Interview #12: Brandon Brown, Will Clark's 2nd biggest fan
And the best hockey goalie in Blue Bulls history
Background: Brandon Brown was born in Puerto Rico in 1977, moved around a bit and eventually settled in Arizona. He grew up the biggest Giants fan there could have been living in Florida, but now mostly roots for the Red Wings and Lions. He retired from competitive hockey in 2020 and now enjoys lemonade on the porch with his wife and raising their two kids.
Brandon Begins
Where were you born?
“Puerto Rico. So even that would make me more of a baseball guy. I was born there. We lived there for a year and a half.
What part of Puerto Rico?
“San Juan. I was born in the same city, town, area as Jorge Posada. Santurce. I have a Santurce jersey. I've been back once. My birth certificate is in Spanish.
Then we moved to Illinois for six years, then we moved to Florida. And then Arizona when I was 15.”
So how did Detroit become part of your fandom?
“Well, my dad's from there and he was always rooting for every Detroit team. And since we moved a lot, I didn't have a set team to root for. And I just always rooted for whatever he was rooting for, which is kind of funny because I've done that to my son a little bit. He's a Lions fan. He's a Michigan fan. I figure he's got the best chance of seeing the Lions win because he's starting now and he's got, like, you know, hopefully 80-plus years.
I remember watching a little bit when the Tigers won the World Series in ‘84. I remember those players. I thought Lance Parrish’s glove that had the orange on the front of it was the coolest thing ever.”
Will the Thrill
“For one of my birthdays, I think I was 12 or 13, my parents gave me tickets to a Giants game in Candlestick to go see Will Clark. It was like August 13th, I looked it up before this interview.”
And you were in Florida still?
“I was in Florida. I loved Will Clark, like he was all over my wall. And I couldn't stay up to watch their games if they were on because it's too late. So my dad said, you and I are going to fly out there. We're going to go to a game at Candlestick. I mean the coolest gift ever, and we weren't like rich to be able to do that. So it was like holy crap. Like that's the coolest trip.
We flew out. We get to the game and I'm sitting there. My dad had a good friend that worked in baseball and he could get us good seats. We had really good seats, first base side. I'm sitting there, they announced the lineup. I didn't hear the first baseman. I didn't hear Will Clark. My dad's like, ‘No, I don't think I heard it either.’ They take the field, he's not out there. He did not play. He was sick. So I just sat there and I cried for like the first 2 innings and then I was like, I don't want to be here. Kevin Mitchell’s there, that's cool, but I don't really care about anything else. But I didn't know he was sick. So I was like, well, maybe he'll come in at a later inning. And then we read in the paper the next day he was sick with like food poisoning.”
(Note: Brandon sent the exact game, here’s the box score from that day and you can see that someone did pinch-hit for the first baseman but sadly, not Will Clark: New York Mets vs San Francisco Giants Box Score: August 17, 1990)
Did he play the next day?
“I think he played the next day. I begged to go to the next day but we were leaving the next day, we couldn't go, so I never saw him play. Then a couple years later, Joe Robbie Stadium in Florida, which is where the Dolphins were playing, they converted it to baseball for like a couple spring training games just to like, probably like test out the market for the Marlins. And then the Giants came in for that spring training and Will Clark played. And I saw him, and he hit a home run. That kind of didn't make up for it, but it did a little bit. So I did get to see him play that game.”
Is your son into baseball at all?
“He’s kind of always been into baseball. He's into almost everything. Like, he wants to watch every single sport that's on. He will cry when the Suns don't win the championship, like when they lost (to the Bucks), he cried. He loves the same football teams I do.
The cool part of my, what I call my baseball story, is how I found the Giants and how he found the Giants. And how we made it our team together.”
How did he find the Giants?
“He started watching baseball and he’s like I like this guy, Buster Posey, the way he plays. I would love to be able to hit like that. He didn't want to play catcher. He was a pitcher because he could pitch. He didn't like pitching, so he played third base, but he loved Buster Posey. He just started asking for Giants stuff, a Posey jersey. And I'm like, dude, we got to try to get out there so you can see him… and then he retired. (after 2021)
But you guys did go to San Francisco right?
“Yeah, for the Will Clark (number retirement in 2022). Actually, two games, but one trip. And then the next day, we went to the Sunday night baseball game against the Cubs.
