By ROY LANG III, Journal Sports
This time the dream came true.
Sunday, three years after his heart was broken on Major League Baseball Draft day, former Parkway star Eric Brown Jr. was selected in the first round by Milwaukee.
In addition to a pending contract with the big-league club, there’s one more thing the shortstop is likely to negotiate with the Brewers’ minor-league affiliates he encounters along the way.
The number 20.
Just one day before Brown’s 10th birthday, a member of a rival youth team tragically died as the result of a 4-wheeler accident.
Eric Brown Sr. took his son to Lawson “Bo” Brandon’s funeral.
“He told me, ‘From here on out, I’m going to play for that kid. I’m going to wear No. 20,’” Brown Sr. told the Journal.
Brown Jr. has done the number proud.
He hit .523 as a Parkway senior and helped the Panthers win a playoff game for the first time in nearly a decade.
As a junior this spring at Coastal Carolina, Brown hit .330 with seven home runs and 40 RBIs. He posted a 1.004 OPS and added 12 stolen bases.
Now, he’s a first-round pick.
One ESPN draft analyst described Brown’s swing as “wacky,” but admitted the metrics were “shockingly” good.
“The well-roundedness, it’s what the scouts love,” Brown’s hitting/fielding coach, Eddie Fitzpatrick, said. “Nobody says anything negative. They don’t say, ‘He can’t throw’ or ‘He can’t run’ or ‘He can’t field’ – everything is ‘He can do this, he can do that.’
“That’s why he was a big prospect out of high school. There is always something missing for somebody. There are a lot of great baseball players out there, but there are things that won’t work in the big leagues. He checks all the boxes.”
Immediately after his name was called Sunday, Brown shared embraces with his mother, Debbie, his father and his girlfriend, Lauren Kirkley, at a watch party in Bossier City’s East Bank District. It was a vastly different scene than 2019, when he was gutted after his name was never called.
“Now I’m kind of living the dream, I guess,” Brown said.
Contact Roy at RoyLangIII@yahoo.com
Photo courtesy Coastal Carolina Athletics