MVN - Most Valuable Network

Kevin Brown Returns To San Diego

Kevin Brown has been announced as one of the players returning tonight to celebrate the 1998 pennant winners.

For those who don’t know, Kevin Brown came to the Padres from the Marlins in the winter of 1997 and promptly became well-loved in San Diego. Not only for his pitching, although it certainly helped, but for his fiery competitiveness and what was seen at the time as a “straight-shooter” rep.

After the season, he turned down a five year, sixty million offer to take more money and years from the Dodgers. Because he had famously said that he wanted to stay here and would only leave if he could get closer to his Georgia home and because we hate the Dodgers so much, this made Brown an object of scorn in San Diego. Much of the displeasure of the fans at seeing Steve Finley, Greg Vaughn, Ken Caminiti and Brown leave was focused on Brown.

Some of that was legit. The team had said that retaining Brownie was crucial to a plan to build with that group of players and when he left it killed some of the plans of management. It isn’t like they low-balled him. At the time, the 12 million per offer was the largest in the history of the club.

But Kevin claiming that it wasn’t about the money but about proximity to Georgia made it worse. His continuing that talk while trying on a Dodger jersey was considered treason. San Diegans can look at a map. They can read distances. True, the increased flight availability out of L.A. and the promise of use of a private jet made a difference.

But Brown should have just come out and said it. “Dudes, three million a year more and for an extra few years? How can I pass it up?” It wold have worked out better.

When he returned to San Diego, it was a madhouse. He lost, giving up seven runs in a game filled with nastiness from the fans and with the PA playing every song the operators could think of that was related to money, greed and corruption. The Padres were fined by major league baseball for the music. When Brown was pulled from the game, the fans threw dollar bills at him.

History has made everyone but the Dodgers look smart. Brown’s best years were behind him and the Padres would have been upset with the cost of that contract for a guy mired on the DL. Brown’s financial acumen served him well, as he sold his product at it’s high point of demand. Cammy and Vaughn never again were the players they had been here and we all know the tragic end of Ken’s brutal journey.

Only Finley went on to success.

I hope that Brown gets treated like it’s 1998 tonight. Not 1999. The time has come to celebrate what we had, not decry what we missed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.