So yeah, that Will Clark number retirement stuff, it was like a full circle thing. Like I got to go see him be retired and then Buster Posey gave a speech in that game. So Carter got to see Buster. I mean, not play, but it was so cool.”
Glad you found parking to get there on time.
“We walked everywhere.”
You took your son walking the streets in San Francisco?
“I paid extra to stay as close as I could to the stadium because I was like, well, we only have like two blocks. It was… a colorful two blocks.”
Watching baseball then and watching it today
How many stadiums have you been to?
“Tiger Stadium, when they were still playing on it, and it was so weird to me because it was so enclosed. Like the outfield at other stadiums looks so big, but there it felt like you could touch the walls. My dad had a friend who worked in baseball. He was the head of travel for the Yankees.”
George Costanza?
“It's almost that same job. Arthur Richman is his name (here’s an article about him from when he passed: "Remembering one of baseball's true characters, Arthur Richman"). My dad became friends with him. He used to work for the Mets, you can see him on the field celebrating the World Series in ‘86. My dad met him because he gave speeches as an FBI agent about gambling to all the teams. And he struck up a friendship with Arthur. He'd come down to Florida, where the Yankees had spring training in Fort Lauderdale, and I'd sit in the dugout with Robert Kelly walking by and all of that because Arthur would just get us tickets.”
“Where was I going with this? Oh, so I saw a lot of stadiums. I saw old Busch Stadium. I don't remember it very well. I went to the Old Comiskey, went to Wrigley. I was at the old Yankee Stadium. I went to Candlestick, been to Oracle. Petco Park is probably my second favorite. We try to go to a game there every year, it’s just expensive and parking’s awful downtown.
My sister's gone to… how many parks are there? How many teams are there? 30? She's been to like 26. When she graduated, she was a P.E. teacher, she had her summers off. She would just go travel and go to each stadium, like regionally, go to like the New York area and go see everything in there now. And she still does that with her family.
She's always liked baseball. It's her favorite sport. She has a Diamondbacks tattoo on her ankle. Which I always got to make fun of but now it’s cool because the old logo came back.”
Did you go to any of the playoff games this year at Chase Field?
“No, my son did. My son went with my mother-in-law. They go to a lot of games together. They make a point to go to the first spring training game together. She takes him to a lot of games. That's why I don't go as much.”
You don’t tag along?
“I don't. I just don't go that much. It's a long night, I've worked all day. I'm tired. Even now, the Red Wings are coming in a couple of weeks (to play the Coyotes) and the cheapest tickets are $215. I’ll just watch on TV.
I saw (Tyler Gilbert) throw a no-hitter. I was at the game I couldn't believe I was about to watch a no-hitter. And my freaking mother-in-law said it out loud. It was cool because we were watching it. It was the three of us and we were watching it, and Carter goes, ‘Dad, something's happening.’ He's very adamant about not saying anything. And I go, ‘Oh my God’, and we showed her she was like, ‘Oh my God a no-hitter!’ And he’s like, ‘Shhh!’ And then it actually happened.” (note: for non-sports fans, the rule is you never mention something historic happening while it’s happening, or you’ll jinx it. Luckily the baseball gods gave her a pass this time.)
Did anyone else in the section hear her?
“No, I don't think so. If they did, they probably pretended they didn't hear it. We're like, this is amazing. Like most of those games, I'm ready to go after the seventh thing. We had to stick that one out, and there was not much the Diamondbacks had to be happy about that season. It was awful, they couldn't win. Then that happened and I was like, hey, this is nice.”
So now you're getting older, are you just going to be a homebody the rest of your life?
“I would love that. It sounds like the cheesy father thing to say, but I just like being invested in what my kids are doing. I'd rather go watch them play than the Diamondbacks play. My daughter plays volleyball. She used to play softball. Carter is in track.
I think the pandemic sort of just made me not want to go anywhere. Made me realize how easy it is to stay home.”
Baseball Player turned Artist
How did you get into baseball growing up?
“When I lived in South Florida, my neighbor and I would just play baseball in the cul-de-sac every single day. We would be the lineup from our favorite teams. I was the Giants and he was the A’s. This was when Will Clark and Mark McGwire were both hitting. His favorite player was McGwire and mine was Clark. We didn't have a baseball team in Florida, so you had to go find someone else to root for. And we would play in the cul-de-sac, metal bat, tennis ball on the neighbors roofs. So I think that was probably my favorite memory because I hadn't even played in Little League yet, and I was probably 10 or 11 years old.
