Baseburner - The Bartholomew Brown Story - Professional Baseball Experience (PBE)

[Jiggy]

This thread will serve as a media journal following the career of Professional Baseball Experience (PBE) player Bartholomew Brown. Brown is a rookie with a speed-first player profile who is beginning his career in the 40th season (year 2055) of the PBE. This thread will include media stories and snippets that chronicle Brown's career from prospect, to draftee, to minor leaguer, to PBE major leaguer, to whatever other successes and curiosities he may encounter along the way.

The PBE is a simulation baseball league where users control players who begin as rookies, are drafted into the Minor Leagues, develop their players and work their way up to the Major Leagues - all the while competing for World Series championships at each level. The PBE is currently made up of more than 500 active users.

If you have any questions about the PBE, I would be happy to answer what I can and point you to someone who can answer any I cannot. The PBE community is very active on forums, Discord, and Twitch and puts together regular novel and recurring community events to keep users engaged and to add spice and intrigue to the league.

Some helpful links to those interested:

PBE Forums - This is in effect the PBE home page, representing the primary content for the league. Though the forums can seem intimidating at first, it doesn't take long to get an understanding of the layout and how to navigate them.
PBE Twitch Channel - The league features regular recurring streams of OOTP simulations and league events.
PBE Discord Server - The primary communication platform for users and those interested in becoming users. The server is robust, active, and most importantly - fun!

[Jiggy]

Bartholomew Brown knew he wanted to be a professional baseball player the day he was not selected to his hometown’s Little League all-star team as a 9 year old. He had been passed over for the coach’s son, the assistant coach’s son, and the league administrator’s son despite believing in his heart to be a much better player. He wanted to be angry about the perceived injustice, but his father taught him to instead focus on the things he could control – his attitude, his work ethic and his strategy. And so he did. Instead of playing, Brown spent the summer watching baseball, reading about baseball and talking about baseball with anyone who would listen. He spent countless nights with his father at the local park hitting off of a tee, shagging fly balls, and, of course, running the bases. When the Little League all-star team he had been snubbed by made it to state, Brown reached out to each player individually to congratulate them personally. He could not control his absence from the team and refused to hold it against his friends and former and future teammates. By the time he was 10, Brown had improved himself so much as a hitter, fielder, runner and student of the game that those same coaches who had passed him over the year prior had no choice but to make him their first pick for the new roster. Brown led that 10-year-old group to a state championship and has been among Kentucky’s most elite players throughout his high school career.

Growing up one of six children in a rural Lebanon, Kentucky household, Brown shared a similar ambition as others in his hometown – find a way to get out of Lebanon, Kentucky. Baseball had always played into Brown’s plan to do so. Before his development as a player opened the door to a professional career, Brown had a two-pronged plan that would allow him to travel and make a living in a way that included baseball. First, he had intended to attend the University of Kentucky where he would study sports journalism, cover sports beats for the school’s daily paper, take on internships, and launch a career in sports media. Brown’s greatest school-based skill set had always been his writing. If he couldn’t play baseball, then maybe he could write about it? Second, he would spend a summer attending the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School. Brown had spent what limited free time he had in high school umpiring Little League games, Babe Ruth games and travel ball tournaments. He had started doing so to further reinforce the rules of the game and to gain additional perspective that might give him an edge or a greater insight over his competitors, but over time he had become quite good at umpiring and really liked it. If he couldn’t play baseball, then maybe he could still be a part of the game as an adjudicator?

Those backup plans may forever remain backups, as Brown has now blossomed into an intriguing professional baseball prospect who emphasizes his speed and defense to impact games. Brown was never the purest athlete at any sport he picked up, baseball included. Brown will never hit for plus power at the professional level, but if he can improve his rate of contact, his speed could create major headaches for opposing pitchers and defenses. His physical limitations require him to take a more cerebral approach to training, preparation, and tactics. Brown is fast. That’s easy to see even during warmups. Speed is usually thought of as a bonus; a skill accompanying some other skill set. But Brown has used his as his primary tool. And his mental approach to baseball has been just as valuable to his progression. Brown excels in the mental one-on-one battle between pitcher and hitter. He loves spoiling a good pitch and demoralizing a hurler by legging out an infield single, which helped boost his average above .400. Once on base, he loves stretching his lead to the limit, taking an extra bag, and of course thieving a base. In his senior campaign, he stole more than 30 bases, including taking home plate cleanly on three different occasions. And in the field, he loves ranging the gaps and robbing opponents of would-be base hits.

Whether genuine or self-promotion, Brown appears to have fully bought in to his own play style. In interviews he makes clear his belief that, while power will always have its place, speed and defense are the future of the sport because he believes those skills more fully showcase the athleticism of baseball. He hopes his tenacity and will-to-work will help his play style translate in the minor league ranks.

[Jiggy]

You wouldn’t know from his demeanor that Bartholomew Brown was racing toward a judgment day of sorts.

But instead of worrying about where and by whom he would be selected in the upcoming minor league draft, the senior instead quipped about the future of baseball as he took periodic swings off a tee at his high school field.

“I think fans today want more than power,” Brown hypothesized. “Baseball’s focus on home runs the last few decades has brought with it crazy strikeout numbers, and there’s no bigger let down than a swing and a miss. Speed – that’s what’s going to put butts in seats going forward.”

If he’s right, then Brown may be one of the most promising prospects in this season’s draft. The rangy outfielder swiped over 30 bases and legged out a number of infield singles to post a .400-plus batting average during his senior campaign. He also received several defensive awards from the state’s high school athletic association.

Brown is one of six children who each were competitively vying for their parents’ attention while growing up in rural Kentucky.

“None of us were separated by more than two years from the other,” noted Brown. “There was a lot of competition – call it sibling rivalry if you will. Each of us wanted our parents to be proud of us for something. I wasn’t the smart one; the funny one; the crafty one. But I could always beat my brothers and sisters in a foot race.”

Though speed isn’t the type of skill a person can typically build a career on, Brown is trying to lean into his as he foregoes college and prepares for draft day.

“There’s nothing more fun and more demoralizing to an opposing pitcher than causing havoc on base,” Brown said. “But first you have to make it on. That’s my focus as I move forward. How do I create good contact? How do I close off the holes in my swing? How do I get better recognizing pitches and defining my strike zone? That’s what I’m focusing on.”

[Jiggy]

The East Charmanders’ training room would be enveloped completely in darkness if not for the faint glow of the small monitor at the end of the room. The automated lights have shut off, having reached their end-of-day timer. A shadowy figure leans forward and rises from a steel folding chair in front of the monitor, glides to one of the walls and reaches out. In a flash of fluorescence, the room is assaulted by white mechanical light. Bartholomew Brown, dressed in team sweats and holding a boxed salad, returns to his chair, picks up a remote control from the rubber-matted floor, and presses play.

The picture on the monitor is grainy, but it’s easy to make out Brown by the shock of brown curly hair that hangs beneath the back of his batting helmet. On screen, he takes the box against South Squirtles right hander Rylan Moffitt. Brown fouls off the first pitch. He swings and misses at the second. The third is a ball, bringing the count to one-and-two. Brown fouls off the next two pitches before swinging and missing at a ball in the dirt. He is thrown out at first by catcher.

Brown doesn’t bother to watch his last at-bat of the Prospects League regular season – that was a single against Moffitt that came just two innings after the strikeout he just watched. Instead, he rewinds and continues to watch himself fail.

The Prospects League Showcase begins tomorrow, and this his how the Charmanders’ speedy centerfielder has chosen to prepare. East will visit South in a best-of-five series to determine which team advances to the Showcase Finals for a chance at winning the Prospects League championship and Brown has spliced together film of a number of at-bats against South pitchers spotlighting at-bats where he failed to deliver against the Squirtles.

Brown finished the regular season with a .208 batting average and 7 stolen bases in 36 games. While his stolen base percentage was 77.8 percent, his on base percentage was a mere .283, a statistic Brown knows he needs to improve upon to help the Charmanders advance to the Prospect Showcase Finals.

