May 27, 2015
Scott Brown is in his third season at Vanderbilt. The Syracuse, N.Y., native, spent nine years as St. John’s pitching coach. Prior to that, he was a head coach in the New England Collegiate Baseball (Summer) League and worked for his alma mater for four years at State University of New York at Cortland. Brown and his wife, Mary, have three children — Nolan (6) and two-year-old twin daughters Kelsey and Riley.
Growing up were you always playing baseball?
Baseball has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. My parents would joke that the game was never over for me. If I had a game, I would come home and play another game even if it was by myself. Or I would turn on a game on TV. It was something about the game. I never wanted to stop playing anything. I was really sports oriented. It really has been a part of my life. My dad and my grandparents they all played (his grandfather played for the Philadelphia Athletics, a semi-pro barnstorming team). I have always studied the game a little bit and tried to create games within games.
You’re from upstate New York but you’re a Red Sox fan?
That’s a long story. A really long story. I was actually a Yankees fan the first 10 years of my life and fell asleep at night listening to Yankees games on the radio. In 1986, my grandfather went south to Florida every year as a snowbird. We went down and it was my first taste of Major League Baseball period. I had never seen a game in person, never seen a Major Leaguer in person. I was just wowed. Got all the autographs of the Red Sox. Jim Rice handed me a broken bat. Al Nipper handed me a baseball. It was just a workout day taking place and I bounced around the complex. Needless to say, I lost my Yankee baseball card collection on the way home. I was so enamored by the experience I had there. I didn’t know that I had gotten Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs and Mike Greenwell and these guys’ autographs. The funny part about that story is that I had a Garfield notebook that I picked up on the way that I was going to get autographs. The only guy that signed the Garfield notebook that day was Ted Williams, because I didn’t know who he was. He wasn’t in the media guide.
Any particular reason you got into coaching?
I always had the dreams that I was going to play in the major leagues. I don’t think that dream ever left me until… I mean I went into my senior year that was what I was going to do. Even though I threw like 82 miles per hour, nobody could tell me that wasn’t going to happen. I was so focused — that was where I was going to be. Then when reality came in, I said baseball has to be a part of my life. It just has to. Coach Joe Brown became the head coach at Cortland. He gave me a great opportunity to become an assistant there and learn on the fly with no experience as a coach. I was there for a few years and then I got an opportunity at St. John’s, which worked out well. It was everything. The right time with coach Ed Blankmeyer and then I’m very fortunate to end up here. The thing you don’t understand is you can’t put a price on the people you’ve been around. You don’t realize it until you’ve moved on and how much you’ve learned. Then you look and you say, `Wow.’ I played for Steve Owens who is now the head coach at Bryant. He was our head coach at Cortland. He has been successful his whole life. He helped shape me. Then Coach Blankmeyer for nine years at St. John’s. Now, coach (Tim) Corbin. It is incredible. All it is doing, it is continuing to make me a better coach and a better person. Hopefully I can pass along to players and, more importantly for me, it is about being a good dad and a good husband.
How enjoyable has it been to be a part of the Vanderbilt family the last two years?
It has been incredible every day. But people that know me know that I’m pretty mild-mannered and even keel on a daily basis. I’m always smiling. I just enjoy it. I really do. It almost doesn’t feel like you won a national championship or the players accomplished the things they did. Because it really like almost every day here is enjoyable. Yeah, it is easy to say because in two years we haven’t hit rock bottom. We had some ups and downs last year but it never felt like, well, this is wearing you out. It is a great experience. The people here are fun to be around. You can learn a lot from them and there is energy every day. I appreciate it and I’m thankful my family can be implemented into that type of environment as well. I have young kids. Six-year-old Nolan loves to be here for batting practice. My twin daughters are just excited to stand up on the dugout and dance during practice. It is a family atmosphere and it is fun to be around these people.
