Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Fireworks going off at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark in 2010. Keith Brown played for the Reds at old Riverfront Stadium over four seasons. (Greatest 21 Days) Part 1: His Abilities | Part 2: Life Changed Up until the AAA All-Star break in 1993, Keith Brown had a pretty good career going. He'd seen the majors four out of the previous five seasons with the Reds and he still hoped to get the call that year with the Royals. After the 1993 AAA All-Star break, the majors were the least of his worries. The news came as Brown's Omaha Royals visited his old team, the Nashville Sounds. Nashville's team doctor spotted something alarming on Brown, an apparently swollen lymph node that suggested something serious: Brown needed to see a doctor. When he got back to Omaha, Brown did just that and the diagnosis was as serious as feared: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cancer. "It's kind of like I tell people," Brown told The Greatest 21 Days recently....

Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds, in 2010. Keith Brown played parts of four seasons with Cincinnati. (Greatest 21 Days) Part 1: His Abilities | Part 2: Life Changed Keith Brown recalls pitching against Fresno State when the scout saw him. The Reds scout expressed interest through Brown's coach at Cal State-Sacramento. Brown recalled having a simple reaction. "At that time all I wanted was an opportunity," Brown told The Greatest 21 Days recently, "because through college I always heard that I didn't throw hard enough." The Reds gave Brown that opportunity, taking him in the 21st round of the 1986 draft. "It didn't matter where I got drafted at," Brown recalled thinking, "I just wanted to show my abilities." Brown took his opportunity all the way to the majors, seeing time in four major league seasons. Overall, the right-hander got into 25 major league games, starting five. He also got into eight games fo...