“Facing this caliber of pitching is definitely something I’ve had to adjust to,” Brown admitted about his limited time competing in the Prospects League. “There are some really talented arms here in the Prospects League. It has been a steep learning curve, but I do think I’m improving.”

Recent statistics support Brown’s belief. In September, Brown’s first month in the Prospects League, he managed just a .174 batting average. That average rose to .207 in the month of October and, in five games in November he’s batted .250 with a more respectable .318 on base percentage.

“The strikeout numbers still really bother me,” Brown admitted.

Brown struck out 30 times in 36 regular season games, tallies that might seem acceptable to onlookers or other players but aren’t to Brown, whose game as an amateur was predicated on getting on base as often as possible and trying to cause as much havoc as possible once aboard. He found the most success attacking first pitch strikes, notching a .312 average on first pitch balls in play. It’s when he’s fallen behind in the count that he’s struggled to control at bats against Prospects League pitchers.

As he watches himself swing and miss again, Brown strokes a small gold charm dangling from a short chain around his neck. The charm reads “Damn I’m Good”, a message that screams brash and cocky, two words few who know Brown would use to describe him. Closer inspection would reveal that the charm actually may be made from iron pyrite or an even more humble metal painted to have the appearance gold. Closer conversation reveals that the words aren’t meant to be projected outward, but rather inward. The charm is a keepsake from a childhood friend who passed away in a car accident. Brown wears it to remind himself that he is capable of great things so long as he focuses on what he can control – his attitude, his mental approach to the game, and his preparation.

“I know what this can look like to some,” Brown said, holding the necklace. “I wear it as a self-affirmation, not as a boast. I know I have a ton of work to put it if I want to make it in baseball. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to play in the Prospects League for sure. But I need to remind myself that I’ve worked hard to get to this point, and that hard can continue to pay off for me. I need to be confident, and sometimes confidence is hard to come by when you’re struggling. This necklace reminds me to keep my head up and trust the process.”

Trusting the process is why Brown is alone, staring at a fuzzy television screen, and eating a late dinner in the Charmanders’ training room on the eve of game one against South

“I plan on really studying tape between now and the Prospects League Showcase,” Brown said. “I can’t simply rely on instincts alone at this level of play. I need to dedicate time to learning pitcher tendencies and trying to find my blind spots and the holes in my swing so I can be more disciplined and more effective at the plate. I need to do better to help create runs to help my team win. It’s no or never now that we are in the Showcase.”

Run prevention is another way Brown can help boost the East to the Finals. He contributed 131 putouts and committed just 3 errors in 325.1 innings. He has a +0.2 zone rating and a 1.003 efficiency score.

It hasn’t been lost on Brown that MiLPBE scouts will be keying in on Showcase performances as general managers finalize their list of draft priorities and preferences. Brown has already interviewed with a handful of clubs, and though team officials have been close guarded with the amount of interest they have in the rangy outfielder, Brown has felt positive about the experience.

“The biggest thing I’ve taken away from the whole draft process is just how many amazing people there are in the MiLPBE,” Brown said. “From the conversations I’ve had, I know that no matter who picks me, things are going to work out just fine.”

Brown said that he had no preferences and would be happy no matter what organization drafted him. He is willing to move positions and adjust his developmental focus to meet team needs.

“To me, it’s all about helping the team win,” Brown said. “Whether that’s in center or somewhere else doesn’t matter. The more the team wins, the better off I’m going to be.”

But for now, in dank and lonely confines of the training room, the draft seems infinitely far away and thoughts of draft night are locked deep in the recesses of his mind. At the forefront is the Prospects League Showcase, where Brown hopes to help the East to an unexpected victory.

He intends to approach the postseason like he has approached his film study, one pitch at a time. If the East does in fact pull of an upset win, there may be a few MiLPBE general managers thinking of Brown, “Damn. He’s good.”

[Jiggy]

Some people subscribe to the theory that one should dress for the job that they want.

When Chicago Kingpins center fielder Bartholomew Brown walked out of the gate into Chicago O’Hare airport, he was dressed in generic athletic sweats – a black top and bottom each with red and white trim that at least vaguely represented his new team’s colors. Having wrapped up Spring Training, the rookie center fielder was now on his way, for the first time, to the Kingpins’ clubhouse to get prepared for the Professional Baseball Experience Minor League (MiLPBE) Opening Day.

His a look that did not overly impress his Uber driver.

“You’re a Kingpin now, you gotta look the part,” the driver said.

Conceding his sweats might not make the best first impression with Kingpins fans, Brown eventually allowed the driver to route him first to a suit shop in a partially occupied strip mall on the outskirts of downtown. The driver parked, shut the car’s engine off, pulled the keys, and stepped out from behind the wheel waiting for Brown to follow. After a moment’s hesitation, Brown did, trailing the driver through the swinging glass door and entering the store.

When Brown emerged around 30 minutes later, he wore a dark blue pinstriped suit complete with pocket square and matching hat, his curly brown hair flowing from the back. The sweats he had gotten off the plane in were now rolled tightly and hidden in a plastic shopping bag he carried at his hip.

The driver pulled open the back seat and paused with a smile as Brown approached the car.

“Sharp as a tack,” the driver said. “Now you look like a Kingpin.”

“Look good, play good, right?” Brown joked with reporters at the Chicago facilities after his driver had dropped him off. “All joking aside, I guess I am officially a professional now, so it doesn’t hurt to dress the part. Wearing this suit, I’m kind of reminded that baseball is no longer a game, it’s serious and it’s work, especially if I want to help this team win a championship. The work began in Spring Training, and it keeps going now – even more so that the real games start tonight.”

Spring Training was a mixed bag for Brown.

Brown played in all 20 Kingpins Spring Training games, batting .275 with a .326 on base percentage in 80 at bats. He recorded 22 total hits, including two home runs, two triples, and three doubles. He also stole a base on his only attempt – the first bag swiped by a Chicago player since the 2053 season.

But it wasn’t all positives in Brown’s mind. He did struck out 11 times. Despite not being overly poor, strikeout numbers have dogged Brown mentally since competing in the Prospects League prior the MiLPBE draft, where he struck out 30 times in 36 regular season games. He admits he has become a perfectionist at that particular facet of his game.

“I’m continuing to focus on putting balls in play, because that’s my best chance at being effective offensively,” Brown said of his Spring Training work. “I need to be putting pressure on defenses. I’m not doing my part to help the team if my swings come up empty.”

Despite the hangup on strike outs, Brown maintains a positive perspective on the upcoming season.

“I kept up with the postseason last year,” Brown said. “The Kingpins had a great run and we’ve brought back so much pitching and offensive firepower, I’m really excited for what this season could be.”

Starters James Daly, Jolene Mydog, Mitch Goatbisky and Ragnar Lothbrok return for another season with Chicago. They’ll be joined by rookie Casey Shaffer, who impressed with a 2.08 ERA and 1.0 WHIP during Spring Training.

Chicago returns a pair of 10-save hurlers in the bullpen in Bauer Bottom and Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss. And offensively, Chicago will likely be led by returning left fielder Nate Brittles, who scored a team-high 76 runs last year while getting on base at a .420 clip, and Luigi Lanakai, who belted a team-high 22 home runs and knocked in a team-high 78 batters in 2054.

“Chicago has almost been a perennial postseason team,” Brown said. “There’s a little pressure to help ensure the postseason streak continues, but the prospects of competing for a championship are more exciting than anything.”

Brown caught himself after the utterance.

“I know that’s getting ahead of myself,” Brown said. “We have our first game tonight, and as cliché as it sounds, postseason runs are built one game at a time. I’m just hoping for a win tonight.

The Kingpins open their 2055 season with a series against the Louisville Lemurs, who they met and defeated in last postseason’s semi-finals round. It should prove a difficult first test for the rookie center fielder.

