John Brown

The only image of John Brown we could find is this cartoon from the July 10, 1942 St. Louis Argus.

John Wesley Brown came by his nicknames of “Lean Man” and “Slim Man” quite honestly. He stood 6-feet-1-inch tall and tipped the scales at less than 160 pounds. He was a right-handed pitcher who, despite missing part of the third finger on his pitching hand, posted an impressive 2.29 ERA over five seasons with the Cleveland Buckeyes. His career in the Negro American League began with Cleveland in 1944 and ended in 1949 with the Houston Eagles. Along the way, he had brief stints with the Chicago American Giants and the Louisville Buckeyes.

John Brown was born on October 23, 1918, in Hamburg, Arkansas, the Ashley County seat. Hamburg was also the birthplace of another pitcher, Harry Kane, who played for the St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, and Philadelphia Phillies between 1902 and 1906; and of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Scottie Pippen. Hamburg is located amid the pine forests of the Delta region of southeastern Arkansas, on the border with Louisiana, and not far from the Mississippi River. Brown’s father, Henry Robson Brown, was born in Bastrop, Louisiana, but moved to Arkansas as a boy to live with his maternal aunt and uncle on a farm in Ashley County. John Brown’s mother, Matilda Bethune Brown, who was also born in Ashley County, married Henry Robson Brown, who was 29 years her senior, in 1916. They had at least four children, John Wesley Brown being the second eldest. His father was a “decorator” who worked as a paperhanger. Both of his parents were literate, and they owned their home in Hamburg. Many of their neighbors were employed in the area’s lumber yards and sawmills. By 1930, Henry Robson Brown moved his family about 15 miles southwest to Crossett, Arkansas, where John Brown and most of his family lived until his father’s death in 1946.

Brown’s athletic prowess was evident during his high-school years in Crossett. In 1936 he competed in a combined prep school-college track meet where he broke the Arkansas state record for the high jump, clearing the bar at a height of 5-feet-11½ inches.1 After high school, Brown attended Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (AAM&N) in Pine Bluff, known today as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the only historically Black college or university (HBCU) in the state. It is unknown if he played baseball for AAM&N. Brown did, however, play baseball during his summer breaks away from Pine Bluff. He was on the 1938 roster for the Greenville Black Bucks, a semipro team in Greenville, Mississippi.2 On May 16 Brown and the Bucks defeated the Memphis African Clowns 10-5 in a twin-bill opener thanks to his “snaky slant[s]” and the fact that Memphis “clowned their way through both games.”3 The following year, the Greenville nine had a new skipper, “Prof. G.W. Brown,” described as formerly with the Cuban Stars.4 In April 1939 the Black Bucks, with “Manager Brown” at the helm, traveled to Crossett to tangle with the Crossett Stars.5 Who was Professor Brown? Given that John W. Brown attended college, is it possible that “Prof. G.W. Brown” was in fact, “J.W. Brown”? Perhaps “G.W.” was a typo? No one named “G.W. Brown” was found on the 1938 roster for the Cuban Stars. Professor Brown’s identity is a mystery, but it is possible that he was John W. Brown, especially since, according to the Negro Southern League Museum, Brown did not play during the 1939 season.6

In April 1940, when the US Census was enumerated in Crossett, Arkansas, John Brown was working alongside his older brother Clarence Brown at a local sawmill. Both he and Clarence had one year of college to their credit, but neither was currently enrolled. Could John Brown’s tenure at the sawmill account for the missing tip from one of his fingers, the injury he reported on his World War II draft card, dated October 16, 1940? When he registered for the draft, he was employed by the Crossett Lumber Company. The circumstances of losing the top of his “third finger” that was cut off at the “first joint” are unknown, but it did not prevent him from serving in the military during World War II or from pursuing a career in professional baseball.

Brown’s baseball activities between 1940 and 1942 are difficult to document. Although at least one source claims he played for the Oklahoma Black Indians in 1940, the Bastrop (Louisiana) Blues in 1941, and the St. Louis Giants in 1942, the first published accounts of his professional baseball career appeared in 1942 when he played for teams in a St. Louis semipro industrial league.7 The claim that he played for the “St. Louis Giants” is likely incorrect. The confusion is understandable. The St. Louis Giants aggregation played one season in 1924. Brown played for the “Curtiss-Wright Giants” of St. Louis in the 1940s.

