BBJO Podcast Interview with Tim:

Tim Brown is a veteran professional pitcher and travel enthusiast who has been playing professional baseball for 10+ years and has established himself as one of the best pitchers in independent professional baseball history as stated in this June 2015 post.

A 2009 graduate of Pittsburg State University, Tim has spent his professional years playing mostly in the American Association and in the Frontier League with a brief stint in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. In three seasons with the Wingnuts he held down an era of 3.12, 3.29 and 4.11 respectively while going 29-10 over 384.5 innings of work.

In addition to being a durable starting pitcher who goes deep into games, he also has great command highlighted by an almost 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio in his professional career. His manager with the Wingnuts, Kevin Hooper, describes Tim as very “Greg Maddux-like,” referring to his ability to out-think opponents and use his pin-point accuracy to dominate games. Tim throws a 2 seam fastball, slider, curve, and change up all for accuracy.

The combination of these two strengths were on full display on July 20, 2013 when he threw a no hitter for the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League. Tim also won the American Association Championship in 2014 as a starting pitcher for the Wichita Wingnuts.

Tim earned an All-Star selection in the 2013 Australian Baseball League while playing with the Melbourne Aces.  He went on to throw over 130 innings in the Frontier League for a 13-3 record, including a complete-game no-hitter, the third in Gateway Grizzlies history.  He returned to the Aces and became an ABL All-Star once again in 2014.

In 2014 he joined the Wichita Wingnuts where he led them to their first American Association championship.  He pitched for Wichita from 2014 to 2017 and became the franchise’s all-time leader in games started, innings, and wins.  Over the 2015-16 winter, he led the South Australian State League in ERA, innings, wins, and strikeouts while holding batters to a league-best .208 batting average.

Tim spent the summer of 2017 playing in the Czech Republic for Hrosi Brno, finishing among the league pitching leaders with an ERA of 1.69 with 47 K and only 7 BB over 74.2.2 innings pitched. In 2018 he joined the Stuttgart Reds of the German Bundesliga South where his era was a little bloated playing on a bottom team, but his durability and SO/Ratio remained consistent with previous seasons.

In 2019 Tim helped Kranjski Lasjaki win both a Slovenian league championship and a Euro Interleague championship before finishing out the season in Austria with the Attnang Athletics.  In 2019-20 his time with the Orewa Sharks in New Zealand was marked by leaderboard appearances in strikeouts (58 Ks in 47.2 IP) and ERA (1.47).

He helped the Cordoba Pumas to the Argentinian finals during the 2021-22 winter season before joining Nada Split in Croatia to win the 2022 Euro Interleague championship.  He started the semi-final game for Nada, striking out 12 while allowing just 1 run in 8 innings of work.  His 2022-23 winter season in South Africa resulted in a team MVP nod.  In 2023 Tim led the Stockholm Monarchs to the Swedish finals and was named the Swedish Elitserien Pitcher of the Year.

Tim played in Maui, Hawaii this 2024 Spring for the Upcountry Dirtbags, where he finished with a 0.80 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 45 innings. He is signed for the 2024 season to play in the UK with the London Mets.

Tim’s thoughts on traveling to play baseball and performing in different countries: (Quotes taken from 2022 BBJO Podcast Interview)
“The way that I always look at it is that the reason that you’re over there — your number one priority and the only reason you’re there in the first place — is because these teams bring you over and trust you to help their team, help their culture… being able to go travel and go have fun and do all the other things, there’s time for that.  But you know you have an obligation to these teams to give your best at all times because that’s what they’re bringing you over there to do.”

Tim looks to get himself into a good routine from the start of each season.  On team off-days, he stays committed to his throwing and gym programs.  “You find a way to go over there and get it done on your own and then you still have the whole day to go out and explore or go wherever, do whatever.”

“About his motivation to keep playing and traveling, Tim says, “You want to help grow the game in all different places, you want to go meet people of different cultures, and for me so much if it is just to see what’s out there.  You see how the game differs from different countries.  The travel is obviously a huge part of it, because there’s a great big beautiful world out there you know, let’s go see it and go on an adventure somewhere.”

Articles/Recognition

Tim Brown, the Imported from Pumas Who Travels the World Playing Baseball