It was the hit that I’ve been dreading for four years; a hit that I absolutely knew would happen one day. But the story behind it actually began nearly a decade earlier on the fields of the Hart Baseball complex in Santa Clarita, California.

Back then and much to my enjoyment, my (then) nine year old son Tim decided that he wanted to play Little League baseball in the highly-competitive William S. Hart Baseball League. After a thorough tryout, Tim was eventually drafted, but not in the early rounds. I love my son unconditionally but it was apparent at a very early age that baseball was not his forte. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy the game or the associated camaraderie, but he was usually more interested in the post-game snacks than the game itself. Much like his father, Tim knew a lot about baseball – except how to hit, throw or catch one.

Ironically, the coach who drafted Tim was considered among the best in Hart Baseball and truth be told, he probably drafted Tim because of me. You see, this coach – a man named Doug Brown – and I worked together as detectives for the the Burbank Police Department and Doug was well aware of my passion for the game and, even more so, for the Dodgers.

While Tim’s Little League adventures were not exactly the stuff that aspiring future major leaguers are made of, he enjoyed himself and met many friends, several of whom he still keeps in touch with today. But there was one kid in Hart Baseball who clearly had the drive and desire to “chase the dream” and it’s no coincidence that this kid was Doug Brown’s son Trevor. In fact, it was Doug’s dedication, constant encouragement and thousands of hours of work with Trevor that helped him excel at the sport – not an easy task for police detectives whose work hours quite often interfered with their personal lives.

Although I never came to know Trevor closely, I knew immediately that he was a special kid, even at only 12 years old at the time. Whereas Tim eventually lost interest in Little League baseball, Trevor continued at it and thrived at it and, upon his graduation from Hart High School, he earned a baseball scholarship to UCLA.

The next time I saw Trevor was during the annual Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic in March of 2012 when the UCLA Bruins hosted the USC Trojans. In that game Brown went 3 for 4 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored in the Bruins eventual 7-2 win over their crosstown rivals. As you might expect, Brown was named as the game’s MVP. It was then that I realized that Trevor Brown – the kid who I had watched play as a 12-year-old and the son of one of my work coworkers – was destined for the major leagues.

Brown’s fourth-inning RBI double in the 2012 Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic proved to be the eventual game-winner for the Bruins. (Video capture courtesy of uclabruins.com)

Up to this point I had never been a close follower of the annual MLB First Year Player Draft. Oh sure, I would always research the kids drafted by the Dodgers, but usually did so after the fact. But because of Trevor Brown and knowing that both he and his father were avid Dodger fans, I paid very close attention to the 2012 draft. Much to my surprise, Brown went undrafted through the first nine rounds. I thought for sure that the Dodgers would have selected him, but instead they selected:

• Corey Seager
• Jesmuel Valentin
• Paco Rodriguez
• Onelki Garcia
• Justin Chigbogu
• Ross Stripling
• Joey Curletta
• Theo Alexander
• Scott Griggs
• Zach Bird

Because the San Francisco Giants had finished ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West in 2011, the Dodgers drafted two spots ahead of their archrivals. They had the 18th pick in each round while the Giants drafted out 20th. Because of this I believed that there was no way that the Dodgers would miss out on Trevor Brown – least of all to the Giants.

With the 10th round in progress and nearing the Dodgers pick, and with Brown still available, I was beginning to get a little giddy. He was the first kid that I had actually known with a shot at becoming a Dodger. But when the Dodgers were on the clock and with me holding my breath, they selected … Zach Babbit, a 5′-7″ – 165-pound second baseman out of The Academy of Art University.

Are you kidding me? Zach Babbit? Who the heck was Zach Babbit and where the heck is The Academy of Art University?

Sure enough, Babbit is the only player to ever be drafted out of The Academy of Art University. And to add insult to injury, it is located in (wait for it) San Francisco, California.

There is zero doubt that Giants vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean and general manager Bobby Evans were doing back flips and giving each other high-fives when the Dodgers didn’t select Brown and they couldn’t call out his name fast enough as their 10th round selection.

I was both devastated and heartbroken. The Dodgers had missed out on an opportunity that I absolutely knew in some way would come back to haunt them.

But regardless, I promptly sent a text message to Doug Brown to congratulate he and his wife Janet on Trevor being drafted. I must admit, however, that my text included “…but by the [expletive] Giants?”

To further my disappointment, Babbit was an absolute bust. He spent 2012 with the Arizona Rookie League Dodgers and 2013 with the Pioneer Rookie League Ogden Raptors for a combined (and dismal) triple-slash of .230 / .364 / .270 / for an OPS of .634. He appeared in a grand total of 43 games collecting only 35 total hits including four doubles, one triple and zero home runs. He did, however, draw 32 walks (hence the .364 OBP) but also struck out 17 times in his 152 career minor league at-bats. One can only hope that Babbit was a better artist than a baseball player because he was out of the game entirely by 2014.

As much as I hate the Giants – and I really hate the Giants – I followed Trevor through his minor league career and knew that his day would come. But I also knew that perennial All Star and former NL MVP catcher Buster Posey is only 29 years old and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This meant that, at best, Brown would be a back-up catcher to Posey, but this definitely wasn’t a bad thing. As Posey gets older, he will require more time off – or at least more time out from behind the plate – thus giving Brown the opportunity to play. There was one problem, however; 24-year-old Giants back-up catcher Andrew Susac. Through two MLB season, Susac appeared in 87 games as Posey’s back-up and by all indications, he would remain as such moving forward.

But Brown never let this interfere with his hard work and dedication to the game. As Dodgers minor league catcher Jack Murphy recently told me “One foul ball can change everything.” Sure enough, on September 5, 2015, Susac suffered a season-ending wrist injury that required surgery and Brown was called up by the Giants. He appeared in 13 games going 9 for 39 (.231) with three doubles and five RBIs. Ironically, one of his doubles was against the Dodgers on September 28, 2015.

It was a sign of things to come.

With his work cut out for him, Brown entered spring training 2016 with one single goal – to win a spot on the Giants Opening Day roster. He received an invitation to major league camp and appeared in 22 spring training games for the Giants, going 12 for 41 (.293) with two doubles and nine RBIs. And while these aren’t off-the-chart numbers, they were considerably better than Susac’s 5 for 23 (.217) and five RBIs. Susac did, however, hit one home run during the spring, which caused the Giants brass to scrutinize who they wanted to put on their 25-man roster behind Posey. Unfortunately for Susac, he developed tendinitis in his surgically-repaired right wrist and appeared in only nine spring training games for Bruce Bochy’s club. And though Susac’s injury wasn’t the result of one of those foul balls that Jack Murphy had referred to, it did exactly what Murph said could happen – it opened the door for young Trevor Brown. On April 2, the Giants announced that Brown had made their Opening Day 25-man roster.

By now every Dodger fan on the planet knows what happened on Friday night, April 8 at AT&T Park. In his first start of the season behind the plate, the (now) 24-year-old Trevor Brown hit a game-tying two-run home run off of Dodgers reliever Chris Hatcher to bring a grinding halt to Ross Stripling’s absolutely brilliant 7.1-inning no-hitter in his major league debut. Two innings later, Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford would slug a walk-off solo home run off of noted home run pitcher Joe Blanton to steal Stripling’s thunder and a Dodgers victory.

There was never a doubt in my mind that this day would come… not ever.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

It was the hit… that inevitable hit that I always knew would one day come the very moment the Dodgers did not select Trevor Brown in the 10th round of the 2012 draft. And while I still hate the Giants and always will, congratulations Trevor. You done good and made a lot folks proud.

…even one Dodger fan.