Brown began his baseball career in earnest in 1942 in the competitive St. Louis segregated Colored Industrial League.8 He saw action in the infield before migrating to the mound. Playing second base for the league-leading Scullin Steel Mules,9 Brown was the team’s “slugger” and by midseason was hitting a blistering .421.10 He was a local fan favorite, worthy of being featured in cartoon form in the St. Louis Argus, the city’s African American newspaper, as an overly tall baseball bat, with a glove as his head.11 Brown was one of the best in the league and was selected to play for the “West” in the annual St. Louis East-West game.12 But his baseball career was thrown a curveball with the onset of World War II. He enlisted in the US Army and served as a private in Company F, 4th Quartermaster Regiment, at Fort Francis E. Warren in Cheyenne, Wyoming.13 In March 1943 he wrote a letter to Argus sports columnist and Negro League historian Normal “Tweed” Webb, with this message for the fans back home.14

Dear Tweed,

How’s all the old gang in St. Louis? Tell them all hello and to keep ’em flying. This will be the first time in my career that I will miss training with the boys and will miss them! But tell them, for me that I will be in there pitching for a bigger and better cause. So they can continue to keep the ball rolling. Tell the youngsters to go out and take advantage of the greatest game in life –‘BASEBALL.’ Tell ’em for me that they can’t go wrong. Print my address so I can hear from some of the fellows. I will enjoy hearing from you and them. Write me all the news, Tweed. I will be here for about five weeks.

Your Buddy in sports,

John Brown 

Webb responded:

Well John, old top and all of my many friends in the armed service, we folks back home are praying for you all to return safely home soon. Oh yes – we had our second Blackout test last week. Since I am talking about war and what not, I wish the white papers and photo sections would play up our fighting race soldiers more. I hear they are raising sand.

Your Hot Stover.”15

After his discharge from the Army, Brown returned to St. Louis and resumed his baseball career. In June 1943, Webb named Brown and few other players in the city’s Municipal League as having “big league timber,” and described Brown as a “human pinwheel when it comes to pitching baseball.”16 Webb also noted that William Brisker, a former sports reporter for the Argus, was now the business manager of the Cleveland Buckeyes and was in St. Louis fishing in the local talent pool.17 At the time, Brown was pitching for the semipro Emerson Electrics of the Colored Industrial circuit, but Brisker didn’t bite on Brown.18 By August 1943, Brown left the Electrics and signed with the Curtiss-Wright Giants, joining a roster that included Luke Easter.19 He pitched for the Giants in the Colored Industrial League playoffs with mixed results.20 After he and the Giants were battered for three runs in the second inning by the Scullin Steel Mules, Brown was exiled to right field, where he made “two great running catches … and tripled to score the Giants’ first run.”21 The Giants eventually kicked the Mules, 7-4, for the upset win.22 It was his last season in the Colored Industrial League. Brisker and the Buckeyes finally decided that he was a keeper.

Brown signed with the Cleveland Buckeyes in the spring of 1944. In March he was one of eight St. Louis area players who were expected to board a bus headed for Clarksdale, Mississippi, to start spring training.23 Two of the recruits had other plans. Theolic Smith opted to play in Mexico and Norman Young signed with the Kansas City Monarchs. Five others, Luke Easter, Charlie Hinson, Carl Whitney, Bob Palm, and Herman Purcell, did not play with any Negro League clubs in 1944. Of those from St. Louis who boarded the bus for Clarksdale, Brown was the only prospect to make Cleveland’s 1944 roster.24 Right out of the gate, on March 26, he proved his worth by leading the Bucks to a 4-3 preseason win over the Memphis Red Sox.25 In July, with his “sinker ball working,” he bested the Birmingham Black Barons, 6-2.26 But Brown did not have a stellar rookie year in the NAL. In August he led the Bucks to a 12-2 victory over a local nine in Richmond, Indiana, but did little to help Cleveland’s pennant hopes.27 The Buckeyes finished the season a distant second behind the Black Barons. By the end of the 1944 season, Brown had a hefty 6.52 ERA in two official appearances in just 9 2/3 innings pitched.

