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When the 2015 NPB season ended, we wrote a series about people who worked for both the Oakland Athletics and Saitama Seibu Lions. In recent years, the Lions have signed several former A's players while we also overlooked another name who escaped our readings.
With a few names missing, we're doing an update in adding a few more foreigners to this database. Here is the first of several parts to come ahead, starting with the player we missed who played prior to 2015:
Disclaimer: Zach Neal and Brian Schlitter are still playing baseball with the Lions and A's, respectively. They will not be considered until their tenures are done with their respective teams.
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Dee Brown
Tenures: 2007 with Oakland A's, 2010-2011 with the Seibu Lions
Statistics with the Oakland A's: 8 games, 3 PA, .000/.000/.000, 2 SO, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI
Statistics with the Seibu Lions: 139 games, 544 PA, .230/.311/.407, 21 HRs, 81 RBIs
Dermal Bram "Dee" Brown was a two-sport athlete in high school while raised in upstate New York. With his skills in baseball and American football, he was committed to the University of Maryland, who gave the right to play both sports.
He changed plans when the Kansas City Royals drafted him in the first round (14th overall) in the 1996 MLB Draft. It didn't take long to make his MLB debut in 1998 with how he did in the minors as KC rushed him early.
Brown's best season was in 2001, where he played in 106 games, but only hit .245. His last season with Kansas City was 2004 as he was a part time player. Most of his promise was at the AAA level with power hitting, but it couldn't translate once he made it to MLB.
From 2005-2006, he spent time in the minor leagues with the New York Yankees, Washington Nationals and Royals organizations before he signed a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007.
Arizona traded him to the Oakland A's for cash considerations and he mostly spent time in AAA with the Sacramento River Cats. In his short time with the A's, he was part a long rotation in the outfield that saw several injuries on the depth chart and became a defensive replacement for eight games.
He saw two more stints in the minors after 2007 when he spent 2008 with the Los Angeles Angels in AAA (Salt Lake City) and 2009 with the Los Angeles Dodgers AAA (Albuquerque). With a decent year as roster filler in 2009, the Lions took notice as he hit .290/.382/.523 with 19 HRs.
His 2010 debut on Opening day couldn't have gone better when he hit a go-ahead home run in a 2-1 win. Brown was a DH and outfielder and found some power hitting with 21 home runs. However, most of his success came in interleague play and against the Rakuten Eagles.
His most significant milestone was hitting the 90,000th home run in NPB history, something he accomplished in the first week of the 2010 season. (Chris Marrero hit the 100,000th for the Orix Buffaloes).
Even with the skepticism, his contract was renewed for 2011, but his poor condition came early and the Lions buried him in the Eastern League for most of the year. After being called up a couple times, he couldn't repeat his success from interleague play of 2010 and was placed on waivers in August of that season. It was his last time playing baseball.
Notably, he had a special celebration with teammates Hiroyuki Nakajima and Yasuyuki Kataoka whenever he hit a home run. He was a "Rock Star" as seen here.
Brown's career will be remembered as a long list of what could've been among talents that didn't work out. It's possible the Royals didn't develop him like they hoped, which set a negative trend in his career.
Today, Dee Brown does YouTube videos as a coach for anyone involved with baseball. With plenty of tips and tricks given, he also interviews several players and coaches about the game.
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Others in the series:
Mateo "Matty" Alou
John Wasdin
Jose Ortiz
Ty Van Burkleo
Taylor Duncan
Roger Repoz
Jim Tyrone
Esteban German
Bert Campaneris
Hiram Bocachica
Neil Wagner
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