“I’m definitely nervous for competition,” Brown said, “but good nerves bring out that competitive fire. There should be a postseason atmosphere tonight. Bright lights, lots of fans. I think I’m ready for it all.”

The degree of Brown’s on-field success with Chicago will be determined over the course of the season. Thanks to his Uber driver, on this 2055 Opening Day he’s at least dressed for it.

[progen]

Good start!

[Jiggy]

Bartholomew Brown scrolls his phone from a seat in the back of a train car.

He is riding Chicago’s elevated train system – the “L” – from his apartment to the Chicago Kingpins’ baseball facilities. During the ride he is quiet. He is reflective. And he is anonymous.

The anonymity is the one of the major reasons Brown prefers the “L” as a means of travel to the park. When you’re riding the train, people do not care who you are. Everyone aboard is simply going about their business. And this morning, Brown is going about his.

Fellow passengers looking closely over his shoulder would see that Brown’s phone is open to the Fielding Bible website. He has spent the ride poring over defensive analytics and comparing how his metrics measure up to those of his peers in the Professional Baseball Experience Minor League (MiLPBE) and those of his betters in the majors. The analytics tell him what he is doing well defensively and more importantly to Brown, where he is falling short.

If there was one tool Brown was confident in upon his arrival in Chicago, it was his speed. Naturally, Brown assumed that his speed would almost automatically translate to high analytic scores for outfield range. At the very beginning of his minor league career, however, that simply was not the case.

One scout who watched Brown during the first week of the 2055 season went so far as to assign Brown a 45 rating for range. The scouting scale is 20-to-80 and measures a player’s tools as they compare to the major league level. On that scale, 50 is major league average. A rating of 45 denotes a fringe-average skill. In other words, despite being blessed with amazing speed, this scout’s early assessment was that Brown’s outfield range was slightly below that of an average major league outfielder.

“That seems a little unfair,” Brown said when advised of the range rating assigned to him by the scout. “Then again, I have to admit I was having a really hard time getting good jumps and tracking fly balls when I first got here.”

With the “here” being Chicago, Brown noted that the atmospheric conditions in which he now plays his home games are a bit more complicated than what he had played in as an amateur.

“I guess there’s a reason they call it the Windy City,” noted Brown with a smirk.

Brown indicated that it took him about a month to feel comfortable identifying how balls were going to travel once they got high into the Chicago sky. Winds in the Kingpins’ ballpark can be gusty and often change directions inning-to-inning. Relentless fielding practice has helped him adjust.

“I’ve spent so much time with the coaching staff working on not just seeing the ball better,” Brown said, “but also understanding where it’s likely to go based on what the wind conditions are at any given moment. I’m finally feeling at home here now. I had gotten to the point where I almost dreaded balls being hit in my direction. I’m much more confident now.”

Brown’s early-season struggles tracking fly balls shouldn’t be attributed solely to wind, though.
Despite its familiar moniker, Chicago is only 12th-windiest city in the United States based on recent meteorological data, with an average wind speed of around 10.3 miles per hour.

The rookie center fielder has also had to adapt to the different ways balls fly off the bats of the much more talented hitters he plays against in the minor leagues. MiLPBE players are able to barrel more pitches in tough locations with squirrely movement than high school hitters, producing different launch angles off the bat and adding different kinds of spin that affect a ball’s flight through the air than Brown had seen before.

“It’s crazy what professional hitters are able to do,” Brown said. “There is definitely a learning curve when you step up in competition. Those types of things – they’re not something you can produce with a fungo bat. You can’t get better at it from shagging fly balls. You just have to see it live during games and learn from the mistakes and errors you make.”

Brown has learned a lot in the span of a few months.

Through 72 games, Brown now ranks fourth among MiLPBE center fielders with a 3.3 zone rating (and just one of six players with a positive zone rating in the league). Zone rating measures the number of plays a fielder makes and against the number of balls that have been hit into the player’s “zone”.
He also ranks first among center fielders with a 1.035 defensive efficiency rating. He has a plus range rating of 3.38 and has made 246 total catches while adding four outfield assists including two catch-em-out, throw-em-out double plays.

His improvement in the field has not gone unnoticed. Multiple scouting reports have recently given Brown an outfield range of 70. On the 20-to-80 scouting scale, a 70 rating indicates a tool that is among the best tools in the game. Brown has seemingly turned an early season weakness into one of his most marketable player attributes in just under four months.

Despite the defensive transformation, it remains unlikely Brown will win any awards this season. His start was just too slow and there remain several more seasoned minor leaguer players who have made flashier plays and not gone through the same rookie growing pains. These minor league mainstays will almost certainly lead votes at the end of the season.

However, like when riding the “L”, Brown is more than happy to maintain a bit of anonymity as a defender for the remainder of the season. That would suggest that he is no longer making mistakes in the outfield.

“When it comes to defense, it’s better to be anonymous than notorious,” Brown said.

[Jiggy]

The S40 Professional Baseball Experience Minor League (MiLPBE) rookie class featured some spectacular performers during the 2055 regular season.

State College third baseman Yoshi Yoshironi has hit .324 with 65 RBIs. Florida second baseman Manuela Ban has hit .297 with 16 home runs and 70 RBIs. Anchorage first baseman Saad Fakhar has hit .284 with 22 home runs and 76 RBIs.

That is just to name a few. Sensational rookies have left an impact throughout the MiLPBE.

Chicago Kingpins fans certainly may admire their rookie center fielder’s grit, hustle and determination. However, even the most ardent Kingpins supporter would not count Bartholomew Brown among the league’s decorated roster of top rookies.

Sure, he’s a great glove. Brown finished with a 3.36 range rating and a +5.5 zone factor. He had a defensive efficiency of 1.037 and committed just three errors - all early in the season - while making 353 putouts and five outfield assists.

And yeah, Brown can certainly fly. He swiped 23 bases and was caught stealing just six times, good for an 80 percent success rate. He also led the league in triples with six.

Brown gives the Kingpins tremendous energy and enthusiasm. He is a positive force in the locker room. He has a ton going for him and certainly has contributed to Chicago’s successful season and championship aspirations.

However - put simply - Brown cannot hit.

At least not yet.

The 21-year-old just finished his first minor league season to the tune of a .225 average and a .279 on-base percentage. His wRC+ was a paltry 45 and as a result his WAR a -0.6.

At times this season, Brown looked outmatched by opposing pitching. He struck out 81 times and drew only 29 walks despite starting in all of the Kingpins’ 108 regular season games.

“Hitting is hard,” Brown said. “In high school, I kind of forgot that was the case, but at this level - these pitchers are so talented and have so much movement and such good stuff. It can overwhelm you.”

Statistics indicate that plate discipline and strike zone mastery bear a lot of blame. Brown hit just .154 (20-for-130) when behind in the count. In contrast, when he was able to work counts in his favor, his batting average was .408 and his on-base percentage was .517.

Looking further into the numbers, Brown’s results at the plate got worse the further behind in counts he got. He hit .222 (8-for-36) in 0-1 counts. He hit .169 (10-for-59) in 2-2 counts. He hit .158 (9-57) in 1-2 counts. And he hit .081 (3-for-37) in 0-2 counts.

He was .385 (15-for-39) in 1-0 counts, .333 (5-for-15) in 2-1 counts, .545 (6-for-11) in 2-0 counts, and .500 (3-for-6) in 3-1 counts.

Brown did not record an official at-bat that concluded with a 3-0 count. However, facing the added pressure of a full count, when a batter knows that the pitch to come requires decisive action, Brown was at his absolute worst, batting just .067 - just two hits in 30 at bats.

“I found myself guessing in a lot of those situations,” Brown admitted. “When I’m ahead in the count, I don’t have to think as much. I know the pitcher has to come to me with something in the zone, so I can relax and focus on hitting.”

For his part, Brown has been working specifically to improve his eye and his plate discipline in cage work. Over the last two months of the regular season, Brown has spent extra time with Chicago’s hitting coaches taking batting practice reps in the cage.