The Buckeyes’ 1945 championship season began with spring training in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and with a new manager, Quincy Trouppe. Despite a sketchy rookie performance in 1944, Trouppe retained “lanky John Brown” on Cleveland’s pitching staff.28 Brown’s previous year with the Buckeyes was so forgettable that some newspaper stories identified him as one of Cleveland’s “newcomers,” or simply as a pitcher formerly with a St. Louis club.”29 In 1945 he earned $450 a month plus travel expenses for his services.30 He was primarily relegated to the bullpen but was not particularly effective as a reliever.31 Brown enjoyed some success as a starter, especially against nonleague opponents, including his 7-3 win over the Twin Cities Independents.32 On September 14, as the season was nearing its conclusion, he went the distance in a losing effort to the Homestead Grays, 3-1, in Dayton, Ohio.33

On September 20, with Frank Carswell on the mound, the Buckeyes clinched the Negro World Series for Cleveland by blanking the Homestead Grays, 5-0.34 There was a pitcher named Brown on the mound during the series at Shibe Park, but it was Ray Brown of the Grays.35 John Brown was not handed the ball in any of the Bucks’ four World Series games thanks to all the starters going the distance. He did pitch for the Buckeyes after they claimed the crown, however, in a throwaway game against the Philadelphia Stars. He tallied a tidy 4-1 win to put a cherry on top of Cleveland’s championship evening.36 Three days after capturing the title, the Buckeyes faced off with the Grays for a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, and this time the outcomes were quite different. The Grays exacted their revenge by sweeping the Buckeyes by the same score in each game – 7-1.37 Brown was the losing pitcher in the nightcap before a crowd of 8,000.38 According to official records, Brown finished the 1945 season with a 1-2 record and a stingy 1.73 ERA. In an interview in 1995, he recalled some different numbers and stated that his overall record for that championship year with the Bucks was 6-2 with a 3.46 ERA.39

Brown was with Cleveland when the Buckeyes headed to Birmingham in March 1946 to begin spring training.40 With the 1945 World Series honors in hand, the Buckeyes had high hopes for a repeat. This was also the first year that Brown’s nickname, “Lean Man,” was seen in print on the sports pages.41 His other sobriquet, “Slim Man,” did not appear until 1949, and only after the Buckeyes temporarily relocated to Louisville.42 No matter his name, the skinny on Brown in 1946 was that both he and Cleveland were headed for disappointment. In early June Brown was on the “sick list for several weeks” and was kept out of the rotation.43 He made one appearance in an NAL game with the Bucks but lasted only four innings in a no-decision outing. By July, he was traded to the Chicago American Giants for Chet Brewer.44

Brown’s impact on the Giants was minimal. Although he was on Chicago’s roster, he does not appear to have been used in any official league games. In mid-August he did manage to bag a 4-3 victory for the Giants in an exhibition game against the Belleville Stags.45 But Brown’s lack of control was nearly his downfall against the local nine. All three of the Stags’ runs resulted from the six walks issued by Brown.46 In the end, the Buckeyes finished the 1946 season in third place in the NAL, while Brown and his Giants were the League’s cellar dwellers. Some records indicate that John Brown appeared in the 1946 East-West All-Star Game in Washington, DC, but he did not pitch.47 He did have one at-bat as a pinch-hitter for the West All-Stars but did not make it to first base.

