Mr. Perfect

I don’t recall the exact day I met Tom Browning. It must have been sometime during the summer of 1985 or 1986. Tom was called up to the Reds and was a rookie in 1984. My brother Jeff met Tom soon after and quickly became friends.  I do remember thinking it was pretty cool to have a major league ball player stop by the house. I was still in high school, so he made a huge impression on me. Not that he was trying to. Tom was down-to-earth and just a regular, everyday guy who just so happened to play for the Cincinnati Reds.

One September night in 1988, Tom became a legend. On Friday night, September 1988, just about 3 months after I graduated high school, Tom threw what was then the 12th perfect game in Major League Baseball history. It was also the first perfect game thrown by a left-handed pitcher since Sandy Koufax did it in 1965. Oh, and one other thing worth mentioning…I missed it!

Because of Tom, if I didn’t have a game of my own, I was at Riverfront Park. I would call my brother or Tom, and they would leave me tickets at the Will Call window. After a while, I didn’t even bother calling. I would just show up at the window and wave to the lady. For some reason, I think her name was Pam. I’m sure she never knew my name. She just knew I was Jeff Henry’s brother, and she would tell me to wait a minute, then hand me a ticket. I was living a dream, and I didn’t even know it.

But, on the fateful Friday night in September, when I could have been at the game like I was most every other night, I stayed at home. I had been working all day and hadn’t been home long. My brother called and said he had another ticket if I wanted to come down. But, they were in a rain delay that had already lasted close to an hour, as best I can remember. So I decided to sit this one out. That is, until about 10:30 pm, when my friend Tommie Smith (Bush) came by the house and asked if I was listening to the game. (This was back before cell phones, and if the Reds were not sold out, they were not on TV.) Of course, I had not been listening because I thought the game had surely been called. Bush tells me that Browning has a perfect game in the 7th inning. So we turned on Marty & Joe and listened to the last two innings. I couldn’t believe it. History was being made 15 minutes from my home by a guy that I knew well, and I missed it. Tom would remind me of it often. He gave me a Perfect Game poster and wrote, “To Deron. Should have been there. Pretty good game, huh?”

A couple of years later, I was playing college ball at Cumberland University in Lebanon, TN. Tom and my brother came down a couple of times on their way to spring training. Tom loved to stop by and talk to the players and coaches. Of course, I loved it because I felt like I had something to do with him being there. And he would always bring me gloves from some current big leaguers. Jeff Treadway, Ron Oester, and Barry Larkin were a few.

One year, Tom signed autographs at a baseball card show fundraiser for us. Our coach was nervous because Tom never would tell him how much he would charge. In typical Tom fashion, he stayed several hours after the event just talking and signing autographs. At the end of the event, he finally told our coach to just give him $300. Coach Hunt counted out the $300, gave it to Tom, and Tom turned and gave it to me. Again, typical Tom Browning.

Tom passed away suddenly on December 19, 2022. He would have been 65 yesterday, April 28, 2025. For the obvious reason, he was known by many as Mr. Perfect, at least around Cincinnati. But the truth is, he wasn’t perfect. Tom had his demons, like we all do. Most of us just have the fortune of not having our imperfections happen with media coverage.

So no, Tom Browning wasn’t perfect. He was better than that. He was genuine, authentic, sincere, and most importantly, a friend.

My brother wrote a song honoring Tom. I don’t think he started it with that intention, but that’s how it ended up. It's funny how some things start in one direction, and because of circumstances take a different direction. Seems like that is always perfect!

Here’s the link to the song and video. Give it a listen. It tells the story much better than the words above did. Diamond on the Ground.