“I want the coaches to try and confuse me,” Brown said. “I want batting practice to be completely random, where there are no counts and I have no way of knowing what pitch is coming and where it’s being thrown. I need to get to a place where I’m able to react without overthinking. That’s how I’ll find consistency.”

His coaches contend they’ve already seen a difference in how Brown is approaching and attacking his at-bats, though late season numbers don’t show much in the way of different results.

Brown’s best hitting month was his first, where he broke onto the MiLPBE scene with a .323 batting average, among the best among the S40 rookie class. August and September’s monthly batting averages were .202 (17-for-84) and .200 (8-for-40), respectively - Brown’s worst two hitting months statistically of the season.

Baseball can be a game of great variance, however. Good at bats can often produce unsuccessful results - a luck factor that could have impacted Brown’s late season performance.

Recent scouting reports have featured improved numbers for Brown in those areas that have plagued him the most per statistics.

Before the season began, scouts assigned Brown a 30 rating for eye/patience against both left handed and right handed pitching and assigned him a 35 rating for avoiding strikeouts against both left handed and right handed pitching. Recent scouting reports have upped those numbers to a 43 for eye/patience against left handed pitching, 40 for eye patience against right handed pitching, 42 for avoiding strikeouts against left handed pitching, and 40 for avoiding strikeouts against right handed pitching.

To put the noted improvement into perspective, a 30 on the 20-80 scouting scale notes that a player is poor in a particular measure of their game, but not necessarily totally unplayable. A 40 notes that a player is merely below average in an area. A 45 would denote fringe average.

In Brown’s case, during the last two months of the 2055 season, he has improved his eye, patience, and ability to avoid strikeouts from poor in terms of major league potential to nearly fringe-average for a major leaguer, at least in the minds of scouts.

Brown believes his extra work will pay off.

“I’ve put in way too much time not to show better results,” he said.

Chicago begins the 2055 postseason with a first round matchup against East Division foe Louisville tomorrow. The team hopes Brown’s speed can provide a boost that the Kingpins lacked in last year’s chase for a championship.

For that to happen, Brown will have to do something he hasn’t done much of yet as a budding professional.

Hit.

[Jiggy]

Bartholomew Brown grabbed a small paper plate and slowly glided toward the humble collage of sandwiches, veggies and dip, and fruit spread on a card table in the dimly lit basement of his family home. A blur of the voices of Brown’s family and a few friends droned in the background beneath the crisper voices of the Professional Baseball Experience (PBE) season 40 draft analysts emanating from the television mounted on the wall opposite the food.

The draft was already in full swing, and Brown - having agreed to allow PBE reporters camp with him and his family on draft day - was still working on settling in to watch when his head snapped to attention at the mention of his teammate.

“With the fifth pick in the Season 40 PBE draft, the Providence Crabs select Otijomyzarc Kove, shortstop from the Chicago Kingpins.”

Brown scampered to the leather couch in the basement, dropped his plate now topped with two sandwiches and some carrots on a small coffee table, and dug in his pocket to retrieve his phone. He swiped it alive, and his face washed aglow by the active screen hammered out a congratulatory text to his fellow Kingpins rookie.

“Dad, did you see?,” Brown shouted gently, just loud enough to rise above the ongoing din. “Kove just got picked up! Fifth overall too! He’s going to the Crabs!”

Kove’s selection meant the draft had finally become real in the Brown household. Brown and Kove came into the Professional Baseball Experience together, were each drafted a season ago by the Chicago Kingpins of the PBE Minor League (MiLPBE), and had played all 108 games in the lineup together fighting through ups and dramatic downs, earning a postseason berth in 2055 but ultimately tasting bitter defeat to the Louisville Lemurs in the first round of the playoffs.

Distracted watch party guests found their collective plates and seats and, from that point, trained their attention to the television.

Brown and family decided to host a small watch party at the family home in Kentucky in part based on the expectation that Brown would probably be a mid-round selection in the draft.

“With the sixth pick in the Season 40 PBE draft, the Buffalo Surge select Chris P. Cream, relief pitcher from the Puerto Rico Ranas.”

In speaking about his expectations, Brown rattled off some of the stats that present as a mixed bag from his first season in the minor leagues.

Defensively, Brown was fantastic in center field. He finished second in gold glove voting, compiling a +5.5 zone rating and 1.037 defensive efficiency while notching five outfield assists and 353 put outs with just three errors in 108 games.

He also showcased explosive speed on the base paths, leading the MiLBPE with six triples and tallying 23 stolen bases in 29 attempts.

Offensively, Brown still has massive room for improvement. In 395 at bats, he hit for just a .225 average and got on base at just a .279 clip, mitigating the impact he was able to have as the long-desired speedster in Chicago’s lineup.

Much of his offensive struggles can be attributed to his eye and plate discipline. Over the course of the year, Brown struck out 81 times while drawing just 29 times.

“With the seventh pick in the Season 40 PBE draft, the Maui Makos select Mo Love, second baseman from the State College Swift Steeds.”

Brown had really soaked in the draft preparation experience. He had extensive interviews with seven different organizations in the lead up to draft day, and he had felt much more comfortable going through this process having done it once previously with the MiLPBE draft a year ago. Brown swore he would be happy if any of those seven teams thought enough of him to make him one of their selections.

“With the eighth pick in the Season 40 PBE draft, the San Antonio Sloths select Akira Komura, relief pitcher from the Anchorage Wheelers.”

Now it was just a matter of waiting to see how things shook out.

“With the ninth pick in the Season 40 PBE Draft, the San Antonio Sloths select Bartholomew Brown, center fielder from the Chicago Kingpins.”

Brown stared at his television screen for a blink-and-a-half as his sandwich plate teetered from his grasp and fell to the floor. A brief stillness permeated the Brown basement - a tiny calm before a storm of celebratory surprised cheers erupted from all who had gathered. Brown’s father snatched him up in a bear hug as his mom clapped and smiled. Eventually Brown, still awed by the disbelief of his selection, found space to move on to more modest hand clasps and side hugs with his siblings and friends.

Standing and hearing but not hearing the analysts describe the basis of his selection, the screen of Brown’s phone buzzed and blinked on as a text bubble materialized.

“VINS!”

The phone immediately buzzed again. Then again. Then again. And again as the message that first appeared seemed to clone itself over and over.

“VINS!”

“VINS!”

“VINS!”

Each text containing the same, simple message. Each text from a different Chicago Kingpins teammate or executive. Each equally confounding to Brown.

Brown responded distractedly, still taking in the draft broadcast as his number one priority. He stamped a thumbs up emoji to each of the texts, acknowledging what he thought was a congratulatory and celebratory spirit behind the “VINS!” messages.

After giving time for the emotions of his selection to settle, Brown sat down with the housed PBE reporter to attempt to share some thoughts on draft day and his potential future with the San Antonio Sloths. But he could not escape the joy - and confusion - his Kingpins family was sending.

“I know it sounds cliché when people say this, but today really is a dream come true for me,” Brown said. “I’ve wanted to be a major leaguer for as long as I can remember, and today a major league team has told me they want me to join their organization. It’s incredible.”

Buzz. Text bubble. “VINS!”

“And I’m speechless that the Sloths wanted me so badly they took me in the first round,”

Buzz. Text bubble. “VINS!”

“I know my first year could have gone much better. If I’m not getting on base, I’m not helping my team much, and I didn’t do near enough getting on base last season.”

Buzz. Text bubble. “VINS!”

“But improving in that area is now my number one priority. Obviously the Sloths think that if I’m able to do that I can really help them. Getting to that point is just going to take work, and putting in the work is something I’m definitely willing to do.”

Buzz. Text bubble. “VINS!”

Brown tried not to turn his head, but could not fight the temptation to glance at his phone each time the mysterious “VINS!” popped up.

