Bobby Brownlie always thought he would become a good college player. He and his father had a plan.
“I decided when I was young that the best way to get to play in college was to be a catcher,” said Brownlie, a resident of Edison, N.J. “And that was pretty much all I played.”
Until his sophomore year in high school, when several of his Edison H.S. teammates got hurt and the team needed some pitchers.
“I had a strong arm,” said Brownlie, the ace of the U.S. national team that beat Taiwan 1-0 last night behind Mike Esposito’s four-hit shutout at KeySpan Park in Coney Island. “So I volunteered.”
He won his first six starts. As for catching, Brownlie said, “I’ve never gotten behind the plate again.
“I liked it a lot right away,” Brownlie said. “Especially when I started winning, it was great. I had never really thought about pitching before, just a couple of games in Little League. I’m pretty glad that I started to pitch.”
It’s no wonder. He exploded onto the national baseball scene as a senior in 1999, going 13-1. He was drafted in the 26th round by Colorado, but opted to go to Rutgers.
“All I wanted to do was get to be picked higher than in the 26th round,” said the 20-year-old right-hander, who is 6-0 with a 0.78 ERA for the national team that is made up of freshmen and sophomores who are preparing for the 2004 Athens Olympics. “Things look pretty good right now.”
That’s putting it mildly. Brownlie’s stock has skyrocketed. He plans to go into the draft next June after his junior season and he may get selected as high as the first round.
“He hits 92 [mph] or 93 consistently and can get it up to 97,” said U.S. pitching coach Bob Todd, who is the head coach at Ohio State. “He’s a special player. He’s definitely got a great future ahead of him.”
A future that came virtually out of nowhere.
“It kind of was out of the blue,” said the 6-foot Brownlie. “All of a sudden, pro scouts were looking at me, but I already had decided to go to Rutgers.”
He overcame a broken right thumb early in the season that he suffered trying to field a line drive and went 6-3 as a sophomore. So his days of overcoming slight expectations are over.
“That’s fine with me,” Brownlie said. “In this game, if you don’t like pressure, you shouldn’t be out there.”