[04/17/02]J.J. Brown signed to play football at Hinds Community College on Tuesday, but if the major leagues call his number, he’ll take the money and run and slide, and hit and catch.

“I’ll probably go,” he said. “I think I’ll get picked between the fifth and 10th round.”

Even if he’s not picked that high on June 5, Brown said it would be hard to turn down any offer to play in the pros.

“Baseball in my main love,” said Brown, who was picked to play in the Class 4A-5A all-star game June 8 and was an all-state running back.

Scouts flocked to see the slick-fielding speedster on the diamond all year. Brown was also the key weapon in the gridiron Gators’ march to the North State championship game, where they lost to eventual state champion Starkville. But the 5-foot-10, 170-pounder did not qualify academically, so going to a major college wasn’t an option.

The juco route was his best bet anyway, Brown said, since he would still be eligible for the draft after his freshman and sophomore seasons. Players at four-year schools have to stay through their junior years before they can go pro.

“I’m behind him 100 percent … this has been his lifelong dream,” said Jean Brown, his mother. “I would miss seeing him play football, but his heart is in baseball.”

Still, if he isn’t drafted this year, that’s OK with Brown. He’s in a win-win situation, he said.

“I don’t want to have to give (football) up yet,” he said, adding that he would like to keep playing with his cousin, linebacker Tim Brown, who signed with Hinds in February.

But the idea of playing with his other cousins Roosevelt Brown of the Chicago Cubs and Ellis Burks of the Cleveland Indians is even more appealing.

“They tell me to keep working out and to keep my head on straight,” J.J. Brown said.

VHS football coach Alonzo Stevens said he believes Brown will get drafted, but if he played football at Hinds and got his grades straight … “he could go play anywhere in the country,” Stevens said.

“J.J. is the most complete player I’ve seen since Sylvester Stamps,” Stevens said of the ex-Gator who went on to star at Jackson State and with the Atlanta Falcons.

Brown compares himself to another ex-Falcon who also dabbled in baseball.

“I could be better than Deion,” he said. “I just have to work at it.”

Brown said he didn’t help his draft status at the plate this year.

“Hitting-wise, I hurt myself, but I did good in everything else” he said. “Sometimes they’d start throwing me outside, and I’d try to pull it. I have to learn to go with the pitch.”

Brown’s brother, Shandell Lockridge, played football and baseball at Hinds. He helped the Eagles win a state championship in football and finish third in the Junior College World Series.

Jean Brown said she’s talked to dozens of scouts over the season, including the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers, among others. A representative from the Philadelphia Phillies will visit their home Thursday, she said.

“I know he’ll be able to handle it,” she said of her 19-year-old, the youngest of her four children. “He’ll be able to make it. He has the three tools those scouts are looking heart, determination and speed.”