The Sticky Road to Redemption
The Sticky Road to Redemption
October 3rd, 2011
by Serenity Summers
Greetings from Florida, everyone! Finally, the playoffs are here! Florida fans are excited and anxious for the playoffs to start. This year is a chance of redemption for the team. Possessing the best record in the Imperial League last season, the Featherheads were ousted in the Imperial Alliance Tournament by the divisional rival Statesmen. Everyone within the organization realizes the opportunity at hand. This is an opportunity to wrap up some unfinished business from last season. It is an opportunity to bring the Rodríguez Cup home to the Sunshine State and its rabid fans. This is redemption. The road to redemption starts this Wednesday against George Riley and the West Virginia Coal Sox.
Florida manager Jaime Sánchez has plastered the big white board with the word “redemption” in big red lettering. The whole team and its individuals all have something to prove. The Featherheads need to capture that elusive Cup to culminate the team’s successful turnaround ever since owner Drew Streets and GM Kevin Lewis took over the team. Not an All-Star this season, Tsumemasa Morimoto travels the path of redemption to prove that his name belongs with the elite. Newcomer Michael Kelly seeks to prove the naysayers wrong about him being soft and a playoff choker. Facing Rafael Suárez this playoff series, fellow rookie Luis Torres is out to show the baseball world why he’s still considered baseball’s number one prospect. Even manager Jaime Sánchez has something to prove – to prove that he is “$840,000 per year good“.
Perhaps n o one individual is seeking more redemption than pitcher Franklin “Sticky” Browne. To understand Browne’s road to redemption, one must revisit a game against San Antonio on September 25th, 2010. It was that game against the Calzones where Sticky felt one step closer to redemption. People have always said there’s no crying in baseball, but apparently Browne did not receive that memo. It was after that San Antonio game that Browne – whose face was partially covered in shaving cream – sat at his locker in the visitor’s locker room filled with tears. Just 20 minutes earlier, Browne and his teammates stormed Elysian Fields to celebrate a 3-game sweep of the Calzones. Ricardo Gabriel, who recorded the final out, singled out Browne from the swarm of Florida blue and handed him the game ball. For a rookie, Gabriel showed veteran awareness in handing Browne the game ball on the outing of his 20th win. Then again, Gabriel probably knew Browne closer than any other Featherhead teammate. The two of them were teammates in Chesapeake Bay a year ago. One a rookie, while the other a veteran. Both had a mutual understanding of the journey of to the big leagues.
After a radio interview with A.K. and Nelly – where battery-mate Manuel González doused him with shaving cream – Browne found himself sitting in front of his locker shedding tears in front of reporters. To the casual fan, it is apparent that Browne’s tears were those of elation from notching his 20th win of the season. For Browne, however, the 20 wins meant more than just a pure numerical milestone. It was a landmark that let him know he belong in the big leagues. It was redemption.
An All-Star this season, Browne’s path to the majors was quite different from other All-Stars. He was not a first round draft pick or a highly touted, college prep star. He was just someone from Adrian, a quaint little town located in Michigan. Browne’s path to the big leagues was one of luck, timing and perseverance. Pitching his junior and senior years at Adrian High School, Browne was not heavily recruited by universities. He ended up attending Division II school Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU), where he pitched four years while majoring in business management. The plan was to graduate from SVSU and team up with his father on a landscaping business venture. It all went according to plan. In 2003, Browne graduated from SVSU and immediately joined his father’s private landscaping business.
This family business was the pride and joy of the Brownes. For multiple generations, the Brownes were blue-collar people who worked with their hands. The landscaping business was passed down from one generation to the next. It all originated from Browne’s great-great grandfather’s involvement in the fencing business in the early 1900s. Since then, the business has branched out and evolved into landscaping.
In 2006, the perfect timing of the fall of Major League Baseball would change Browne’s life forever. It was then that a new baseball alliance rose from the ashes. It was announced that in 2007 that the newly formed Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance (PEBA) would start its inaugural season. Built upon the grass roots of small, hard-working cities, the PEBA reached out to America for its next generation of baseball stars. Firmly entrenched in the landscaping business, a part of Browne yearned to reach out for this baseball dream. The thought of playing for the Kalamazoo Badgers of Michigan enthralled his mind.
But how could a young man find it within himself to tell his father that he wanted to break tradition? For generations, the family business was passed down from father to son. One day it was to be expected that Franklin Browne passed down this business to his own kin. Little did Browne know that it would be easier telling his father than he thought.
