Dave Brown (baseball): Difference between revisions

|caption=Brown, c. 1923–24

|birth_date={{Birthbirth date|1895|6|9}}

|birth_place=[[Leon County, Texas]], U.S.<ref name="draftrego">[http://negroleagues.bravehost.com/pdf/002272.pdf "Dave Brown's WWI Draft Registration, City Secretary, Dallas, Texas, June 4, 1917"]</ref>

|death_date={{death date and age|1985|5|24|1895|6|9}}

|death_place=[[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]], U.S.

|debutteam=[[Dallas Black Giants]]

|finalyear=19261925

|statleaguefinalleague=Negro leagueleagues

|stat1value=45–2259–21

|stat2value=32.2324

|stat3value=336477

* [[Dallas Black Giants]] ({{baseball year|1917}}–{{baseball year|1918}})

'''David Brown''' (born June 9, 1895)<ref name="statistics">[https://www.baseball-reference.com/nlb/player.cgi?id=brown-008dav– "DaveMay Brown Negro League Statistics & History"]. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved June 824, 2012.</ref><ref1985) name="draftrego"was />an was aAmerican left-handed [[pitcher]] in [[Negro league baseball]]. Considered one of the better pitchers in negroNegro league history, he was also known for serious off-the-field problems. His career came to a premature end when he became a fugitive after allegedly killing a man in 1925.<ref name="statistics">[https://www.baseball-reference.com/nlb/player.cgi?id=brown-008dav "Dave Brown Negro League Statistics & History"]. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved June 8, 2012.</ref><ref name="draftrego" />

Brown was born in [[Leon County, Texas]].<ref name="statistics"/> He had a good [[curveball]] and excellent control. He was also a good fielder and had outstanding speed, but was a weak hitter. Brown played with the [[Dallas Black Giants]] in 1917 and 1918.<ref name="Dallas1918">[http://negroleagues.bravehost.com/pdf/001945.pdf "Plenty of Baseball Provided for Fans of Dallas Today" Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Sunday, August 11, 1918, Page 8, Column 2]</ref> He was regarded as a "timid nice guy" who did not cause trouble, but during his time with the [[Dallas Black Giants]] he was involved in a highway [[robbery]].<ref name="Riley117">Riley, p. 117.</ref> Although Brown was reported to have become a fugitive, [[Rube Foster]] agreed to pay $20,000 for Brown's [[parole]] and he became a member of Foster's [[Chicago American Giants]].<ref name="Riley117" /><ref name="Cottrell165">Cottrell, p. 165.</ref> However, this story may have been placed by Foster after Brown jumped to the Eastern Colored League, and conflated certain activities of Dave's older brother, Webster, with Dave to smear his reputation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Bush |first=Frederick |date=June 9, 2023 |title=Dave Brown Biography |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/dave-brown-2/ |access-date=June 17, 2023 |website=Society for American Baseball Research}}</ref>

Brown became the [[ace (baseball)|ace]] of the American Giants as they dominated negro league baseball in the early 1920s. From 1920 through 1922, he posted a 29-829–8 [[Win (baseball)|record]] in league games.<ref name="Riley117" /> His 11-311–3 record led them to a pennant win in 1921 including three victories in a playoff with the [[Bacharach Giants]].<ref name="Riley117" /><ref name="Cottrell160">Cottrell, p. 160.</ref> His 8-38–3 record contributed to another pennant in 1922.<ref name="Cottrell163">Cottrell, p. 163.</ref> In the winter following the 1922 season, Brown joined [[Oscar Charleston]] for the first season of the [[Cuban League]]'s [[Santa Clara Leopardos]].<ref name="Heaphy1734">Heaphy, pp. 173-174173–174.</ref>