Brown’s brief tenure with the American Giants came to end in 1946. In the spring of 1947, he was back on the mound for the Buckeyes for a swing through Florida.48 He was one of three Cleveland hurlers used in an early April 6-2 win over the Jacksonville Eagles.49 But it does not appear that he made an impact on the outcome of the Buckeyes’ 1947 campaign. As the regular season was in full swing, newspaper coverage of Cleveland’s results, and NAL games in general, became less frequent and with fewer details. Box scores and/or line scores were scarce, making it difficult to assess individual performances. Although Brown was touted as “the fastest pitcher in Negro baseball” and was “said to have developed an even faster delivery” after returning from Chicago to Cleveland, his name was nearly absent from published accounts of the Buckeyes’ season.50 When news of coming games was published, he was not mentioned among Cleveland’s top hurlers.51 Those honors were usually reserved for Alonzo Boone, Eugene Bremer, Chet Brewer, and Sammy Woods.52 In 1947 the Atlanta Tribune was one of the few newspapers to publish NAL statistics. In early August, their list of the league’s seven top pitchers did not include Brown.53 The pitcher with the fewest games played and fewest wins on the list was the Indianapolis Clowns’ Johnny Williams, with one win in six games.54 Based on the Tribune’s accounting, as the 1947 season headed into its final lap, Brown played in less than six NAL games and had yet to notch a win. Brown’s contributions to the Buckeyes’ 1947 season were nearly invisible. According to official records, he made one appearance, tossed for three innings, and won one game. Brown did not spend much time on the mound that year, but at least his team enjoyed some success. Cleveland captured the NAL flag again, but lost the World Series crown to the New York Cubans.

In March 1948 Brown returned to the Buckeyes for spring training in Panama City, Florida.55 The team had a new manager. Alonzo Boone replaced Trouppe, who was shifted to the Chicago American Giants.56 Brown made his 1948 debut in the season opener against the Black Barons in Cleveland.57 It was not pretty. He was one of three Buckeyes pitchers who collectively gave up 18 hits and ultimately a 15-2 loss in the first game of a doubleheader.58 Chet Brewer, 38 years old, saved the day for Cleveland by capturing an eight-hit victory in the second game, 3-2.59 The opener was a metaphor for the Buckeyes’ mediocre season. They won just under half of their games and finished third out of six teams in the NAL. And although official records show Brown posting no wins or loses in NAL play in 1948, one published report credited him with an overall record of four wins against one loss.60 Although little changed in his baseball fortunes, Brown did make one big move off the field. In 1948, he and his family relocated from Crossett to Detroit, where he lived for the remainder of his life.61

There were many changes in John Brown’s baseball and personal life in 1949. As the NAL fortunes began to sag, his longtime employer, the Cleveland Buckeyes, morphed into the short-lived Louisville Buckeyes before reclaiming their Cleveland affiliation by the end of the season.62 Brown continued to wear a Buckeyes uniform no matter which city claimed the team. He started the year by working as a reliever during a spring-training stop in Panama City, Florida.63 In preseason play, Brown was touted as the “curve ball artist from the Ozarks.”64 By mid-April, “‘Slim Man’ Johnny Brown” had chalked up three wins.65 By July, the Cleveland club, “who masqueraded for [a while] as the Louisville Buckeyes,” were “reported broke and hope[d] to limp home until the finish of the season.”66 But before the geographically challenged Bucks began their summer campaign, Brown flew the coop for another nomadic nine, the Houston Eagles, formerly of Newark.67 He saw action as a reliever for Houston and notched at least one win as a starter.68 Records for the 1949 season are incomplete and Brown’s accomplishments for the year are uncertain. But what is known is that after 1949, his Negro League baseball career was over. By the end of the season, his name no longer appeared in Houston’s game reports. He retired from baseball in 1949 after what Brown described as a “bad bout of pneumonia.”69 After leaving the Houston Eagles and his baseball life behind, Brown returned to Detroit and started a new career as an appliance repairman for Detroit Edison, and later as a hardware distributor.70

John Brown’s baseball life spanned over 13 years, the final six of which were in the NAL. He was a member of the Buckeyes’ 1945 World Series championship team, and helped Cleveland claim the NAL flag in 1947. One of Brown’s fondest memories of his baseball career was pitching to the Black Barons’ rookie sensation, Willie Mays, during Mays’ debut season with Birmingham in 1948.71 Another was witnessing the greatness of Josh Gibson.72 During a 1995 interview with a reporter for the Detroit News, he lamented the discrimination and barriers faced by African American ballplayers prior to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.73 He was circumspect and at peace upon reflecting on his six seasons in the NAL. Brown simply said, “I was just born too soon.”74

John Wesley Brown died in Detroit on March 3, 1999, at the age of 80. He was survived by his wife, Naomi McCormick Brown. He was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Woodhaven, Michigan.

