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The Big Payback
Just a week after being traded, Tee Brown takes the classic James Brown tune to heart and gets some sweet revenge on the team who dealt him.

By Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

ERIE, Pa. - There are few sure things in sports, but one you can take to the bank is this.

The guy you trade away will somehow, in someway, come back to hurt you.

Such was the case with Tonayne "Tee" Brown, who was shuffled by the Portland SeaDogs on June 11 to the Erie SeaWolves for the proverbial "player to be named later."

Interpretation: "Just take him. Please!"

Just a week after the trade though, Brown got the ultimate payback.

He beat his old mates with a walk off two-run blast, off one of the Eastern League's top closers, Anastacio Martinez.

Brown couldn't have asked for sweeter revenge. He went 4-for-4 in that game, with two doubles, a two-run triple, plus the homer off Martinez.

Ironically, it was Brown's lack of production that made him dispensable in the first place.

He did not get one extra base hit in his final 94 at bats as a Sea Dog, but every Dog does have his day.

Make that, every ex-Dog.

"It was sweet revenge," said Brown. "I was just locked in. I worked on a few extra things in batting practice the other day, and they (paid off). I'm going to keep working on them."

It was Brown's triple off reliever off Portland reliever Charlie Weatherby in the bottom of the seventh that knotted the game at 2-2, sending it into extra innings.

The Sea Dogs later built what looked to be an insurmountable 6-2 lead, but hen Erie came back to within a run, it gave Brown one more opportunity to get back at the team which found him expendable.

In storybook fashion, Brown capped off his dream day by sending an opposite field fly ball that carried over the right field wall.

"I know a lot of those guys over there," Brown said. "We all pretty much came up together. It was big for me to go out there and do what I did, today. I know they miss me, and I miss being over there."

It is obvious though, that Brown's loyalty and love for his ex-teammates did nothing to extinguish the competitive fire burning within him.

"I've got a new team now. I've got a new job to do. I want to come here and help these guys, like I did with those guys over there," said Brown.

It was just the second homer of the year for Brown, but only a little less memorable than his first, which he smacked on Apr. 19 while still a Sea Dog.

That was the first ever ball to carry over the screen atop the newly built "Maine Monster" at Hadlock Field.

"Tee Brown is one of my favorite people in this game," said Portland Manager Ron Johnson. "He played hard for me every day. (But) make no mistake, there's nothing I wanted more than to see him strikeout, or break a bat. But that didn't happen."

Brown, who had spent his entire six-year pro career in the Red Sox chain before the trade, said he didn't take being dealt away personally.

"[I'm] not really hurt. Erie is a better situation for me, knowing the guys I had in front of me in Boston," Brown admitted. "Over here, there are a lot of younger guys. If I happen to do a good job, I've got a chance to move up. Over there, I didn't really have much (of a) chance."