Night with a Legend has become the fundraising opportunity for the Franklin County Wildcat baseball program, and Saturday night's 6th annual hosted at Third Place was no exception.

Tom Browning, aka “Mr. Perfect”, made his third overall appearance at the event and was joined by Cincinnati Reds' president and chief operating officer Phil Castellini. (Mr. Castellini's commentary on the current state of Major League Baseball will be covered in a future edition.)

FC coaches current (Derek Stang) and former (David Miley) took to the podium first to thank everyone for coming out in support of the young athletes. Stang added that, while he's essentially the face of the program as coach, the event wouldn't happen without the Wildcat parents' club.

Dinner preceded the featured speakers and local caterer Cupcakes by Heidi (Reece) provided dessert offerings at each table. In the reception area were a line of baskets and silent auction items to be awarded by the end of the evening. A split-the-pot was also conducted.

Each class at FCHS donated a basket – or two depending on class size. Other donors were Brookville Butcher, Hilltop Grill, Dairy Cottage, Fuel Nutrition, Dave Deddens/Skyline, Thistle Dew Nicely, K.O. Sports Photography, St. Leon Sunoco, Beebe Marathon, Cedar Grove Tavern, Cedar Grove Package Store and the Daugherty family.

CEI Sports, Blue Ash, provided much of the memorabilia being auctioned off, with Miami University among the other contributors.

Stang pointed out that baseball tends to be one of the more expensive sports, so the outing helps with equipment upgrades and allows players to receive all apparel free of charge.

With a friendly dig inserted, Stang introduced Miley as having “done for this program more than we have asked, he's given a lot.”

Miley asked those to stand who had been to at least four of the six Nights with a Legend; he followed this by saying - to big laughs - Castellini was rumored to be picking up the bar tab of this group. The former Reds manager also had a back-and-forth with Dyar Miller, one of the area's few MLBers out of New Point High School.

“I didn't hit many home runs, but I remember the one I hit off him,” said Miley. “You know how NASA keeps trying to get back to the moon … they're trying to find that ball I hit off Dyar.”

Browning, a key member of the 1990 world champion Reds and a Reds Hall of Fame inductee, famously pitched a perfect game on Sept. 16, 1988 at the old Riverfront Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also tossed a 7-inning no-hitter for the AAA Wichita Aeros in 1984, which he briefly mentioned.

But not all outings were rosy red, as he related a story. He recalled ribbing umpire Bruce “Spanky” Froemming after the home plate ump was hit by a foul ball. “Ten runs later,” he said he learned his lesson. He used the same experience to impart wisdom to a young pitcher he coached on the Reds rookie team in Billings, Montana. The youngster had given up nine runs in an inning, before Browning helped soothe him by saying he once gave up 10; “it happens.”

His first foray into coaching came with the Florence Freedom (now Y'Alls), the independent team in Kentucky, days after former teammate Chris Sabo had declined. The team sent a helicopter to pick Browning up from a golf outing, leaving him to feel like “Elvis Presley” when he arrived in Chillicothe, Ohio for a game.

When the Castellini family purchased the franchise in the mid-aughts, they encouraged the hiring of former Reds greats. 

“I grew up a Reds fan and got to live my dream playing for them … I bleed Cincinnati Red,” said Browning. “The only thing left was to coach. It worked out great, I didn't want to work for anybody else.”

Working as an instructional/rookie mentor, Browning said the wide-eyed kids were starved for information and wanted to hear all the stories a big leaguer may tell.

“Tucker Barnhart, one of the best catchers I've ever seen, made the team (unexpectedly) out of spring training and I congratulated him,” he related. “He said 'I heard it's awesome up there.' I said no, it starts at awesome and gets better from there. You're playing a game you played as a kid against the best players in the world.”

The southpaw revisited a few times the importance of a small market team like the Reds developing players within the system to replace stars who may be recruited by the bigger markets. Projecting players in the middle rounds of the amateur draft is paramount; “you have to see ahead.” He gave the example of catcher Mike Piazza, Hall of Famer drafted in the 62nd round.

He's not a big fan of the analytics trend that now pervades the game, saying “the human element still comes into play.” Nor does he care for the worship of radar in clocking pitchers.

“I was with the Dayton Dragons, and we were playing Western Michigan,” he began. “Carlos Contreras threw a pitch and looked at the speed of 97 (mph). His next two pitches were 98 and ball four was 98.”

No. 32 fielded a few questions from the crowd, one about the new pitch clocks that will go into effect in 2023, but one about the famous incident that saw him mingling with fans on the rooftops overlooking Wrigley Field in the middle of a Reds-Cubs game.

The year was 1993 when Davey Johnson replaced Tony Perez as manager after just 44 games. He said his original intention was to operate the manual outfield scoreboard but was put in touch with the owner of one of the buildings, who set up the prank.

When he returned to the dugout, someone reminded him a TV camera was on him and he had just “lost some money.”

Before leaving, Browning signed the Reds jersey he had on and put it up for auction; it drew $700 from FC superfan Paul Burton.