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“Nice work, Garvey,” joked Reading Railbirds’ shortstop Harvey Gregg while passing teammate James Brown in pre-game drills.

Brown acknowledged the comment with a grin and a hand-waving dismissal.

“Garvey? Steve Garvey! Gregg thinks he is being funny making a crack about my height and playing first. I am still six-foot tall, you know, taller than Garvey. And, Garvey was an All-Star, so I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Brown was all smiles while meeting with the press after being recalled from the minors to rejoin the Railbirds on Sunday.

With first base, the team gave Brown extra time to learn the new position, as the player had agreed to an extended training camp that included a month in AAA honing defensive skills.

“General consensus among coaches is that you can train any big-leaguer who has intelligence greater than an artichoke to play first. I hope I don’t prove to be the exception,” said the former third baseman.

For clarification, Baseball Reference states that Steve Garvey was not the shortest MLB first baseman, and lists a handful of players who fielded at first for at least 30 games while being under 5’9—the most recent being Ron Belliard in 2008 at 5’8.

Stave Garvey-like height or not at first, the Railbirds definitely will enjoy Brown’s bat being added to the starting lineup. Brown is a career .295 hitter in limited major league action, but had already smashed 9 home runs in 125 at-bats for AAA Bethlehem.