” player, and he has said he wants this to be a “crazy story,” with a storybook ending in the big leagues. But after all he has been through, Wimmer is less concerned with results, more concerned with making the most of every moment.
“Every game, I’m super grateful,” he said. “I just have a sense of gratitude after every game I get through.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Sun’s French connections on newest Husky
Connecticut Sun coach Rachid Meziane and guard Leila Lecan, both from France, have crossed paths with Marine Dursus, the 20-year-old French guard who committed to UConn women’s basketball on May 22.
“I coached against her many times,” Meziane said. “She’s a great shooter, high basketball IQ, not surprising she would sign with UConn. She can be a player who can dominate a college league.”
Lecan, 22, who just rejoined the Sun, played with Dursus at INSEP, the elite Olympic training center in Paris that is know for basketball player development.
“I played with her at INSEP when I was 18, and played with her professionally two years ago,” Lecan said. “I hope it will be another step for her and I’m curious to see how she fits in the American way. She’s really talented. She’s a shooter, she’s a driver, too. She can do a lot of things. She’s a good offensive player. She’s pretty complete.”
Sunday short takes
*Knicks star Jalen Brunson’s father, Rick, was an assistant coach at UHart in 2009-10. People who were around the program then remember Jalen, who was 12 going on 13, running up and down the court at Chase Family Arena, holding his own like like he could’ve been a rotation player for the Hawks even then.
Dom Amore: Remember when Jalen Brunson, future Knicks buried UConn in Hartford?
*Former Trinity player Dana Smith Jr. is in the OKC Thunder’s organization as video analyst.
*Jake Richard, who said earlier that he would return to UConn for another men’s hockey season, changed course this week and signed a two-year, entry-level deal with the Sabres, who’d selected him in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft. Richard had 32 goals, 56 assists in 108 game for the Huskies, often skating on the line with Joey Muldowney and Ryan Tattle.
*The MAAC’s rebranding this week as The Metro Conference is long overdue, since it was always a minor irritant trying to keep the MAAC and the MAC straight. For those carping that the name once belonged to a high-major conference that included Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati … yeah, what’s your point? They realigned and gave up the name over 30 years ago. The Metro sounds about right for a Connecticut, New York, New Jersey-centric conference.
*Fairfield has threepeated as winner of the MAAC’s, uh, sorry, Metro’s Richard J. Ensor, Esq., Commissioner’s Cup for overall athletic excellence. Fairfield’s women’s programs won their Commissioner’s Cup for the fifth year in a row.
*Jessica Chrabaszcz, executive associate AD for competitive excellence at UConn, Ann-Marie Guglieri, Yale’s executive deputy director and chief operating officer, and Zach Dayton, Fairfield’s assistant vice president and deputy AD, all made Silver Waves Media’s list of top 100 rising stars/future ADs.
*West Hartford’s Casey D’Annolfo completed his quest for a third straight Division III national championship with Tufts men’s lacrosse, beating RIT, 17-11, on May 24 in the championship game at Charlottesville, Va. D’Annolfo, a Conard High grad, is 165-20 in his current position.
*Another West Hartford native, Bryan Haley, keeps stacking similar records with Endicott baseball. Haley has led Endicott (40-11) to the Division III World Series for the fourth year in a row, winning the opener vs. Salisbury on Friday night.
Summer reading
One of my old Yankees beat-mates, Ken Davidoff, a brilliant writer and baseball mind, has collaborated with parenting expert Dr. Harley Rotbart, to compile “101 Lessons from the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life,” a fabulous concept and must-read for the parents of young baseball and softball players. It explores hidden life lessons behind the fundamentals of baseball, for example, picking the right pitch to swing at is an exercise of good judgment; the runner leading off first base is balancing risk and reward. And it shows, now matter how long baseball is around, there is always a new way to look at it. The book is available on Amazon, and from the major book sellers.
Key Sens. Cruz, Cantwell look to break college sports logjam in Congress with a bipartisan bill
Last word
Always beware of oversimplified solutions to complex problems. Put another way, how the law works and the way sports fans think the law is supposed to work, are two different things. We can all agree that college sports has spiraled out of control, and there needs to be some regulation. Federal legislation may one day be part of the solution, but the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act introduced in the Senate this week, a well-intentioned composite of prior bills, has some dubious elements.
Take, for example, the “Lane Kiffen Rule” that would prohibit a coach from leaving a school during a season. Sure, we hate when a coach abandons a team before a bowl, let alone playoff game, but does the government have the right to tell a private citizen when they can change jobs? Would you like them to tell you? … Limiting how much athletes can make in a free market system without collective bargaining, or how often they can transfer, is litigation waiting to happen — with or without an antitrust exemption. Just how would “super leagues” be curbed? By breaking up the four that exist, or preventing, say, UConn from joining one in the future?
No, this genie is not going back into its bottle without a fight, or without some very sophisticated problem-solving.
Continue reading...
