By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
Caleb and Brayden Bergman rarely played on the same teams growing up because of a two-year age difference. The brothers finally got the chance to play together at Plano East High School.
Things did not always go according to plan.
“Every time I’d get on the mound to pitch, [Caleb] was our shortstop, and he would make an error every time,” said Brayden, now a redshirt freshman. “I would look back at him and be like, ‘Seriously, dude?’”
Those errors, whether coincidence or not, became a funny memory during the limited time they spent on the same team before Baylor.
“It would literally be only when I was pitching,” Brayden said. “He had three errors on the year and it was only when I pitched.”
While those moments turned into family inside jokes, they were only the beginning for Caleb and Brayden as teammates.
The path to Baylor started with their father, Brett, who pitched for the Bears from 1995 to 1998. Brett and his wife, Jennifer, knew they wanted their sons to embrace their alma mater.
“We raised our boys to be Baylor fans,” Brett said. “[We] never really forced them to choose Baylor over anything, but they grew up wearing the green and gold and rooting for it.”
While the brothers were never forced to go to Baylor, there were some special memories that kept Baylor as their ideal destination as high school prospects.
“We actually didn’t come to many baseball games,” said Caleb, a senior. “We did come to Floyd Casey [Stadium]. I remember being on the field, and it was one of the last games that they were going to play there, and we grabbed turf off the field and put [it in] a plastic bag.”
The brothers also had strong connections to the Bears’ coaching staff. Head coach Mitch Thompson began his first stint at Baylor as an assistant coach alongside current assistant coach Jim Blair during Brett’s playing days.
“There’s a picture of us, Coach Blair and his kids on the bridge at McLane [Stadium],” Caleb said. “It was the first season, when all the alumni came back to see the new stadium, and that was kind of a full-circle moment in terms of growing up a Baylor fan.”
Caleb joined the Bears as a freshman for the 2023 season and Brayden followed, coming aboard in 2025.
Caleb and Brayden reunited on the same field on March 9, 2025, against Loyola Marymount. Then-freshman Brayden entered the game in the ninth with a 9-1 Baylor lead. As he jogged from the bullpen to the mound, he passed Caleb, who was playing left field.
“I was out there in left field, so I got to be out there for his debut,” Caleb said. “It’s surreal for us, but I think it’s more surreal for our family.”
The emotional moment for the Bergman family felt like a culmination of all the work the pair put in over the years.
“I’m proud that they’re wearing Baylor colors and they’re wearing the Baylor jersey because I wore them,” Brett said. “More than anything, I’m just proud of them, and happy and grateful that they get the opportunity to play together and play at this level together. It’s a testament to what they’ve done.”
Brett served as the brothers’ main influence and supporter when it came to playing ball. He decided to coach them partly because he felt like he had “a lot to give back” to the sport, but more importantly because he wanted to help his sons grow.
“When I got done with baseball, I stepped away from it for about 10 years,” Brett said. “Once Caleb was born, he was into baseball, and I got him into baseball. I coached them both growing up their whole lives.”
That coaching mindset never left Brett. He remains invested in Caleb and Brayden’s development, even as Division I athletes.
“After every game, he’ll send me a text,” Brayden said. “’How’d you feel? What’d you feel?’ Then he’ll give some insight.”
Brett hopes to continue to help his sons be more successful on the field with his insight and experience as a collegiate baseball player and a coach.
