Marty Brown took hard-nosed play to bigs, Japan, manage

Playing at AA Vermont to start 1987, Marty Brown had already long-earned the title of "hard-nosed" player, according to The Burlington Free Press.

"I've always been this way," Brown told The Free Press. "When I was a kid, I really liked Pete Rose. He always played hard and I respected that. That's the way I want to play."

Brown soon took his style of baseball on to the majors and he saw the bigs for brief stretches over three seasons with the Reds and the Orioles. 

He later took that style on to managing in the minors and in Japan, and most recently, to his own baseball academy back home in Missouri.

Brown's career in baseball began in 1985, taken by the Reds in the 12th round of the draft out of the University of Georgia.

Brown started with the Reds at rookie Billings. He hit .339 in 68 games and stole 11 bases. He then moved to single-A Cedar Rapids for 1986 and hit .299, with 58 stolen bases. 

That May in 1986, Brown spoke to The Cedar Rapids Gazette about being able to run, and simply play.

"I don't even know what I'm hitting," Brown told The Gazette. "I never pay attention to that. I just like to go out and play."

Brown made AA Vermont in 1987, then AAA Nashville in 1988. He hit .265 in 135 games at Nashville. Then, that September, he got the call to Cincinnati.

Brown saw 10 games with the Reds that year. He went 3 for 16. He then returned to the Reds for 16 more games in 1989. He went 5 for 30 that year. 

Taken by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft, he played 67 games in 1990 at AAA Rochester, then nine final games in the bigs in Baltimore. He went 3 for 15 to end his big league career.

But Brown continued to play over five more seasons. He saw AAA with the Indians at Colorado Springs in 1991. He then moved to Japan for three seasons, all with Hiroshima. He hit .276 there, with 27 home runs in 1993.

Brown then rounded out his playing career back stateside in 1995, with 30 final games at AAA Oklahoma City with the Rangers.

By 1997, he was back in the minors, managing short-season Erie. He moved to AA Altoona in 1999 and then back to AAA Nashville in 2001 and AAA Buffalo in 2003. He won minor league Manager of the Year honors with Buffalo in 2004.

In 2006, he returned to Japan at Hiroshima as manager and, in 2010, at Tohoku Rakuten. He then managed at AAA Las Vegas and back at Buffalo before turning Pacific Rim Coordinator for the Nationals. He left that after 2017 and started his Brown's Baseball Academy, The Phelps County Focus wrote in April 2018.

"The way Major League Baseball is right now, I'm more than comfortable to be doing what I'm doing," Brown told The Focus then. "I'm old-school. Now they're looking for new-school. They're talking about exit velocity and things like that. It’s not what baseball was all about when I came up."

Brown continued with Brown's Baseball Academy in 2022.

• Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 11, 1986: Marty Brown steals show for C.R. Reds
• Burlington Free Press, April 10, 1987: Brown: Aggressive Right From Start
• Phelps County Focus, April 5, 2018: Talkin' baseball with Marty Brown

More: 1990 Rochester Red Wings

1990 Minor League Tally 

Players/Coaches Featured:3,919
Made the Majors:1,307-33.4%-X
Never Made Majors:2,612-66.6%
5+ Seasons in the Majors:530
10+ Seasons in the Minors:326

More 1990 Minor Leaguers:

 - Ramy Brooks grew up in college, saw 9 pro seasons, AAA, 8/24/18

 - Scott Brosius made name for himself in bigs over 11 seasons, 12/17/16

 - Jason Brosnan saw 14 minor league season, AAA in five, 10/9/20

 - Terry Bross broke AA team saves record, saw 10 ML games, 7/24/19
 - Scott Brow made 4 majors seasons with Blue Jays, Dbacks, 8/20/13
 - Adam Brown felt invincible when he signed, not decade later, 10/15/11

 - Anthony Brown joined Pirates as Pa. native, saw 3 seasons, 2/16/20
 - Dana Brown played 3 pro seasons, later turned Astros GM, 12/12/12
 - Daren Brown played, managed in minors, filled in in bigs, 10/18/13
 - Dickie Brown saw 8 pro seasons, made team's record book, 3/12/15