Brown bound for Beijing

Matt Brown has been a regular commuter on baseball’s Triple-A shuttle the last two summers – four times bouncing between the Los Angeles Angels and their farm club in Salt Lake City.

But his brief stays in the big leagues to this point likely won’t compare to the call-up he received this month.

This time, the shuttle is taking him to Beijing.

On Monday, the Coeur d’Alene High School graduate takes a month-long sabbatical from his third base duties with the Salt Lake Bees for a gold-medal mission with the U.S. Olympic baseball team – an opportunity he called “beyond anything I could have imagined.”

It’s certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Baseball and softball have been excised from the Olympic program for the 2012 Games, victims of the International Olympic Committee’s rather ineffectual attempts to downsize the world’s most sprawling athletic event. So Brown and his 23 teammates could make some lasting history – not that it will change their approach or sense of urgency.

“The goal is the gold medal, whatever the situation,” he said. “You just want to win, that’s all.

“That’s going to be the case any time you get to wear ‘USA’ across your chest. That’s a big deal, a big achievement. It’s just an honor to be picked and an honor to play for the country.”

For the first two Olympic medal competitions in the sport – 1992 and 1996 – the U.S. team was made up of collegians. Professionals were included in 2000, when the Americans – skippered by former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda – won gold for the first time. In 2004, the United States didn’t survive the qualifying process for the Games and Cuba went on to win the gold for the third time in four Olympics.

“We had the best team in 2004,” USA Baseball general manager for professional teams Bob Watson has been quoted as saying. “The thing we learned the most from not qualifying is to have some semblance of balance. We had great pitching, but it wasn’t a balanced hitting club.”

So the 2008 selection process was, if anything, more rigorous. Brown first learned he was under consideration “out of the blue” about three weeks ago, when USA Baseball narrowed its list from more than 1,000 players to 60. The final word came down at the Triple-A All-Star game in Louisville – where Brown was named the Pacific Coast League’s MVP for rapping out two hits and knocking in a run in a 6-5 PCL victory.

“This,” Brown said, “has been my best season ever.”

No arguments. In his eighth season in the Angels organization since the club made him its 10th-round draft choice in 2001, the 25-year-old Brown is hitting .326 for Salt Lake with 21 home runs and 66 RBIs. No one in the minor leagues has more extra base hits than Brown’s 56, and the batting average is more than 60 points better than his career mark.

That’s a pretty good climb from where Brown started out at age 18 – hitting just .163 for the Angels’ rookie club in the Arizona League.

“Really, I’m just trying not to put too much pressure on myself,” said Brown. “In the past, maybe I’d start out hot, but when you don’t get a couple of hits or get in a little slump, you panic and try to do too much.

“You go 0 for 4 early in your career and you feel like the whole season is over – especially when you’re just coming out of high school and you’re used to smashing the ball 50 percent of the time. Then reality sets in. It took me a while to realize you’ve just got to let it go. This is my eighth season in professional baseball. I’d like to think I’m a little smarter.”

To say nothing of a more complete player. Four years into his pro career, Brown found his power stroke – belting 23 homers for Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League and being named to the All-Star team. After a solid 2006 season in Double-A, he made the Angels’ 40-man roster for the first time.

But, of course, the last jump is the hardest.

Brown’s opportunities in his four trips to the majors have been limited, but he understands that staying all but requires instant production – and a 1-for-13 showing at the plate isn’t production enough.

“Everybody feels the urgency to get to the major leagues,” he said, “especially when you know you’re ready. I’m playing every game like I want to be there now. I just have to make the most of my opportunities, by doing exactly what I’ve been doing to get here and staying consistent.”

A month-long interruption doesn’t seem like the way to do that, but Brown wouldn’t have it any other way. For one thing, also on the team is his Bees teammate and best friend Kevin Jepsen, a reliever who Brown has played alongside since 2002 and lives with in Arizona during the off-season.

And then there’s the possibility of a gold medal.

“It’s just more baseball to play – that’s how I’m going to look at it,” he said. “The level of competition is going to be as good or better than what I’ve been facing, so you just strap it on and keep playing.”