Another Brenly plays in Cedar Rapids

He'd never actually been here before this week, but Michael Brenly knew a lot about Cedar Rapids. The knowledge came courtesy of his dad.

"Oh, yeah. I've heard some stories about the early bus trips and stuff like that," the Peoria Chiefs catcher said. "How mom (Joan) kind of followed him around, and this was one of the first places they stopped. Yeah, he definitely told me a lot about this place."

Brenly's dad is Bob, the former major league player and manager, who is color commentator on Chicago Cubs television broadcasts. Bob Brenly hit 22 home runs as a member of the old Cedar Rapids Giants in 1977, his second year in pro ball.

This is also Michael's second year of professional baseball. It just so happens he's coming across some of his dad's old haunts.

It's a small world, as they say. 

"You know, it is pretty cool to play in the same cities that he did," Michael Brenly said. "He definitely knows a lot of the cities we're playing in now. Someone here actually gave me a letter the other night saying that he used to have my dad over to their house. So that's kind of cool. They've seen him play, now they're seeing me play."

"As a parent, you hope he has a chance to realize his potential and get to the highest level he can," Bob Brenly said in a Quad City Times story last week. "Selfishly, I think it's kind of neat that my son is playing in the same league that I played in 37 years ago."

Michael Brenly, 22, was a 36th-round draft pick of the Cubs last year out of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He hit .325 for advanced-Rookie Boise and is at the .214 mark in 12 games for Peoria.

His season got off to a late start because of a concussion that held him back in extended spring training for a couple of weeks. He fell prey to a foul tip while catching.

"The first couple of games, I just came out swinging, trying to get good pitches to hit and kind of impress everyone,"  Brenly said. "Let them know that I belong. I'm kind of in a little bit of a skid right now, but that comes with baseball. I'll hopefully come out of it soon."

Dad is always there to pick up the pieces after a bad game, Michael said. He's been there before.

In this case, literally.

"My dad could be a garbage man, and this is what I'd still trying to be doing with my life," Michael Brenly said. "It just so happens that he's already been down the same road that I'm going down now. It helps a little to have that reinforcement there. I can call him after a rough night or after a rough couple of games, and he'll just tell me that it's another day tomorrow. You've got, what, 100 more games to go, so you've got plenty of time to make up for a couple of 0-fers."