Sources

Unless otherwise indicated, all Negro League statistics and records were sourced from Seamheads.com, baseball-reference.com, and retrosheet.org. Ancestry.com was used to access census, birth, death, marriage, military, immigration, and other genealogical and public records.

Notes

1 Lynn Henning, “Negro League Player Has His Books, Memories,” Detroit News, February 16, 1995: 65.

2 “Black Bucks Takes [sic] 1st. [sic] Tie 2nd,” Greenville (Mississippi) Delta Star, May 17, 1938: 6.

3 “Black Bucks Takes [sic] 1st. [sic] Tie 2nd.”

4 “Greenville, Miss.,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 25, 1939: 22.

5 “Bucks Pry Lid Saturday,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 15, 1939: 17.

6 “John W. Brown.”

7 “John W. Brown.”

8 Normal Webb, “Curtis-Wrights Almost Upset the Scullin Steel Co. 8-7,” St. Louis Argus, May 15, 1942: 10, 11.

9 Normal Webb, “Curtis-Wrights Almost Upset the Scullin Steel Co. 8-7.”

10 Normal Webb, “Hot Stove League,” St. Louis Argus, July 3, 1942: 10; “Tandy Dope,” St. Louis Argus, July 3, 1942: 10.

11 “Muny Music, St. Louis Argus, July 10, 1942: 11.

12 “East-West Game Sunday at Tandy Park,” St. Louis Argus, August 7, 1942: 10.

13 Normal Webb, “Hot Stove League,” St. Louis Argus, March 5, 1943: 10, 11.

14 Lorraine Kee, “‘Tweed’ Webb Helped Make Negro Leagues Fashionable,” St. Louis Dispatch, April 29, 1995: 31.

15 Normal Webb, “Hot Stove League,” St. Louis Argus, March 5, 1943: 10, 11.

16 Normal Webb, “Hot Stove League,” St. Louis Argus, June 18, 1943: 10.

17 Normal Webb, “Hot Stove League,” June 18, 1943: 10; “Kinloch Grays Get Top Rank Publicist,” St. Louis Argus, April 9, 1948: 17.

18 Normal Webb, “Muny 1st Half to be Decided Next Sunday,” St. Louis Argus, July 16, 1943: 10.

19 Normal Webb, “Giants Beat Scullins in Ninth with Bunt,” St. Louis Argus, August 20, 1943: 10.

20 Normal Webb, “Giants Beat Scullins in Ninth with Bunt.”

21 Normal Webb, “Giants Beat Scullins in Ninth with Bunt.”

22 Normal Webb, “Giants Beat Scullins in Ninth with Bunt.”

23 “Locals to Join Spring Training with Buckeyes,” St. Louis Argus, March17, 1944: 10.

24 “Four St. Louis Boys Making Grade with Cleveland Club,” St. Louis Argus, April 14, 1944: 10.

25 “Four St. Louis Boys Making Grade with Cleveland Club.”

26 “Cleveland Plays Chicago American Giants,” St. Louis Argus, July 14, 1944: 10.

27 “Buckeyes Trounce Richmond, 12-2, in Twilight Contest,” Richmond (Indiana) Palladium Item and Sun-Telegram, August 3, 1944: 8.

28 “Mgr. Troupe [sic] Will Begin New Job with Buckeyes in Spring Drill Mar. 24,” St. Louis Argus, March 9, 1945: 10.

29 “Mgr. Troupe [sic] Will Begin New Job with Buckeyes in Spring Drill Mar. 24”; “Bucks Boast Veteran Club,” Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, April 13, 1945: 18; Bob Overaker, “Beers and Buckeyes Clash Here Tonight,” South Bend (Indiana) Tribune, May 18, 1945: 25.

