Sean Delaney ’92 is North Central’s highest drafted Major League Baseball player as he went in the 23rd round of the 1992 MLB draft to the Kansas City Royals.
Delaney almost did not attend North Central in the first place, that was until the Cardinals head coach Tom Purcell invited him to campus.
“I was enrolled and ready to go to Aurora University. Coach Purcell called and asked me to come out for a visit so I did and decided that North Central was going to be a better fit than Aurora,” said Delaney. “The school the campus, the baseball team, the history, it just felt like it was a better fit.
“In between my sophomore and junior year, Coach Mathey helped me get connected with Tom Garnett, who was a catching coach. That summer, working with him is really what kind of propelled me to the next level,” Delaney said.
Delaney helped the Cardinals to a 35-12 overall record while winning the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament to clinch their spot in the NCAA Tournament. He secured First Team All-CCIW honors that season.
The Cardinals finished in second place in the NCAA Central Regional that season. That team became the first team in school history to win 35 games. As of 2023, they rank in the top 10 for single-season records in 10 different offensive categories.
In his senior season, Delaney hit .450, the sixth highest batting average in program history while reaching base at a .517 mark, the tenth highest in school history. He also tallied six triples that season, the second most at that time.
That 1992 season earned him American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) First Team All-American honors. Delaney again received All-CCIW First Team accolades.
Etching his name into the career batting record books, Delaney recorded 122 runs batted in his four years, which is the eighth most in Cardinals’ history. He is also eighth with 11 career triples in program history. In total, Delaney won 105 games in a Cardinal uniform.
“I had a really good junior season. The local Chicago scouts came out to watch games and I think that is when I got on their radar,” said Delaney. “I went to the camps and then followed that up with a good senior year and everything kind of fell into place.”
“Playing professionally was really never on my radar until going to North Central and talking with the coaches. At the time, they had a couple of guys that had been drafted. I came in just after Ken Ritter was graduating as well. After learning more about the history of the program, and that guys were actually being drafted opened my eyes. From that point on, I just put my head down and worked really hard for four years. That hard work paid off and I got to play six years of pro ball,” Delaney said.
Delaney played five seasons of professional baseball, four of which were teams within the Royals organization.
