NKyTribune staff
Florence Freedom owner Clint Brown died overnight Monday in Arizona, as he was preparing to return home to Northern Kentucky.
Brown purchased the Freedom in 2004, at a time when it was in turmoil because of problems with previous ownership, and has turned it into on of the Frontier League’s most successful and stable franchises.
Baseball was a passion for Brown, who recognized as well as anyone that the wonderful world of the Independent Frontier League was about entertainment as much as wins and losses.
In 2015, the Freedom was named the Frontier League Organization of the Year by a vote of the league’s General Managers. The Organization of the Year award honors the franchise that demonstrated overall superior excellence during the season as determined by sales and the promotion of the team in its community.
The team also won the award in 2005.
A successful businessman, Brown recognized that to thrive, the team had to promote itself to a regional audience and it developed some impressive marketing partnerships.
Under the tutelage of Brown, his wife, Kim Brown, and General Manager Josh Anderson, the team secured UC Health as the naming rights partner for the Freedom’s ballpark, and negotiated a presenting sponsorship deal with Titan Mechanical Solutions. In 2015, the Freedom introduced a HD marquee on Interstate 75 which is seen by more than 155,000 cars every day.
The Freedom has also achieved consistent success on the field.
The team made the playoffs in 2017, with a 61-35 record and finished in first place in the Frontier League Western Division, before being defeated by the Schaumburg Boomers in the league Championship Series.
The team also advanced to the League Championship in 2012, before falling to the Gateway Grizzlies.
The Independent Frontier League is not affiliated with a Major League Baseball team, but a number of players have kept their big-league dreams alive with the Freedom and have signed contracts with MLB teams over the years.
Perhaps the thing that many will remember most about Brown is his determination to make the Freedom a part of the Northern Kentucky community.
Freedom homestands routinely include several promotions such as concerts and Princess Night, where fathers bring their daughters dressed in princess garb to see famous movie and animated princesses. Theme nights include everything from Star Wars and Supeheroes to UK Night and Friday fireworks.
Over the years, the Freedom have brought local sports legends back to the region for promotional events, including Big Red Machine members Pete, Rose, Johnny Bench and George Foster, just to name a few.
To view an episode of the NKyTribune’s Inside Northern Kentucky program on the Florence Freedom, featuring Brown, click here. The Freedom feature is in episode 9.
Brown was also a great community partner and the Freedom host several events in conjunction with area nonprofits every year. A portion of proceeds from last year’s playoff ticket sales went to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Anderson, the team’s vice president and general manager, has flourished during his time with the Freedom as well, winning the Frontier League’s Bob Wolfe Award as the Executive of the Year in 2015. His relationship with Brown went far beyond that of owner team executive.
Anderson provided this letter to Freedom supporters that give some insights into the special rapport he shared with the guy he affectionately referred to as “Big Man.”
To our beloved Freedom fans, sponsors and all of the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati community,
This is a letter to you all from my desk past normal business hours. Because just going home at 5pm today just doesn’t seem right.
As you may of have heard, our leader, friend, supporter, father figure, and in some cases for our staff, family member/husband passed away late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. He collapsed in his hotel room the night before traveling back to Northern Kentucky from Arizona.
Clint Brown, owner and team president, was 63 and was suddenly taken from us way too soon.
To say all of us are heartbroken and shocked would be an understatement. This is all still so raw and pinning down one single emotion is impossible. To me personally, I owe him everything as I would not be where I am as a person, and as a professional without him. He was like a second father to me and someone I grew to revere and love.
I miss him so much already and it pains me to write this, but feel it’s needed to help me grieve, so grieve with me, and let’s reflect on what a great man Clint was and how much we’ve lost as a community.
Clint meant so much to me and all of his front office staff, most to his wife Kim who is our Assistant General Manager. As you can imagine her world is upside down right now so all I can ask you to do is pray. Pray for the peace that passes all understanding.
But while Kim truly was family to Clint, there’s not one on his staff that didn’t feel as if they were on the outside. Why? Because the man genuinely cared about the well-being and development of his staff more than any owner I’ve been around. He poured his knowledge and caring into the people he hired. That’s not a knock against other owners, but a tribute to ours.
During his life Clint owned other businesses, and they will all tell you the same thing. He cared so much and we lost a great one.
We are still finding out the answers to questions of why, when, and exactly what happened. But the answers to those questions are fairly miniscule compared to the reality and question of WHAT NOW?
Sure we all need time to heal, to reflect, to adjust and to just come out of this state of shock…but in the meantime we will GO!
GOing is what we will be doing as a staff. Going to make the 2018 season one that would make our owner proud.
So be expecting a call from us asking you to GO with us. It’s a lofty goal, but we want 2018 to sell out. Are you in with us? And please know this is not a money thing, but a tribute to a man and the game he loved. Maybe it’s not appropriate to say right now, but it’s the fuel that’s powering us as a staff as we live with our loss. We’re doing this for Clint, and his family agrees he would want nothing less. He cared about the Freedom, Florence, NKY and the game of baseball way too much to STOP.
Some didn’t get the privilege of getting to know this side of Clint. But know this, he wasn’t in it to make money, he was in it because he loved a challenge, loved the game and got to do it all with his family. Each of his kids worked in his business at some time and that meant the world to him. In fact when it comes to money, he’s lost way too much to count in this business, and anything he ever made was invested back into the stadium, into promotions and into the community. How do you make a small fortune in Minor League Baseball? Start with a large one…as the saying goes.
So right now we simply want you to celebrate each and every win with us. Celebrate like Clint did. Head up to the clubhouse after the game to congratulate our manager, beam with smiles when his guy makes an All-Star team, or shout down the hallway when one of his players gets signed by a big league club.
It brought him so much joy, so share it with us.
Lastly, his joy for the game didn’t stop at professional baseball. In fact his love for the game is one of the reasons our job never stops and the hours during warm weather months are so long. When there’s not snow on the ground, there are cars in the parking lot and a game on the field.
In total over 200 amateur games will be played at UC Health Stadium this year like the previous 10 before, and they are played mostly because he wanted the next generation to have the “WOW” experience of playing their games on a big time field. He wanted kids to grow up loving the game he did.
And we love baseball here almost as much as he did.
There are more questions right now in our minds than we have answers. The 2018 season will no doubt be one of the most challenging years in my career; as well as my staff’s, our coaches and players. You just can’t replace a guy like Clint…ever. But know this, we won’t stop.
We’re committed to Clint’s passion of baseball. We as a staff will be working as hard as we ever have to bring our fans and sponsors the best show in our history, and we look forward to you being on the journey with us.
In less than four months, we hope to see you here and shake your hand and greet you with a smile. We want to thank you for believing and supporting Clint’s passion too.
If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re already part of our Freedom family. And let me just say we need you now more than ever.
Thank you for supporting us over the years. It means more today than it ever has. Now let’s go out and make Clint proud. We love you big man.
#ForClint
-Josh Anderson VP/General Manager