With the Cincinnati Reds clinging to a 7-6 lead in the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium on August 11, 1981, rookie right-hander Scott Brown got the call from the bullpen, though he had never thrown a major league pitch. Brown, DeQuincy, Louisiana's first athlete ever drafted by a big league club, died in his hometown on July 21, 2026, at 69. He is remembered in Reds history for that one August afternoon in Los Angeles, which turned out to hold nearly his entire major league career.

Brown worked two and two-thirds scoreless innings in relief, allowing two harmless singles, and the official scorer ruled it his only major league decision: a win. "My knees were like rubber. I was terrified," Brown said, recalling that his manager, John McNamara, told him only to "rear back and chunk it" before he took the mound (SABR). His lone major league at-bat ended the same way. "I never saw the ball," he said of striking out against Dodgers pitcher Bobby Castillo. Asked about the outing afterward, McNamara told reporters, "He was outstanding. We only wanted one inning out of him, but he was so sharp, we stayed with him. The Dodgers aren't the easiest lineup to face in your major league debut."

Cincinnati had drafted Brown in the fourth round, the 94th overall pick, out of DeQuincy High School in June 1975, the first time any major league organization had chosen a player from the town. He climbed through the Reds' system over the next six years, from the Billings Mustangs and Eugene Emeralds to the Tampa Tarpons, Nashville Sounds and Indianapolis Indians. His best season came with Double-A Nashville in 1979, when he went 9-2 with a 2.40 ERA (SABR).

The major leagues, once he reached them, did not last long. Earlier in his rise, a line drive had struck Brown in the throat, crushing his Adam's apple and permanently changing his voice. Then, in spring training with the Kansas City Royals in 1982, he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. Frank Jobe. A year later a snapped ulnar nerve left his hand numb and his fastball gone. He tried to come back, working out for teams in Arizona, but got no offers, and his career in professional baseball was over.

Brown went home to DeQuincy and followed his father, Harvey, into railroad work, eventually spending roughly two decades as a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific, running routes among Houston, New Orleans and Alexandria. His mother, Betty Lou Allen Brown, had taught English and home economics at DeQuincy High School for forty years. Brown married Cheryl, and the couple raised a daughter, Alicia Ortagus, and a son, Matthew Edward Brown, who stayed in DeQuincy; a grandson, Lucian Ortagus, followed (Hixson-Snider Funeral Home).

Brown died July 21, 2026, in DeQuincy at 69, preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Ricky. He was survived by his wife, Cheryl; his children, Alicia and Matthew; his grandson, Lucian; and his siblings, Tracey, Dan and Rebecca. Family and friends gathered at his longtime DeQuincy church to celebrate his life two days later.

What Brown gave DeQuincy was a single line in the record book, the kind a small town keeps and repeats: the first player it ever sent into a major league draft, the pitcher who reached Cincinnati and won the only game he pitched there. Injuries closed that door within two years, but the line held. He spent the rest of his working life running trains between Houston, New Orleans and Alexandria, the way his father had before him, and DeQuincy gathered at The Pentecostal Church to send him off.