Scranton to a Hundred

Scranton

The football coach at Scranton High School turned to his assistants during a game. Jake McCarthy had just scored his fourth touchdown and run for about 200 yards. The coach told them to enjoy it — they would never see a back like him again for a long time. He called McCarthy a once-in-a-lifetime player with unbelievable size, speed, and vision, and humble and hardworking on top of it. McCarthy finished with 6,080 career rushing yards and 80 touchdowns. The family all wore number 31 at Scranton, and the school retired it in 2015. His father Joe played baseball at South Carolina and was drafted three times. His brother Joe starred at Virginia and played professionally. Teammates and fans still ask McCarthy about The Office, set in Scranton; he has watched it enough to catch the local references — pizza places, high school mentions that match his hometown. The Pittsburgh Pirates took Jake in the 23rd round out of high school in 2015, but he did not sign. He went to Virginia, and the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him 39th overall in 2018 with a $1.65 million bonus.

A Hundred

McCarthy debuted with the Diamondbacks on August 27, 2021, and spent five seasons in Arizona, where the organization named him its Rookie of the Year in 2022. He married Sophie Alecce in Philadelphia in January 2025 — they met during their freshman year of college, and he proposed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where it was about 5 degrees and they ran inside right after. He later joked that he had not really thought the outdoor plan through. He joined the Rockies in 2026. On July 18, in his sixth season and with his second team, he stole his 100th career base. Across 520 major-league games, he has a .268 average, 26 triples, and 100 steals. He has 93 hits in 89 games this season. He is 28, an outfielder for the Rockies.

Reporting: NEPA Football, Virginia Sports, Wikipedia, Arizona Republic, MLB.com. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.