Upon breaking the news to his father, it was revealed that Browne’s great-great grandfather, Joe Browne, was a baseball player. Joe was a part of the Negro Leagues and played for the Page Fence Giants. Making that discovery, Franklin realized his true calling card. It was up to him to follow his great-great grandfather’s tradition of baseball rather than landscaping. So with that goal in mind, Browne made the plunge and submitted his name to the PEBA’s inaugural draft.
Nineteen rounds and several long days of wait later, Franklin Browne was finally informed that he had been selected in the inaugural draft – to Florida, out of all places. A Michigan native all his life, Browne’s baseball dream removed him from the winter chills of Michigan to the hot summer breeze of Florida. It was a move from the north to the south – which was quite a drastic change form quiet town Adrian to hustle and bustle of Florida nightlife.
Luckily for Browne, he was assigned to Florida’s AAA minor league affiliate, Chesapeake Bay, to start out his big league career. Chesapeake Bay was the perfect place for Browne. It was a quiet area similar to his native town of Adrian, Michigan. It was a place where he could just focus on baseball. The then 25-year-old Browne had a successful 2007 campaign in the minors. The former landscaper-turned-baseball pro posted a 7-5 record with a 3.23 ERA. Life was good for Browne.
Life got even better in 2008 – or so Browne thought. In 2008, he received the message that he had earned a starting rotation spot with the big league ball club. Elated to have achieved his dream of playing in the big leagues, Browne proceeded to have his worst baseball year ever. Not even in high school or college was he ever this terrible. The pressure of living up to the legend of his great-great grandfather and playing in the Sunshine State of Florida was too much for Browne to bear. He finished up the 2008 season with a 3-14 record and a hideous 6.39 ERA.
The 2009 season continued where 2008 left off. The small-city pitcher began the 2009 season with a 1-5 record and 7.97 ERA, which promptly led him being demoted at the request of newly hired GM Kevin Lewis. This was the low point of Browne’s career. His dream instantly turned into a living nightmare. Was it time for Browne to turn in his mitt and return home to Michigan? He certainly thought so.
The Adrian native was all but ready to come home to return to the family’s landscaping business. He stood there dejected in front of his Florida locker as he prepared to clean out his belongings. Before doing so, a beaten and battered Browne decided to break the news to his family back home in Michigan. He reached for his wallet in his duffel bag to pull out his calling card. It was that exact moment where Browne’s life and baseball career changed. This was the moment that Browne decided he needed to travel down the path of redemption. Upon opening up his wallet to grab his calling card, Browne saw a picture that stopped him from making the phone call. The picture that stopped him was a picture of the Page Fence Giants that his father had given him to remind him of his great-great grandfather’s playing days.
It was at that moment that Browne decided to stick with his dream. It was time for him to go to Chesapeake Bay rather than Michigan. Using that picture as an everyday motivator, Browne proceeded to have an amazing 2009 turnaround. He finished up his AAA season with a 6-3 record and 2.94 ERA. Unfortunately for Browne, that was not enough to impress the Featherheads. Browne remained in Chesapeake Bay in 2010. Rather than be deterred by that news, Browne continued to work on his dream. His perseverance and grit earned him the nickname of “Sticky” amongst his peers. Regardless of the challenges ahead, Browne was determined to stick the course and pursue his baseball. His unrelenting will and determination made him an inspiring leader in the Chesapeake locker room. A strong-willed mindset is nothing without results and Browne backed this up with a 14-4 record and 3.44 ERA in 2010.
His 180° turnaround was quite visible within the organization. Impressed by his will and leadership qualities, Kevin Lewis personally informed Browne that he would have an opportunity to prove himself with the Featherheads in 2011. By the time 2011 rolled around, Lewis was so impressed with Browne that he traded away fellow Featherhead starting pitching candidate Orlando Maldonado. Lewis’s faith in Browne quickly was rewarded. Browne earned a starting spot with the Featherheads and proceeded to rip through the months of April and May with a 6-3 record and sub-2.00 ERA. Despite some struggles in June and July, Sticky Browne earned a starting spot in the Fall Classic.
Browne’s road to redemption hit a pit stop this past week with a 20th win season milestone. This milestone puts in a class amongst household names. Markus Hancock, Nelson Anderson, Dean O’Monahan, Conan McCullough – and now you can add Franklin Browne to that 20-game winners’ list. This milestone is just a rest stop on the journey of redemption. For Browne and the Featherheads, the conclusion of the regular season does not mark the end of redemption but rather the start of it.
Slated to pitch on the road in West Virginia, Browne breathes an air of cool and calmness. The thought of pitching in hostile territory does not make Browne nervous at all. He’s endured through worse conditions. He and the Featherheads are out for redemption. Not many people may know where Adrian is, but now people will know who Franklin “Sticky” Browne is.