Having noticed the obvious, finally the PBE reporter asked point blank what that message was all about. It was a question to which Brown struggled to find an answer.

“It’s just an expression of happiness,” he proffered. “It’s like a celebration, kind of. When good things happen or the team gets excited about something, we say it to each other. We’ve been using it all season when we win games, have rallies, or share good times in the clubhouse. The Kingpins players, coaches and staff have apparently been using it a long time.”

The PBE reporter was not satisfied with the vagueness of Brown’s answer, and so she asked him specifically what the word meant.

“I . . . I . . . well . . .,” Brown hesitated before finally coming clean. “Honestly, I don’t know.”

“VINS!”. This mysterious, four-letter word has become a rallying cry inside the Kingpins locker room. Brown himself has used it a number of times over the course of his first year in Chicago, parroting his teammates despite having no clue what it actually means or represents.

“Trust me, I’ve asked tons of time what it means,” Brown said, exasperated. “They won’t tell me!”

The PBE reporter accompanied Brown back to the Kingpins’ facilities the following day. The draft having completed, and Brown now feeling the pressure of not wanting to let down the Sloths, who had made him a first round selection, was returning to begin early preparation for the 2056 MiLPBE season. The reporter still wanted to know what “VINS!” meant, and so she encouraged Brown to again ask around.

This being the offseason, the Chicago clubhouse was mostly empty. Brown first stumbled upon co-general managers Pau and Tiktaalik, who congratulated him enthusiastically before he worked up the necessary nerve to ask them.

“So, my phone was blowing up last night,” Brown opened. “I got showered with ‘VINS!’ yesterday. I have to know, what the heck does ‘VINS!’ mean, anyway? I’ve been around for a while now, and I still don’t know.”

“If you don’t know what ‘VINS!’ is,” Pau answered, “then you don’t love baseball. And I’m sorry but you also just don’t know ball.”

“It’s a way of life,” Tiktaalik added.

Brown pressed.

“Look kid, it’s whatever you like,” Pau added.

“What does that mean though,” an even more confused Brown asked before he was dismissed by Pau and Tiktaalik who claimed to be too busy to continue the conversation.

Brown thought that maybe someone who is no longer with the organization might be more willing to tell him, and so he pulled out his phone and texted AK41, former co-general manager of the Kingpins and the executive who primarily scouted Brown before he was drafted by Chicago.

He hammered out a text.

“Hey AK, no one here will tell me. What the hell is ‘VINS!’?”

It only took a few seconds before the response from AK41 came in.

“It’s all in your heart,” AK41 had written.

Brown showed his phone to the PBE reporter with a desperate shrug. He gathered his baseball equipment and made his way to the batting cages. One of the bench coaches was nearby, so Brown asked if he would throw him some batting practice in the cage. The bench coach obliged. As Brown dug into the box, he made one last ditch effort.

“Hey coach, that ‘VINS!’ thing that we are always saying to each other,” Brown said as he entered the batter’s box. “What does that actually mean?”

“‘VINS!’?’” the coach answered. “‘VINS’ is a way of life. It’s a religion.”

It was at that point that Brown finally gave up. He quietly took live pitch repetitions in the cage and did some hitting off of the tee before hitting the facility weight room. He showered, changed, and gathered his belongings and made his way for the door when his phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and looked down to read.

“Hey Bart, we could not be more excited now that you are officially a part of our organization. We will be in touch with you soon to go over some contract and administrative things. If there is anything else you need or we can help you with, don’t hesitate to ask us.” The text was from Chris_Bricksquare Jimenez of the San Antonio Sloths. He had been the executive most active in interviewing Brown before the Season 40 PBE draft.

Brown grinned and typed out a response.

“I could not be more excited to be a Sloth. At the facility now putting in work. I will NOT let you guys down. Just let me know whatever I can do to better position the club, and I’ll do it.”

Brown exited the Kingpins’ facility and stepped into the glow of the early evening Chicago sun. He let the breeze wash over him while he checked traffic before crossing the street.

His phone buzzed. It was a response from Chris_Bricksquare Jimenez. The text message contained just one, four-letter word.

“VINS!”

Brown’s jaw dropped, his phone hand fell limply at his side, and he slowly raised a panicked gaze to the PBE reporter.

The curse of ‘VINS!’ may soon be following Brown to San Antonio.

[Jiggy]

Below is a first-person reflection from Bartholomew Brown on the start of his second season (simulation year 2056) with the Chicago Kingpins of the Professional Baseball Experience Minor League (MiLPBE)

We are only two sims in to the start of the 2056 season – my sophomore season – and already I can feel a palpable difference in pressure on the field. I think that increase is due to a couple of things.

Last season was free and easy. I was a rookie playing my first season of professional baseball. Expectations weren’t that high, and I was surrounded by more seasoned teammates. That allowed me to lurk in the bottom of the Kingpins’ batting order where I wasn’t put in as many run-producing situations. I could work on learning how to approach at bats against professional pitchers, how to read pitches, how to adjust my swing from what had previously worked in high school.

Now that I am in year two, things are much different. Many of my Kingpins teammates have moved on to major league clubs or have been moved to rival minor league teams. That left several holes in the lineup, and as a second-year player I’ve been asked to move up to the middle of the order. That has made my at bats carry much more weight. I find myself at the plate with runners on base and a need to produce much more often. I feel more comfortable reading pitches and working counts this season, but the weight of the expectations can weigh on one’s mind when all focus should be on the next pitch.

Compounding that pressure is the fact that now I am officially affiliated with a major league club. The San Antonio Sloths drafted me in the offseason, which has exponentially increased the number of fans who are paying attention to what I do on the field game in and game out. Not only do I need to satisfy Kingpins fans, but I need to reassure Sloths fans that I was deserving of their organization’s selection and am steadily improving to the point that I will be able to make a positive impact on their team in the near future (and to fans, the nearer, the better).

Lastly, the disappointment of last season still lingers. Chicago had expected to be among the MiLPBE’s best, and for a few months was. But by the end of the season – after a tumultuous fall from grace that began in June – we were a middle-of-the-pack team looking at a 10-game deficit to the Swift Steeds and Hepcats. This season, we’ve started 9-6, but the Swift Steeds have been near unstoppable in the East, racing out to an 11-4 record. That’s only a two-game lead over us right now, but it’s going to take a monumental effort to try and keep pace unless their performance drops off like ours seemed to last season.

I will continue to work my tail off to do all I can to keep us in the hunt. We still believe this to be a playoff team and still have our eyes set on an MiLPBE World Series championship. That is always the goal in Chicago, and that’s not changing, no matter how much pressure any of us are feeling.

[Jiggy]

Below is a first-person reflection from Bartholomew Brown on his increased power production through the first half of the 2056 simulated season with the Chicago Kingpins

Where is this new found ‘pop’ coming from? Even in high school, with aluminum bats and shorter fields, I didn’t hit home runs like this. I haven’t changed my training, my focus, or my hitting mentality in any way, and yet the difference in my bat this year could not be clearer.

Just looking through my stat sheet right now is crazy. I’m hitting .324 where last year I hit only .225. I have a .839 OPS, where last year mine was only .581.

The league has taken a bit of notice of how much I’ve heated up. They picked me as the premier performer in the minor leagues a few weeks ago. I hate to brag, but I have to admit, I was on an absolute tear in late May. I put up a .600 average and a .667 on-base percentage, piling up 12 hits in 20 at-bats. I didn’t hit any home runs that particular week, but the power has been there all season.

I’ve already hit five home runs – five! That’s good for second most on the Kingpins, behind only our superstar catcher Santiago Benito. I hit two of them in last week’s win over Louisville.

Statistically, there doesn’t seem to be any signs of slowing. I hit just .188 in April, making me think I was about to repeat the offensive frustration of last season. But in May, things just started clicking. I hit .345 that month, and this month I’m up to .368 so far.

