FILLMORE : Rector to Play on Idol’s Field

When the Rev. Bob Brown was only 8 years old, he met a man in a department store promotion who affected his life more than anyone, he says.

That man was Jim Gilliam, one of the first black baseball players to enter the major leagues.

Brown, now an Episcopal priest in Fillmore, still dreams of standing in Gilliam’s shoes.

“He has always been my biggest idol, really an icon for me,” said Brown of the former Dodger second baseman, who shared the limelight with teammate Jackie Robinson during the 1950s.

On Friday, as part of the Dodgers’ annual promotion, Think Blue Week, the 40-year-old Brown will step onto his field of dreams at Dodger Stadium to play four innings of softball with 17 other fans.

“It’ll be an honor to carry on the tradition,” the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church said this week.

In a letter to the Dodgers’ selection committee for the fantasy softball game, Brown told of his deep admiration for Gilliam and other black players who helped integrate baseball. He spoke of Gilliam’s good sportsmanship and how the two had met at the department store autograph-signing when Brown was a child.

“He was a real gentleman,” Brown said of his baseball idol, who died in 1978.

Brown said he became a fervent baseball fan after speaking to Gilliam that day and came to view the Dodgers as a ballclub with a heart.

“They were at the forefront of the civil rights movement in sports,” he said.

During Think Blue Week, fans get to fulfill some baseball fantasies such as being an announcer or an umpire.

Brown’s softball game will be played at 11:30 a.m. Friday.

The players will be introduced as they stand on the base lines during the Dodgers’ pregame show.