There was the scholarship offer to play football at the University of Miami.
"We told [scouts] from Day 1 that I wanted to play baseball," Brown said. "But they actually thought because of the commitment and how I was ranked for football that I was so serious about it. I really wasn't. It was there, if need be."
There was the messy transfer in the summer between his junior and senior years of high school from Pasco High in Tampa (where he lived with his mother) to Redan High in an Atlanta suburb (where he lived with his father). Some scouts stopped following him after the move.
Lawrence stayed on Brown. They talked on the phone a lot. Conversations with Brown's father became frequent, too. Lawrence said he didn't need to see Brown often. He had a pretty good idea of his talents.
One day, he made a trip to Georgia. There, he found Brown had cut off all his hair.
"He said he didn't take me seriously until then," Brown said.
The rookie looked around the visitors' clubhouse at Dodger Stadium and laughed.
Thirty-five days after Brown made his major-league debut July 28 to standing ovations and great expectations from a sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park, Lawrence began his new job with the San Diego Padres.
He quietly left the Phillies, where he had spent eight years as an area amateur scout, for a promotion with the Padres. Now, Lawrence is a crosschecker scout assigned to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico. He has more say in the team's final decisions than he did in Philadelphia.
Both prospect and scout are moving up the baseball ladder.
