"Where else would youn rather be?"

Daren Brown, the Timber Rattler manager in 2003, is the subject of this Tacoma News Tribune piece.

Give your life to baseball, and on some days the game will devour you.

Daren Brown knew that well before Thursday, but if he needed a reminder, the day gave him one.

The Tacoma Rainiers manager got to the Seattle Mariners camp at 6 a.m., about the same time as most team coaches – despite having watched a night game that ended about nine hours earlier.

What was on his plate?

“We’ve got two games today, so we’re in charge of the 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. stretches,” Brown said. “And before the big guys stretch, I’ll be over watching some of the kids in minor league camp …”

Minor league players began stretching and working out at 8 a.m. Brown was there, though much of the players he will manage this season remain with the Mariners.

“Evaluating kids is easier the more you see them, and we’ve been able to see a lot of them in this camp already,” Brown said.

With so many Mariners gone to the World Baseball Classic, the team has used many more players than usual.

Brown has had the chance already to see them and work with most of them.

By 10 a.m, he’d spent two hours working in minor league camp, then hustled back to work with the big leaguers on another field.

At 1 p.m., he was in Peoria Stadium, where the Mariners were scheduled to play the first game of the day-night doubleheader.

“Where else would you rather be?” Brown said, leaning on the dugout rail.

And I just want to point out that it takes a future hall of famer to make Brown laugh.

Someone asked Brown to evaluate Ken Griffey Jr. as he walked by just after 4:15 p.m.

Before Brown could answer, Junior beat him to it: “The sexiest man on the planet.”

Brown laughed.

I hope someone has that on tape.