August 27, 2011
NECBL: Hard work pays off for Brown
Keene Swamp Bats slugger Kevin Brown (Northboro, Mass.) sets high standards for himself wherever he plays. (photo: Sandy Morelli)
Keene Swamp Bats slugger Kevin Brown had what he describes as “kind of a down year” as a sophomore with the Bryant University Bulldogs. The Northboro, Mass., native sounds convincing, talking about his mental blocks and simplifying his work at the plate.
Here are a few stats from his spring season. He led the team in total bases with 98, at-bats with 201, doubles with 16, slugging percentage at .488, stolen bases with 11 and home runs with five. He batted .294 with a .362 on-base percentage. All of that landed him on the All-Northeast Conference second team.
Clearly, Brown’s definition of a “down year” differs from that of ordinary people.
Of course, Brown set a high standard his freshman year, when he earned Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year and second-team all-NEC honors with a .355 batting average and the school record for triples in a season with seven.
It’s part of his work ethic to constantly find ways to improve. And he believes he has done that this summer in Keene.
“You’re always looking to improve every aspect of the game,” he says. “For me, I kind of had a down year at school, so I was looking to get back at it with the wood bat. Last summer was my first with that experience (in the Valley Baseball League), and I think it was my first week alone I broke like seven or eight bats. It’s been a lot different this summer. I’ve been shortening up my swing and hitting the ball a lot harder now. It’s been a lot better for me.”
As of mid-July, Brown was among the New England Collegiate Baseball League leaders with four home runs and 17 RBI, and was hitting .340. Perhaps more importantly, Keene was leading the Western Division with a 17-9 record. Brown has been an important part of what makes Keene work.
On June 15, Brown was just a double shy of hitting for the cycle against the Danbury Westerners. He nearly had it at his final at-bat, hitting a strike to the right fielder. A littler higher, and he would have done it.
“Even his outs were loud,” head coach Marty Testo said.
Brown says he has simplified his approach to a “see the ball, hit the ball” philosophy.
“It’d been an ongoing thing: The balls are finding the holes, and I’m getting hits off of hitting the ball hard,” he says. “But this whole summer has been just breaking it down to a simple approach at the plate. Just hit it hard.”
“We talked to him about hitting the ball to all fields a little bit, instead of maybe pulling the ball so much,” Keene batting coach Dan Moylan said. “Just standing up a little taller at the plate to try to create a little bit more backspin and let the ball travel a little bit more. Other than that, no major overhaul.”
Don’t let the simple philosophy fool you. Brown has put a lot of hard work into making it look easy.
“He plays the game every pitch, every at-bat, whether he’s hitting or in the field, like it’s the last pitch he’s ever gonna see,” Testo said. “He does everything 100 percent. He works at the game off the field tremendously. He does everything to give himself the best possible chance to play baseball as long as he can.”
Brown grew up about an hour’s drive away from Keene, N.H., in Northboro, Mass., where he played high school ball at Algonquin Regional. His mother pitched softball at Stonehill and Framingham State, and used to work ground balls with him before supper. He still drives home for batting practice with his father on his days off. He improved his swing by taking 100 dry swings a day, building up his muscle memory. He credits his work ethic to his parents’ influence.
“It’s just kind of my upbringing, I guess,” he says. “My mom and dad have always pushed me to work hard. I love to swing. I love to get my hacks in. I love BP. They always joke about, you know, ‘Here goes Brown, he’s going to empty out the bucket again.’ That’s kind of how I’ve always been.”
At Algonquin, Brown wanted to be a shortstop. The team already had that position filled, so he worked his way on by playing left field. The team won the state championship his freshman year, but wound up losing in the playoffs the next couple of years.
“You kind of set the bar high at a young age, so anything short of that, it’s not really acceptable,” Brown said. “So you get that mindset. You go to work every day. You’ve got to do the best that you can at it and practice like you play. That’s how we played all four years there at Algonquin. It was good.”
If Brown wants to make it to the next level, he may have to work even harder and switch positions again. He may not be fast enough to be a pro outfielder. But Moylan says he fits the profile for a catcher.
“It’s gonna be, for him, a matter of where his bat takes him,” Moylan said. “If he’s going to stay in the outfield, he’s not a burner, and he’s going to have to hit to play in the outfield.”
If he needs to learn to catch, Brown says he’ll do it. The big difference, he says, is the perspective.
“You’re now 60 feet, s6 inches, rather than, you know, 285 feet away,” he said.
He is not intimidated by the fact that he’s never caught in a game.
“Because you haven’t done it before you probably don’t have any bad habits,” he said.
“I want to play baseball as long as I can,” he adds. ‘If that’s the route I have to go to get there, then certainly I would do anything just to play as long as I can.”
This article originally appeared in the August 2011 issue of New England Baseball Journal.
Nick A. Zaino III can be reached at feedback@baseballjournal.com
