West Harrison, MGCCC alum Brandon Parker living the dream following promotion to M-Braves

PEARL, Miss. (WXXV) — The Mississippi baseball roots run deep for the Parker family, and now they run deeper than ever following Brandon’s return to the Magnolia State last week.

“It’s cool being back in my home state,” said Mississippi Braves outfielder Brandon Parker. “Like I said, I grew up coming to the games here and watching the M-Braves, and even, I live about 20 minutes from the Shuckers place, their Double-A, and I went to all their games when I was in high school and college, and it’s really cool being able to experience.”

A 10th round selection of the Atlanta Braves back in 2019, the West Harrison alum is living the dream back in the ‘Sip, now a member of his home state M-Braves following a promotion on August 21.

“My sister was wearing my jersey from when I was an M-Braves fan when I was younger to my game last night,” said Parker.

231 Minor League games later, it took Parker more than four years to crack the Double-A level, following a banner career at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where his 24 home runs in 2018 broke the single season school record en route to winning NJCAA Player of the Year.

Four years later, younger brother Tate Parker won the very same Division II honor en route to winning a national championship at Pearl River Community College, before going on to sign with Southern Miss.

It’s safe to say it runs in the family.

“Really cool because we get to share that bond of being athletes at a very high level, and my dad, he was very athletic,” said Parker. “My dad played basketball in college. My mom, she was an athlete in high school, so it’s always been around the family, and not just Tate, my younger brother. My younger brother Reese – I have two younger brothers – and he’s really good as well, and I don’t know, we’ve just kind of always fell in line of being athletes I guess.”

Reese put that athleticism on full display two years ago when Brandon was a member of the August GreenJackets.

Big bro launched a two-run home run, only to have lil’ bro catch it on the fly, which ended up being on SportsCenter’s Top 10.

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Back in Pearl, Parker is the first Magnolia State native to play for the M-Braves since DeSoto Central alum Austin Riley in 2018, now the big league third baseman in Atlanta.

Maybe one day, they’ll share the same diamond.

“That’s a guy that I can kind of base my career off of,” said Parker. “He’s been very successful on and off the field. He’s a great guy, great human, so it’s pretty cool being compared to him.”)

Parker has 26 career MiLB home runs.