And like I said, I’m doing it without sacrificing my approach at the plate. I’m still working to develop my eye and my patience, and that’s had to have helped with all of the other numbers. So far I’ve drawn the fourth-most walks in the league with 28. I’ve also put down the second-most sacrifice hits with 8 and stolen the fifth most bases with 19.

I could not be happier with the way this season is going for me personally. I am doing all of the little things I’ve always loved to do that help put my team in better positions to win. And now I’m also doing some bigger things with the bat that have never been my forte, but that is certainly making me a more well-rounded, impactful player.

I think that’s reflected in how our team is doing as well. The Kingpins are 29-19 and currently sit just two games behind State College, and we are going to keep grinding, scrapping, and fighting to win the MiLPBE East Division.

I realize that some of these power numbers are more than likely going to plateau or take a bit of a dip as the summer winds on. That’s the nature of baseball – sometimes you are hot, sometimes you are not. But so long as I’m hot, I’m going to enjoy the ride.

[Jiggy]

Below is a first-person account from Bartholomew Brown on Chicago's failure to match division rival State College's pace down the stretch of the 2056 MiLPBE season

We didn’t get the job done. Coming into last night’s simulation, we sat just two games back of the State College Swift Steeds. We had hovered in that position for most of this 2056 season, keeping pace with the East Division leaders but never quite able to scrape together the wins needed to take advantage of State College’s recent struggles and surpass them in the standings. We thought this week’s slate of games would be the difference. We had what seemed like a pretty favorable draw, and started out well. We won two out of three games at home against Anchorage to close out the month of August. The Swift Steeds matched us though, taking two out of three against the Ranas. The calendar turned to September and we promptly proceeded to drop all four games we have played so far this month, including being swept on the road to the Louisville Lemurs.



State College has split – two wins and two losses – to increase its division lead to four games now with just eight left to play before the end of the regular season.



Having been unable to surmount a two-game deficit all year – even when the Swift Steeds saw struggles – has left our locker room coming to grips with the fact that the East Division race is likely all but over at this point. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time to make up the needed ground. We have shifted our focus now to simply hanging on to the second-best record in the minor league, so we can put ourselves in the most advantageous postseason position possible.



Chicago of all teams understands that in the end, the postseason is truly all that matters. So many times we Kingpins have finished with the best or second-best record in the minors, entered the playoffs as one of the world series favorites, only to meet dramatic disappointment in the postseason. We may not win the East Division this year, but we can still walk away from 2056 as champions. And these recent struggles notwithstanding, that’s still what we aim to do. There’s one more week left in the regular season, then we set our minds to championship-or-bust mode.

[Jiggy]

“If you love speed as much as I do, then you’ll love Turbolax.”

Chicago Kingpins center fielder Bartholomew Brown looks down at a white, plastic bottle palmed in his hand. He measures his grasp and carefully turns the bottle to face label out as he raises his gaze to the camera with an awkward smile before delivering the company tag line.

“For fast, effective relief.”

“CUT!” The yell came from a gray-haired man perched in a director’s chair just to the left of the camera.

“That was an OK take Bart,” the commercial director continued. “I think we can do better, though. Take ten and let’s do another, eh?”

The director rose from the chair and headed to bagel spread set up outside a trailer set up for the crew shooting a commercial. Bartholomew Brown looked for somewhere to sit the bottle of TurboLax he had been using as a prop. Finding no more suitable place, he set it on the ground and headed to have a conversation with his agent.

Just a couple of days earlier, Brown – a second-year minor league ballplayer for the Windy City’s favorite MiLPBE club – learned that his agent had just nabbed him his first advertising deal and that Brown would be shooting a commercial on this very day. Still adjusting to life as a professional ballplayer, Brown had not anticipated that even growing minor league success might lead to promotional opportunities off the baseball field. The excitement of this first opportunity led him to accept before even asking what product he would be pitching. He still hadn’t found out that detail when he showed up to Millenium Park on the lakefront in Chicago’s downtown Loop. By the time he arrived earlier this morning, the set had already been established just in front of Cloud Gate, a work of public art colloquially entitled The Bean.

Brown quickly found his agent, who gave him little explanation before rushing him to his spot and thrusting the bottle of Turbolax into his palm.

“Turbolax?” Brown had asked. “What is this?”

“It’s a digestive health medication,” his agent had initially described.

“You mean it’s a laxative,” Brown said as the product finally registered. “Do you really think this is a good idea for me? I mean, this is my first endorsement deal. A laxative? What’s that going to say about me?”

“Think about it,” began the agent’s sales pitch. “Your biggest, most marketable attribute is your speed. Your game is all about fast movements, whether you’re swiping bags on the basepaths or chasing fly balls in center field. Turbolax is also all about fast movements too! And they want to use you and your skills to lean into promoting that. It doesn’t hurt that your name is ‘Brown’ either. There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between you and the product. That’s why they really wanted you to be their guy for this ad spot.”

“I guess I can see it from their perspective,” Brown admitted. “But what about mine? And what about the Kingpins? I’m worried what they might think about how this makes me look and how it makes the team look. Do they know you want me to pitch a constipation medication?”

“Of course I cleared this with Chicago,” Brown’s agent said. “They were all for it. You know how that locker room is – they are willing to support anything that helps one of their players.”

The conversation continued for a handful more minutes. Brown’s discomfort never really eased, but he begrudgingly kept his place when the director arrived on set and began preparing to film the first take. Brown’s role was simple – stand in front of the camera and read a few lines off some cue cards while holding the product. He had done a handful of takes before this ten-minute break.

“Maybe we should call this off,” Brown suggested to his agent during the break in shooting. “I’m just not feeling this.”

“Why don’t you give it one more go,” his agent coaxed. “I think the director is making a couple of changes to the script that he thinks will make a difference. See how you like those first.”

Again, begrudgingly, Brown took his spot upon the director’s return.

“ACTION!” The camera began rolling. The director leaned forward. New cue cards were raised.

“My name is Bartholomew Brown, and when I want to go fast, I choose Turbolax. For fast, effective relief, choose Turbolax. And watch your brown go fast too.”

“CUT AND PRINT!”

Laughter enveloped the set as members of the Kingpins emerged from the crew trailer and from behind tents pointing, smiling and jeering at a reddening Bartholomew Brown. Brown’s agent began a slow clap as he approached and slapped Brown on the back.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” the agent said. “Did you really think I would have you advertise a laxative for your first commercial?! I’m mean – this joke proves it – but I’m not that mean.”

After the laughter subsided, the agent tossed some folded up brown clothes to Brown and put a brown ball cap on Brown’s head.

“When you didn’t ask what the endorsement deal was the other day, I knew we had to have a bit of fun with you,” the agent said. “This is for real though. You’re shooting a commercial for UPS. They want to bring back the ‘What Can Brown Do For You’ promo and with your season this year, want you to be one of the faces of the campaign reboot.”

UPS chose Brown for its campaign because it felt it could leverage all of several things Brown had done for the Kingpins this season. Brown hit .302 for Chicago with eight home runs and 56 RBIs. He stole 34 bases, being caught just eight times. He posted a +7.5 zone rating with a 1.032 fielding efficiency. In total, he had a 3.4 WAR in the regular season and a 111 wRC+ score.

The ad almost wrote itself.

Hit for average? Check. Hit for power? When need be. Steal a base? Anytime. Take away a would-be hit? It’s one of his favorite things. Come through in the clutch? Ask and you shall receive. What can Brown do for you? A little bit of everything? Just like UPS.

[Jiggy]

No matter the litany of crazy places life may take them, small town boys never seem to lose that “first love” feeling they have for their small hometown.

A thousand thoughts and reminisces race through Bartholomew Brown’s head as he runs his fingers along a row of metal lockers in the halls of his old high school. The building seems much more dim than he remembered when he left as one of the nation’s most promising professional baseball prospects. Perhaps that’s just relativity; a contrast he notices from his last two years immersed in the blinding city lights of Chicago where he now – and he hopes only temporarily – calls home.