I'd been playing soccer forever. And then finally, I was like, alright, I really love to play this, I want to go play Little League and then I started to play from there. So I joined later than most. I just kept playing soccer and flag football when I was little. My parents didn't really encourage baseball.”
Were you a catcher? You are a hockey goalie after all.
“No, I wasn't a catcher. I wanted to be a catcher. I thought the gear, the whole catcher position was awesome. I was discouraged from playing a rough and dangerous position from my mom who didn't want me to get hurt. So I just played second base and first base. First base because of Will Clark. But then when I got to high school my freshman year, we had a really good first basemen. So I had to go figure out second base.”
So you played in high school?
“One year, yeah, in Florida.”
And then you moved to Phoenix.
“And I didn’t make the team, at Horizon High School. If you look it up, they they've won like, I don't know, I think since I started there, they've won like eight state championships.”
So when you started playing Little League in Florida, you kept playing baseball until you got to AZ?
“When I went to high school, I went to a small high school. It was only like, I think 35 to 40 people in the freshman class. It was a Lutheran school in Deerfield Beach, east coast, by Fort Lauderdale.”
Were you any good?
“I was OK. I don't think… I thought I was better than I probably was at the time, but like looking back on it, I wasn't very good. I probably could have done more different. I was probably like a .200, .250 hitter. Like I wasn't the best. But I looked at that as I was a freshman, and I was starting, and I was going to play three more years, get better. And then we moved, and I practiced all summer and did everything I could and went out for the team here and nope.”
Did you play any other sports in high school?
“I was done. I was done with sports. I focused on being an artist. That's it. I thought that's my only way to get, like, a scholarship or maybe do something like that, but I stopped playing baseball at that point. And then the next time I played a competitive baseball game was a softball game when I was like, 30. Like, once I got cut, that was it. Kind of sucked.”
What kind of art were you doing?
“I was drawing sports figures. I was into a lot of music, like 90s alternative was big and I was drawing like Kurt Cobain and things like that, and I was selling artwork to teachers and winning awards, like the state art fairs, you know which is, not as exciting as if you could play baseball.”
Note: 90s alternative is still the best music. Soundgarden is playing on Spotify as I type this
How did it feel then? You said you practiced all summer and thought you were getting better and—
“They were another level. I went through the tryouts and they paired you up with someone. So you were paired with somebody, you kind of moved through the stations and did things the first week ‘cause they had so many freaking people out there. And I got paired with this guy who was taller than me, and I was like, probably 6-2, he was taller than me, bigger than me and hit lefty and just could crush the shit out of the ball and I'm like... And he's a sophomore as well. And then I saw the kid who eventually played second base, who became one of my good friends. And I was watching him hit. And I knew right away, like I am not the same as these guys. Some of the kids that went to that school came in from other areas because they had a good reputation. That coach was there up until like, three years ago.”
Do you think starting baseball late had anything to do with it? Like not having regular coaching until 10 years old?
“I'm sure it did. I mean, my first year in Little League I was probably like 12. So I played for three years and then I was trying to beat these kids who were playing since they were young. Out of that year that I was in, it was the class of ‘96, they won two state championships. Out of the starting nine, I think five of them went to D-1 schools, including the second baseman that was my friend and I was like, what was I going to do? I figured the only sport I was good enough to make anything at was baseball.”
You were really optimistic about making the team. And you got cut. How long did it take to recover from that?
“A while. Couple weeks. I was so upset. And I was like, well, what am I gonna do? You know, try harder and make it next year? Like I don't know if I'm even that close. Like I don't know what it would take. I thought about it a little bit, but I think I was just done. I just did not want to keep trying and it wasn't like, oh, we’ll find you a different school to go play, one that's not going to win all these championships. That was the school I go to, I was either gonna make that team or none.”
So baseball was your #1 sport when you were younger, and now it’s hockey and football. When did baseball start slipping?
“Probably when I couldn't play anymore. I just sort of walked away from it.”
Vegas as a Sports Town
“I just got done with the busiest project I've ever had in my career. I was doing the Super Bowl.”
