The fly ball to left field — like it seemed to do so many times at Starkville High’s park — was lost in the sun, leaving the left fielder helpless and the coach with a sense of dread.But then the center fielder came charging — out of nowhere, Garner said — reached out, made the catch, spun, and crashed into the fence.It was moments from afternoons like that in Starkville, Miss., that allowed Garner and others to dream of A.J. Brown one day reaching the major leagues.
“I went down to the football coach, and I said, ‘Hey, I know he’s a pretty good football player, but I can tell you right now that this kid can make money playing baseball,’” Garner said. “‘How good is he? He’s good. He’s really good. He’s really, really good.’ He said, ‘I’ll tell you this, coach, A.J. will play in the NFL one day.’ I started laughing and said, ‘OK.’ He turned out to be right, but I think I was right, too. I think he could have played baseball for a long time.
Most scouts faded away from Brown, believing that his future was in football after he signed his football scholarship two weeks before the start of his final high-school baseball season. Moritz stayed on him. “The way I figured was there’s a lot worse things the kids can be doing at night than going up there and hitting,” Garner said. “A.J. was up there all the time. They got me in a little bit of trouble, but it was worth it.”
Brown was humble, Smith said, despite the buzz that followed him. Brown had football scholarship offers from nearly every major program and coaches were always visiting the school after he had more than 1,300 receiving yards as a senior. The football coaches even went to baseball practice, following Brown’s every move before he finally picked a college. It was a circus, Garner said.