DURANT, Okla. – Former Southeastern graduate and baseball standout, Daren Brown, has been named the Southern League Manager of the Year. Brown was a pitcher for Southeastern from 1988-89 while earning 2nd team All-OIC in 1989.
Brown was the manager for the Jackson Generals, the AA franchise of the Seattle Mariners and led them to an 84-55 record and Southern League Championship while setting the franchise record for wins.
"When you have the pitcher of the year and the player of the year it makes your job pretty easy as a manager," said Brown in a phone interview with the Amarillo Globe-News.
Brown was drafted as a pitcher in the 29th round of the 1989 amateur draft by the Toronto Blue Jays and pitched in their chain for four years. From 1995 to 1999 he pitched for the independent league Amarillo Dillas. He was the Texas–Louisiana League Pitcher of the Year in 1995, 1997, and 1998, and made the league's all-star team from 1995 to 1998.
Brown has managed the Amarillo Dillas, the San Bernardino Stampede, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Inland Empire 66ers, and the San Antonio Missions. Brown has also managed the Seattle Mariners AAA affiliate Tacoma Rainers and served as interim manager of the Seattle Mariners in 2010.
Since the end of the season, the Jackson Generals announced a four-year agreement to be the Arizona Diamondbacks AA affiliate moving Brown to the Arkansas Travlers who are now the AA affiliate for the Seattle Mariners.