School hallways are almost eerie when they are quiet. Normally on a midweek morning in February they would be abuzz with mindless student chatter, clanging lockers, ringing bells, and the exasperation of faculty and staff trying to hold some semblance of order together between classes. But not on this midweek morning in February. Today, all of the students have been wrangled to the school’s dome-roofed gymnasium in anticipation of a visit from North Marion’s now most famous son, Bartholomew Brown.

“Are you ready,” asked the school’s vice principal as she slapped a firm hand on Brown’s shoulder.

With a deep inhale, Brown gave a nod and a half smile and allowed himself to be ushered out of the hall and toward a large, metal double door. He knew that on the other side sat a smattering of familiar faces. Former teachers and coaches. Younger brothers and sisters of Brown’s own friends and classmates. Cousins. Kids whose Little League games Brown used to umpire. As the vice principal placed his hand on the double door to the gymnasium, Brown closed his eyes, swallowed his anxiety, and let a clam wash over in its place. It was the same approach he took to still his nerves before each game’s first pitch. The door swung open, and with excited noise from inside the gymnasium beginning to seep over the threshold, Brown stepped through.

Members of the high school band stood when the noticed Brown’s entrance, snatching their instruments and blowing a halfhearted rendition of the high school’s fight song. After a bit of prompting from some of the teachers, the students seated in the bleachers began a lazy applause as Brown nodded, waved, and made his way to mid court.

“Students, please join me in welcoming one of North Marion’s favorite sons, and Chicago Kingpin baseball player Bartholomew Brown!” North Marion’s principal gave the introduction in a way that betrayed the fact that he wasn’t comfortable with baseball and probably hadn’t actually been following Brown’s career.

The principal stood at a microphoned podium set up just in front of center court. Behind him was a table adorned with a Chicago Kingpins banner, baseball equipment, and in the center on a raised display Bartholomew Brown’s World Series MVP trophy.

Brown strode to the podium, shook the principals hand, and the principal stepped aside, leaving Brown to the microphone. Brown raised his glance to the bleachers and scanned the crowd.

“Hey guys!” Brown said enthusiastically. The response was mixed, so he tapped the microphone a couple of times. “Is this thing on?”

After an awkward pause, Brown continued.

“It’s so great being back at North Marion High School. It feels like only yesterday when I was walking these halls. I’ve been where you are now. I’ve taken the same classes as you have and will. I have suffered through the same teachers you have and you will, and if you want, after the assembly I can tell you which cones to avoid when your registering next semester.”

That prospect drew the students in a bit. Brown had begun to capture their attention.

“The faculty invited me here today to talk to you a bit about where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing, and what I’ve learned along the way,” Brown said. “Those of you who know me know that I’m not one to really brag. When I left school, I decided I wanted to try and pursue a career in baseball and right now, I’m still trying to pursue that career. I am in the minor leagues and playing just up Interstate 65 in Chicago for the Kingpins of the MiLPBE.”

Brown’s story in Chicago was certainly not one of instant success.

“I just finished my second season there,” Brown said “and there have certainly been ups and downs along the way. Let me show you what I mean.”

Brown grabbed a remote clicker and pointed to laptop set up just beyond the center court table. Pressing a button, two screens – one on each side of the gymnasium – illuminated with the title page of a slide show. Brown clicked forward to a slide entitled “Bartholomew Brown – Chicago Kingpins – Year 1”. The slide lit up with a litany of statistics from Brown’s first year in the MiLPBE.

As a rookie in the 2055 season (S39), Brown managed just a .225 batting average through 108 regular season games. A player who’s style coming into the MiLPBE draft was predicated on speed and causing havoc on the base paths, Brown managed to get on base at just a .279 percentage. That limited him to just 23 stolen bases on 29 attempts – good for a 79 percent conversion rate but lacking the volume really needed to bolster the Kingpins’ run scoring as was anticipated when he was selected in the second round. On the year, Brown finished with a -0.6 WAR, meaning Chicago likely could have found more success with a replacement level player.

Though he struggled with the bat, Brown’s fielding was at least solid during his first year. In 958.2 innings of work, he made 285 putouts including five outfield assists and only three errors. He finished the year with a 5.5 zone rating, second behind teammate Alyssa Jakob.

Brown clicked the slideshow forward again to a slide with a video embedded. He clicked play, and airing for the students were clips of Brown striking out, hitting fly balls to the infield, weak grounders, and striking out some more.

“That was what I looked like last year.” Brown said. “To say that the transition from high school baseball to professional baseball was difficult would be an understatement. I was way out of my league, and it showed – both statistically and in the video you guys just saw. Life can be difficult like that sometimes. It can throw you curveballs – both literally and figuratively – and it can stretch your patience and your resolve to keep trying. I struggled as a rookie. I struggled hard. But one thing that I never did was stop trying.”

Brown clicked forward to the next slide, this one containing a series of dressed up inspirational quote reading “Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying. Never stop dreaming, never stop believing, never give up, never stop trying, and never stop learning. When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. Don’t give up.”

“No matter what happened on the field, I never let my failures affect my willingness to keep trying,” Brown said. “And my willingness to keep grinding – to keep trying despite things not going my way – paid off.”

Brown clicked to the next slide entitled “Bartholomew Brown – Chicago Kingpins – Year 2” showing his statistics and achievements from this most recent campaign.

The slide showed that this past season (S40) – only Brown’s second as a professional – he took remarkable strides forward in his development and had incredible year-over-year success.

Brown batted .302 with a .389 on-base percentage, contributing 111 wRC+ and a 3.4 WAR valuation – best among all Kingpins players. He tallied 34 stolen bases while getting caught just 8 times, good for an 81 percent success rate. The stolen base success rate may have dropped from a season ago, but Brown’s overall impact on Chicago’s offensive production significantly increased from his rookie campaign.

Brown also demonstrated continued improvement as a fielder. In 959.2 innings, he tallied 374 putouts, including four outfield assists, three of which resulted in double plays. He finished the regular season with a 7.5 zone rating, three positive points higher than his closest teammate.

The next slide showed a highlight package of hits, stolen bases, diving catches, and smiles, high fives, and hugs with teammates. It concluded with a shot of the Kingpins celebrating their World Series championship.

Brown turned to the table behind him, where his MiLPBE World Series MVP trophy sat. He grabbed it and held it forward.

“This award is my greatest individual baseball achievement,” Brown said. “But I see this award as being about so much more than a reflection on baseball.”

“Did you guys watch the minor league World Series?” Brown asked the assembly. A handful of eager students cried out their affirmatives before being joined by nearly everyone in attendance.

“That’s awesome,” Brown said. “Next question: how many of you all watched the Kingpins-Bears semi-finals?” The response to this second question was significantly reduce. Maybe a quarter of the attendees indicated they had watched.

“And how about our first-round series against Florida?” Brown asked. “How many of you guys watched those games?” Isolated cheers answered Brown’s final question. This little improvised survey had given Brown the response he had hoped for.

“When most people think about my postseason performance now, they think about this trophy,” Brown said, once again holding up his World Series MVP award. “They think about the fact that Chicago finally won the championship after thirteen years of postseason disappointment, and they think about how the media thought enough of the way I played against the Swift Steeds to give me this.”

Brown held up the MVP trophy one last time before turning around and setting it back on the table behind him.

“What people forget is how much I had been struggling in the postseason leading up to the World Series,” Brown said. “Let me remind all of you who watched the entire playoffs, and let me show those of you who may have only watched the World Series, what I’m talking about.”

Brown picked up the remote clicker and gave it a click, producing a new visual on the screens in the gymnasium. The first was a visual of his stats from the first round five-game series against the Florida Flamingos.

Brown clicked forward to the next slide, this one showing his statistics from the seven-game semifinals series against the Brew City Bears.

Finally, Brown clicked to a slide showing the futility of his combined postseason stats through the first two rounds.

