Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305020098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But there is one subject he will not discuss. Never. You bring it up, and he will saw you off like an inside pitch connecting with a bat.
"Don't tell me my batting average," he said.
Brown is doing well in his first stop in the Carolina League, batting .273 through 20 games with 15 hits and nine RBI in 55 at-bats. For a team that has struggled painfully (six games under .500 at the end of the week), he's been one of the bright spots. So too has he been a fan favorite, as much for his pleasant disposition as his play.
Was it mentioned he's big? Brown is 6 feet 7, 245 pounds worth of big. Which raises the question of his other sports back in high school in Vacaville, Calif. That football coach must have flipped out when Brown registered for freshman classes.
"Football?" Brown said. "I don't like football too much. You can get hurt playing football."
He did play basketball until his career was cut short when he really did get hurt. Hurt bad. In the summer after his junior year, he was riding around with some pals in a car driven by the manager of his American Legion team when the driver lost control. Brown, among those hurt, broke his back. He was in a hospital for six weeks.
"The doctor told my mom that I should have been paralyzed," he said.
Instead, after surgery and rehabilitation, he played baseball the next spring. That summer, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization after being drafted in the sixth round.
Brown has hit reasonably well in his rise through Welland and Augusta (he batted .255 with 82 hits and 33 RBI last year). One number, though, really jumps out: He's hit 10 home runs (three this year) in four-plus seasons.
"I looked at that one time and said to myself, `You're a big guy, you ought to hit more home runs,' " Brown said. "Then, I started to get away from what I was doing well.
"We have great instructors in this organization, and they've told me not to worry about it. I'm young. The home runs will come."
It already may be starting. He hit two home runs in two nights this past week - one a monster drive over the right-field fence Friday night that had won the admiration of thethe Salem Municipal Field crowd.
If he keeps on, though, don't remind him about it.
\ CARRY ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINIA: Brad Clontz, the former Virginia Tech and Patrick County High School sidearmer, in Salem with the Durham Bulls last week, said he's been wondering about losing pitch velocity lately. He and Bulls pitching coach Matt West have been working on his arm angle to see if they can improve things. Clontz looked sharp in a 10-4 victory over the Bucs, striking out three in 1 1/3 innings.
Three of the Boston Red Sox system's managers went to high school in the Old Dominion. They are Pawtucket's Buddy Bailey from Amherst County, New Britain's Jim Pankovits from Douglas Freeman and Lynchburg's Mark Meleski from J.R. Tucker.
\ TAKE THAT. NO TAKE THAT: Twice this week, Salem's Marty Neff has caught Jon Farrell for the Carolina League home run lead only to have Farrell go back on top his next at bat. But with the team struggling as it is, any semblance of a home-run competition was waved off by both players as needless frivolity in such trying times. "I'm just trying to do something for the team, which I've not been able to do lately," Neff said. Added Farrell: "I ain't out to win a home-run championship. I just want to hit the ball hard. If I hit a home run, fine."
\ WOCKENFUSS UPDATE: John Wockenfuss, the former Bucs manager now at AA Carolina, has not managed a game after undergoing back surgery before the season. Spin Williams, the pitching coach and another Salem alumnus, is managing the club in his stead. Wockenfuss is expected back in a week or two.
\ WAGING PEACE: A plunk!-boing!-bonk! exchange of hit batters last week between the Durham Bulls and Salem resulted in Bucs left-hander Jim Martin and manager Scott Little being ordered from the premises. Later, amateur historians recalled the Bulls-Bucs bust-'em-in-the-chops battles of 1991 that ultimately ended after Carolina League president John Hopkins brought the full weight of his high office to bear.
Little argued against Martin's ejection - what the heck, the rules called for both to be tossed anyway - reasoning that Martin had no mayhem on his mind. Martin said the same.
"The last thing I want is for this to escalate into a beanball war," Little said. "These players are here to play baseball. Most of these guys were at Macon [Braves] and Augusta [Pirates] last year. They didn't have anything to do with the problems Durham and Salem had last year."
\ DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: When Carlos Baerga of the Cleveland Indians hit home runs from either side of the plate in one inning recently, it was only the third time in baseball history that had occurred. One of the other times, Gary Pellant of the old Alexandria Carolina League team did it to the old Salem Pirates in 1979.
When Bucs first baseman Mike Brown was playing in Bradenton his rookie year of 1989, his hitting coach was Hal McRae, now the Kansas City manager. McRae, it will be recalled, had a hissy fit this week when he didn't approve of a line of questioning he was getting from a radio reporter. Said Brown: "I never saw Hal act like that when I knew him."
\ FORE: Pittsburgh Pirates minor-league field coordinator Jack Lind was in Salem this week along with Pirates farm director Chet Montgomery and coaches Rocky Bridges and Bill Henry.
One night after a game, Lind was in Little's office. "What's this driver doing here?" he asked, nodding to a golf club leaning against the manager's desk.
"That's not a driver. That's a 3-wood," Little said.
"Let me rephrase that," Lind said. "What is this golf club doing here?"
Not a bad question, in view of the fact that the New York Mets' Vince Coleman almost took out teammate Dwight Gooden with a 9-iron in the Mets' clubhouse this week. Not to worry, though. Little's office is a little too snug for any practice swings.
\ THE BUCKS STOP HERE: People said having a team in Danville would be like having your own money machine. They may have something there. Almost two months before the Appalachian League season begins, only general-admission tickets remain for the new D-Braves. All reserved seats are part of the season-ticket package, of which almost 1,000 had been sold. Somebody might have had to carry the owners of old Pulaski team out on a stretcher if there had been a response like that. . . . Carper Cole of Roanoke is the assistant general manager in Danville. . . . Another hot ticket is for the new Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks, who have averaged 4,530 for five games, several in horrific weather conditions (as the Bucs will bear witness). Keep putting them in the seats like that and the Rocks will be looking at the Durham Bulls - the traditional league heavyweight of ticket sales - in the rearview mirror. Those Rocks, by the way, are playing in a brand-new stadium that they haven't even bothered to name yet. Seems as though there are political problems in the old DuPont company town.
by CNB