You've done that before.
“Yeah, but this one I was in charge of everything about it for Verizon, so I had to coordinate everything, over two years of planning. We’d do dry runs before every game. So I was in Vegas every single Raider home game. I can take you around that stadium. I can show you everything you want to see. I've never been to a live event in that stadium. Never once.”
Did you talk to any locals up there?
“Yeah, I worked with a bunch of locals up there.”
Do they have any opinion on the A’s?
“No, they don't. But they love the Golden Knights. I talk hockey with Knights fans, like everybody in Vegas has a Knights thing, like a cup that they carry around or sticker on their car. That’s their team.”
Did they get into hockey because of the Golden Knights?
“I think a lot of them did. I know there's a guy I worked with, his daughter’s into hockey because of the Knights.”
Did they say why it was such a draw?
“It was the only sport they had, until the Raiders came. But the NFL's not that easy to take your kids to. It's not cheap. It's not that safe. Like, you have little kids, it's kind of hard. All the good seats are expensive to get away from all the freaking idiots wearing the big spiked shoulder pads.”
“I don’t know that Vegas, like, is it the best sports place? It’s really great for people visiting and going to events. I don't know how baseball's going to do. There’s people gambling and they’re gonna be like, ‘Do you wanna go to the game tonight?’
The Raiders are not that much of a homegrown team. I flew out there for every game, I'd go to the airport in the morning on Sunday, always an afternoon game. I get to the airport and most of the people waiting to get on the flight had Raiders gear, or whatever team was playing. And then, coming home that night, you'd see Raiders gear. People will just travel into Vegas because that's the easiest thing to do. It’s a $75 flight if you book it in enough time from anywhere.”
Softball Madness
So how did you meet your wife?
“She worked with my sister at Old Navy, she said you gotta come in and meet my co-worker. She's way more athletic than me. She probably throws a better spiral than I do. She grew up in a very sports-heavy, athletic family. She was always at her brother’s football games, baseball games.
She's super competitive and she'd look at her brother who’s a year-and-a-half older and be like, I could do that better. And she probably could, if she had the opportunity to go play those sports. So she could throw a good football, throws a hard softball, pretty athletic.”
Did you ever play softball together?
“We did. And it got too competitive. I almost fought somebody because they tagged her and shoved her down. I was in the dugout and running out there, because we were talking smack to this team the whole time, and then someone tagged her and knocked her down and she got up like she was going to do something. And I was running out there. But I had this friend, CJ, who was, I think on third base at the time. He was closer, and he’s 300 pounds or something like that, maybe not that much, but he was taller and bigger. He got there first and just basically threw the guy and then the benches cleared.
And I'm like this is stupid. I'm a grown-ass adult and I'm out here about to fight people with my wife. I hated it. I hated the softball environment. It got too competitive. You got dudes out there who never made it, thought they could. Like part of the reason I stopped playing men's league hockey is because there’s a bunch of a-holes thinking it’s the Stanley Cup and I just couldn't do it.”
Note: The Blue Bulls hockey team is not one of those teams… mostly because we never come close to winning.
Takeaways
The first thing is how crazy it is that despite neither of them living at California for any portion of their lives, both Brandon and his son became Giants fans by watching the most popular Giants of their generation, Will Clark and Buster Posey.
Second is how relatable the high school story of getting cut is. Not just for me, but for lots of kids. Especially these days when it’s hyper competitive and parents have their “prodigies” in private coaching and travel ball basically as soon as they can walk. And you wonder why everyone gets Tommy John surgery before they turn 25. But you could see that Brandon, in the mid-90’s, was there for the beginnings of that era. Every generation has those hard-ass coaches who want to win at all costs like his high school did. But once that started merging with the delusional parents moving kids to specific schools just for a chance to make it, well the whole industry went to hyper-drive.
Third is something I don’t know, but I wonder if it’s relatable. The part where he doesn’t go to sports games as much. Obviously the price tag is something every one points out, but it’s also the time commitment. Plus he’s happy to let his mother-in-law, who’s super into baseball and I’ll talk to soon, handle the crowds and parking and games. I wonder if I had a crazy busy career and two kids and a family to take care of if I’d have that love of going to events worn down for me, too. But that ain’t happening so I’ll assume Brandon is what I’d be if I’d ever tricked some girl into marrying me.