Everything about Daren Brown reflects an easygoing nature, beginning with a drawl that carries the hint of a West Texas wind.

Perhaps the only things that can rile up the Rainiers’ manager are the occasional ineptness of Pacific Coast League umpires or someone questioning the merits of his beloved Oklahoma Sooners football team.

Otherwise, Brown is one pretty cool customer. He’s never too high and never too low. He’s not brash and talkative, yet he’s still thoughtful and cordial.

Make no mistake, he isn’t easygoing when it comes to expectations. He demands a high level of play from his players. And he isn’t afraid to say something if it isn’t achieved.

For three seasons as manager of the Rainiers, Brown has been consistent in this approach of handling his players and his team. On Wednesday, he reaped the fruits of that consistency as the Rainiers clinched the Pacific Coast League Pacific Northern Division title with an 11-2 win over the Colorado Sky Sox at a packed Cheney Stadium. It capped an improbable late-season comeback that saw them make up a 71/2-game deficit in a little more than 10 days.

If there was any doubt as to Brown’s importance to the team, or the respect he has gained from his players, it was erased when he was the first person pushed to the middle of the Rainiers clubhouse and doused with a combination of beer and champagne after the win. His players and coaches, chanted, “Brownie, Brownie.”

It was spirited scene of celebration. But beyond that, there was a sense of the respect and true affection that the Rainiers players have for Brown.

“Brownie is a real relaxed guy,” Rainiers hitting coach Alonzo Powell said. “He’s not a rah-rah guy. He’s not a Bobby Knight guy. He says what he needs to say, he gets his point across and he gets the guys to go out and play hard.”

His approach is simple.

“I treat them like I’d want to be treated,” Brown said. “I’m going to show you respect, and I expect you to respect me back.”

The Rainiers want to be treated like professionals. Many have spent time in the majors, and Brown runs his clubhouse similarly.

“He’s done a great job,” center fielder Jerry Owens said. “He keeps us loose. He reminds me of a big-league manager. I’ve been fortunate to play with Chicago (White Sox) and kind of see how things are run at the big-league level, and that’s how he runs things.”

It’s more a hands-off approach. Brown makes his expectations clear – do your work, put in extra time, do your job on the field and be a professional on and off it.

“The way he does things, it makes it a seamless transition going from Triple-A to the big leagues,” Owens said. “I just love the business-like approach to the game. It rubs off on us.”

While he isn’t the type to harp on players about practice, preparation or production, when he needs to voice a concern, there’s a reason behind it.

“He wasn’t here to baby-sit us,” first baseman Bryan LaHair said. “But if he felt like we were slacking or weren’t giving 100 percent, he’d let us know. There’s only been a few times where’s he had to step in and tell us to get our acts in gear, and we did and moved on.”

Perhaps more important, Brown’s approach has remained constant through the ebb and flow of the season.

“Sometime you get managers where you go through a losing streak and they want to get hard on you,” veteran catcher Jamie Burke said. “He stayed consistent with us.”

Beyond dealing with players, managing a Triple-A team is difficult because of the constant roster changes and hurt feelings that can accompany those changes.

“At the Triple-A level, a guy gets called up and it breaks someone else’s heart,” Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said. “A guy gets sent down and he’s depressed, so to keep it all in place and keep everybody’s momentum in place is a tough thing to do, and Daren’s done a good job of it.”

It’s easy for players to become bitter. And it only takes a couple of bitter players to fracture a clubhouse. Brown handles it all with a simple philosophy.

“You control what you can control, and what you can’t control, you can control how you react to it,” Brown said. “Sometimes it takes a while for players to understand it.”

The roster turnover has been extensive, to say the least.

Brown started the season with Mike Morse, Jeff Clement, Chris Woodward, Chris Burke and Freddy Sanchez, who all were moved to other teams. Along the way, he’s lost Mike Carp, Michael Saunders, Randy Messenger, Chris Shelton, Jason Vargas, Sean White, Josh Wilson, Doug Fister and Garrett Olson to call-ups, and Matt Tuiasosopo and Steven Shell to injury. He’s welcomed Owens, Brad Nelson, Mike Koplove, Alex Cintron, Oswaldo Navarro and others. A total of 28 different position players have played for the Rainiers, and 30 different pitchers have taken the mound.

“There’s a lot of guys who were big part of what we were doing early that weren’t here at the end,” Brown said. “You look at the Redmans, the LaHairs and guys that have been here all season, and the other guys that have stepped in and picked it up on different nights.”

The constant roster shuffle often gets overlooked when judging Triple-A managers.

“It’s tough to keep it all together when you lose players and have had injuries like he’s had,” Zduriencik said. “But he’s done a very good job, and what they did this year is tremendous.”

Typically, Brown deflected the praise that followed the division championship.

“I didn’t have to do much,” Brown said. “They’re a great group kids, and they’ve handled themselves well. They put their work in every day. I don’t know that I’ve managed a better group of young men as individuals.”

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483

ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

Tacoma vs. Sacramento (best of five)

Today: at Tacoma, 7 p.m.

Thursday: at Tacoma, 7 p.m.

Friday: at Sacramento, 7:05 p.,m.

Saturday: at Sacramento, 7:05 p.m. (if nec.)

Sunday: at Sacramento, 1:05 p.m. (if nec.) NAME CHANGES