30 Lynn Henning, “Negro League Player Has His Books, Memories.”

31 “Clowns Split with Buckeyes,” Cincinnati Post, May 21, 1945: 13; Gordon Graham, “Double Steal Gives Red Sox Thrilling Win Over Cleveland Buckeyes, 5-4,” Lafayette (Indiana) Journal and Courier, September 6, 1945: 20.

32 “East Chicago Here Sunday, Memphis Red Sox Thursday,” Saint Joseph (Michigan) Herald-Press, July 21, 1945: 7.

33 “Grays Top Buckeyes,” Dayton Journal, September 15, 1945: 11.

34 “Buckeyes Blank Grays, Win Title,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 21, 1945: 24.

35 “Buckeyes Blank Grays, Win Title.”

36 “Buckeyes Blank Grays, Win Title.”

37 “Grays Win Two, but Too Late,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 29, 1945: 12.

38 “Grays Win Two, but Too Late.”

39 Lynn Henning, “Negro League Player Has His Books, Memories.”

40 “Bucks to Train in Birmingham,” Chicago Defender, March 16, 1946: 9.

41 “Negro Baseball Stars Will Be Seen in Game at Offerman [sic] Stadium,” Kenmore (New York) Press, May 23, 1946: 4.

42 “Louisville and Memphis Split,” St. Louis Argus, April 22, 1949: 20.

43 “Negro Champs Boast Classy Pitching Staff,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 10, 1946: 20.

44 “Traded,” Chicago Defender, July 13, 1946: 11.

45 “American Giants Defeat Stags, 4-3,” Belleville (Illinois) Daily Advocate, August 14, 1946: 7.

46 “American Giants Defeat Stags, 4-3.”

47 “Expect 30,000 to See East’s Baseball Classic,” Chicago Defender, August 10, 1946: 10.

48 “Start Training March 5,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 13, 1947: 16.

49 “Atkins Helps Ohioans Defeat Jacksonville,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1947: 14.

50 “Cleveland Buckeyes Play S.I. Oilers Under the Lights,” Staten Island (New York) Advance, July 15, 1947: 12.

51 “Negro League Play to Open Here Tuesday,” Dayton Herald, May 2, 1947.

52 “Negro League Play to Open Here Tuesday”; “Buckeyes Play Chicago Giants,” Dayton Herald, May 28, 1947: 18.

53 “Negro American League,” Alabama Tribune (Montgomery), August 8, 1947: 6.

54 “Negro American League.”

55 Jimmie N. Jones, “Buckeyes Undergo Changes,” Ohio Daily-Express (Dayton), February 26, 1948: 1, 4.

56 Jimmie N. Jones, “Buckeyes Undergo Changes.”

57 “38-Year-Old Chet Brewer Is Still Hill Ace,” St. Louis Argus, May 21, 1948: 17.

58 “38-Year-Old Chet Brewer Is Still Hill Ace.”

59 “38-Year-Old Chet Brewer Is Still Hill Ace.”

60 “Cleveland to Meet Creoles in Abbeville,” Lafayette (Louisiana) Daily Advertiser, September 10, 1948: 17.

61 Lynn Henning.

62 James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994), 495.

63 “Louisville Buckeye [sic] Win Spirited Game,” St. Louis Argus, April 1, 1949: 16.

64 “Negro Nines Open a 2-Game Series Tonight,” Muskogee (Oklahoma) Times-Democrat, April 12, 1949: 13.

65 “Louisville and Memphis Split,” St. Louis Argus, April 22, 1949: 20.

66 Marion E. Jackson, “Sports of the World,” Atlanta Daily World, July 20, 1949: 5.

67 “Houston Eagles Boast Highly Regarded Team,” Wichita Falls (Texas) Record News, May 18, 1949: 11.

68 “Red Sox Lose, 7-5,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 9, 1950: 20; “One Game for Monarchs,” Kansas City (Missouri) Times, May 16, 1949: 15; “Collins Twirls No-Hitter as Kansas City Wins 14-0,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 28, 1949: 24.

69 Lynn Henning.

70 Lynn Henning.

71 Lynn Henning.

72 Lynn Henning.

73 Lynn Henning.

74 Lynn Henning.