For the 1923 season, Brown left Rube Foster's American Giants for the brand new [[Eastern Colored League]]. Foster voiced his displeasure, pointing out that Brown had been paroled to him and that he had promised Brown's mother to take care of him. He pointed out that the public would vilify him if he revoked.<ref name="Cottrell165">Cottrell, p. 165.</ref> Brown posted a losing record in his first season with the [[New York Lincoln Giants]] but he and Charleston returned to Cuba the following winter and helped Santa Clara compile one of the best records in Cuban baseball history.<ref name="Riley118">Riley, p. 118.</ref><ref name="Heaphy174">Heaphy, p. 174.</ref> His second season with the Lincoln Giants improved on the first and he defeated "Cannonball" [[Dick Redding]] and the [[Brooklyn Royal Giants]] to win the [[New York City]] championship.<ref name="Riley117" />

Brown's career came to an abrupt end in 1925. He went to a bar on the night of April 27, 1925<ref>[The League of Outsider Baseball: An Illustrated History of Baseball's ...By Gary Cieradkowski pp. 128-129128–129]</ref> with [[Frank Wickware]] and [[Oliver Marcelle]].<ref name="Riley118" /><ref name="James184">James, p. 184.</ref> Marcelle was a [[third baseman]] with a reputation for trouble off the field.<ref name="James184" /> The Astory at the time was that a fight erupted at the bar, possibly involving [[cocaine]], and Brown killed one of the participants, Benjamin Adair.<ref>[https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=xuRyoXXZ&id=1FED3D391F21EF77D788FA6F811D417EE2C683BF&thid=OIP.xuRyoXXZvKBzpI0ir5FOzAHaGf&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fcardsthatneverwere.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2flefty-brown.jpg&exph=1173&expw=1339&q=Wanted++Poster+Lefty+Dave+Brown&simid=608036985236556903&selectedIndex=1&ajaxhist=0 Cards that never were]</ref> Wickware and Marcelle were questioned the next day at the ballpark, but Brown had disappeared.<ref name="Riley118" /> Later research indicates that he may have only been a witness, not the perpetrator.<ref name=":0" />

The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] searched for Brown, but he was never officially seen again. Rumors abounded that he continued playing baseball under the alias "Lefty Wilson" with [[semi-professional]] teams through the [[Midwestern United States]]. Lefty Wilson toured with [[Gilkerson's Union Giants]] in 1926,<ref name="gilkerson1926">[https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1Wcncq5-bHdVWFYMENhekRMUVk "Gilkerson Union Giants Swamp Knights of Columbus Nine 11 to 4" Davenport Democrat and Leader, Davenport, IA, Monday Evening, June 21, 1926, Page 7, Columns 1 and 2]</ref> a white team in [[Bertha, Minnesota]] in 1927 and 1928, and he was rumored to have played in [[Sioux City, Iowa]] in 1929 and [[Little Falls, Minnesota]] in 1930. More unsubstantiated rumors claimed that Brown died in mysterious circumstances in [[Denver|Denver, Colorado]] in 1930.<ref name="Riley118" /> However, Lefty Wilson shows up again pitching for the [[Gilkerson's Union Giants]] again in 1932. Reportedly, he was alive in 1938 .<ref>[See The League of Outsider Baseball: An Illustrated History of Baseball's ...By Gary Cieradkowski p.129 for a 1938 report of Brown]</ref> After extensive research, including contact with Brown's descendants, his [[Society for American Baseball Research|SABR]] biographer confirmed that he lived out his life quietly on the West Coast under the name Alfred Brown, dying in 1985 in Los Angeles.<ref name=":0" />

In 1927, a ''[[Pittsburgh Courier]]'' column solicited opinions for the best black baseball player of all time. On April 2, [[John Henry Lloyd]] announced his list which included Dave Brown.<ref name="Cottrell175">Cottrell, p. 175.</ref> When the ''Pittsburgh Courier'' announced a similar list in 1952, they included Brown on their second team.<ref name="Cottrell182">Cottrell, p. 182.</ref>

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VvigBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134&}}

|authorlinkauthor-link=Bill James

[[Category:Baseball1985 players from Texasdeaths]]