“Heading into the World Series, I was a combined 8-for-41 and only batting .195 during the postseason. I had scored just five times, only driven in four runs, and had only drawn four walks. That means my on-base percentage was just a measly .292. Meanwhile, I had struck out seven times and left 34 runners stranded on base during my at bats. I was struggling, there’s no doubt. But despite the difficulties I was having individually at the plate, I never stopped trying to find ways to help my teammates and my team, and that’s really important.”

Brown clicked forward to another slide, this one showing a screen with a video cued up for Brown to play when ready.

“We live in an amazing age,” Brown said. “I don’t think we take enough time to really appreciate how crazy it is we have all of this technology that surrounds us every day. Social media and the internet make us so connected, and in real time, it truly is amazing. But there can be downsides as well. All of this exposure and interconnectivity sometimes creates competition for attention. In trying to win that competition, we can sometimes lose track of what it means to be a good teammate, a good coworker, or a good friend. Sometimes that requires us to pass on opportunities to be the center of attention so that we can support of others. We usually don’t get credit when we make those kinds of choices, but we don’t do them for the credit. We do them because it’s the kind thing to do, or the right thing to do, or the best thing we can do for the good of our team, our workplace, or our friends.

“I showed you the numbers, which demonstrated just how badly I had been playing in those first two series. Now I want to show you something else.”

Brown pressed play and the video began rolling. It began showing footage from various Kingpins postseason games. First, it showed Brown laying down a sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning of Chicago’s game-three win against Florida. Despite there being runners on first and second, Brown decided to give himself up to advance both into scoring position, allowing teammates Theo Allard and Kris Wakabayashi to drive them in instead of going for RBIs of his own. Next, it showed a clip from the fifth inning of the same game. With a runner on third and Brown in a hitter-friendly 2-0 count, instead of taking a massive hitter-friendly swing at the next pitch Brown choked up on the bat and took a balanced, measured cut, making sensible contact and lifting a fly ball deep enough into the outfield to allow the runner to tag and score. The video showed Brown laying down two more sacrifice bunts with Chicago already facing elimination in game five against Brew City, leading to three Kingpin runs that helped extend the series. It showed him racing at full speed to take away a pair of would-be hits in game six. It showed him making an immediate decision at the crack of the bat to take an agressive back-up angle on a liner in the gap of the decisive game seven, allowing him to cut the ball off before it was able to reach the wall and get the ball in quickly to limit the Bears to a lead-off single instead of a double with the game tied in the eighth inning, helping prevent a go-ahead run scoring and preserving the Kingpins’ opportunity to win the game in extra innings.

“None of these plays made any of the highlight reels for these games,” Brown said. “There were no newspaper stories or internet write-ups that featured them. People on social media weren’t messaging about them. But with each one, when I got back to the dugout or into the clubhouse, I could see the appreciation on the faces of my coaches and teammates. By not trying to win the competition for attention in those moments, and focusing on the greater good instead of personal success, I was able to do things to help my team win. And for me, that makes me feel so much better than say I have a four-hit performance but my team loses.

“I think that holds true in other walks of life,” Brown continued. “I think it is far more rewarding to be a part of something that is bigger than self. And I think there is no success like team success.”

“Speaking of ‘team’, if not for my teammates really picking me up – especially during those three-straight elimination games against Brew City – I never would have had the chance to right the ship in the World Series. The Bears very easily could have sent us home in any of those three elimination games, but our team fought together – not as individuals looking to pad stats or seek personal glory – to do everything we collectively good to win.”

Brown clicked to the next slide showing his World Series performance, where he batted 9-for-25 (.265 batting average) for the series with two home runs, three RBIs, two stolen bases, and scored five times.

He didn’t linger on this page or highlight his achievements. After a brief few seconds, he clicked forward to a closing slide with a hodgepodge of inspirational quotes about opportunity. “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is. Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown. Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.”

Brown read through the quotes and then looked at the students in attendance.

“I have been incredibly blessed,” Brown said. “But what good are blessings, what good is talent or skill if you’re not willing to use those blessings when opportunity calls?

“If you’re willing to try, every day can be an opportunity,” Brown continued. “For example, today is a great opportunity to get better. Whether that means getting better in sports, getting better in the classroom, getting better as a friend, or getting better at some other skill you have or dream you want to chase, every day is an opportunity to be better at that one thing than you were yesterday.

“My story has been a limited one. I am only heading into my third season in this chase to be a professional ball player. I’m still going to be in the minor leagues, grinding for my own opportunity to some day play in the major leagues. But until that day comes, today is an opportunity for me to get better at my craft – better than I was when I won this trophy.”

Brown gestured one last time to the World Series MVP award.

“I’m not going to waste mine,” he said. “Will you?”

Brown closed with this rhetorical question. Realizing that Brown had finished, the principal stood and pointed to the band director, who stood and coaxed the band to rise and play the school fight song one more time. Brown shook hands with the principal and other staff collected near mid court before once again following the lead of the vice principal and exiting the gymnasium door from which he had entered.

“How was that,” Brown asked tentatively.

“It was great,” the vice principal assured. “I think the students really appreciate that you wanted to come back home, and I think they can relate to you enough that your message will land with at least a few of them.”

Brown nodded and turned to walk away. As he took his first few steps, the vice principal shouted his name urgently.

“Bartholomew! You forgot your MVP award. It’s still in the gym on the table.”

“You know what,” Brown said. “Add it to the school’s trophy case here. It will just collect dust at my place. And if it can inspire just one kid to keep trying and to not let opportunity pass them by, it’ll do much more good than it is currently doing with me.”

The vice principal nodded and Brown exited the school. He walked through the parking lot to his car, and as he opened the door he took one last long look back at the brick and mortar high school that had been so defining for him as he formed the professional baseball dreams he was now chasing.

A small grin crept across his face. A grin of acknowledgment that no matter where he went in the future, no matter how much success he found or money he made, this little slice of mid-America would always be home. North Marion was where his baseball career really first started, and it would always be his first love.

[Jiggy]

The following is a first-person player journal entry from Bartholomew Brown reflecting on the first half of the 2057 MiLPBE season.

Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that this season is about so much more than me. And when I do, I can’t help but feel incredibly happy for the success my team is having. At the All-Star break, the Kingpins are currently 36-18 - and unbelievable eight games up on the Swift Steeds in the MiLPBE East Division. We are neck and neck with the Kansas City Hepcats vying to be the best team in all the minor leagues. Our pitching has been absolutely bananas. We lead the league in ERA. We’ve given up the fewest runs, home runs, and walks of any team. Meanwhile guys like my buddy Oitjomyzarc Kove are killing it offensively. Kove is batting .330 this season and continues to flex leather at shortstop. He’s got a 2.2 WAR on the season already. Alyssa Jakob is also above .300 this year and has scored 41 freaking times! Second year guys Theo Allard and Pedro Blanco are also tearing it up with double-digit homers, near-.300 batting averages, and +1 WAR. It feels like just yesterday we were welcoming these guys to the team and now they are among those carrying us toward the postseason. We really have been blessed. We have nine All-Stars this year. And that’s amazing.

But I do have to keep reminding myself to be happy. That’s because despite all this team success and how well all of my teammates have been playing, I don’t feel like I’m contributing. I’m not adding much value. I am now in my third season with the Kingpins, and this one has arguably been my personal worst, at least statistically. I recently upped my season average to .213 after a couple of multi-hit games. That’s as high as it’s been all year. I’ve mostly been right at the Mendoza-line, which is not great considering I’m supposed to be one of the steady veterans on this club. My batting average is the worst on the team. My .313 on-base percentage is the second-worst. I am playing replacement-level baseball, and that’s a tough pill to swallow because I want so badly to help this team. I think I still can. There is still half a season left to play, which is plenty of time for me to turn things around at the plate and become one of those players who are helping this team win games instead of being carried to wins by everyone else around me. The All-Star break is a chance to rest, recover, and press the reset button on the season. After the break, I start anew. You will see a different Bartholomew Brown on the field.