Willard Brown Stats & Facts
Willard Brown
Positions: Outfielder and Shortstop
Bats: Right • Throws: Right
5-11, 200lb (180cm, 90kg)
Born: June 26, 1915 in Shreveport, LA us
Died: August 4, 1996 in Houston, TX
Buried: Houston National Cemetery, Houston, TX
Debut: 1937 (8,069th in major league history)
AL/NL Debut: July 19, 1947
vs. BOS 3 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: August 17, 1947
vs. CLE 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 2006. (Voted by Negro League Committee)
View Willard Brown’s Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
Full Name: Willard Jessie Brown
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject
Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1937
Bobby Doerr
Ken Keltner
Tommy Henrich
Johnny Vander Meer
George Case
Mickey Owen
Vince DiMaggio
Spud Chandler
Kirby Higbe
All-Time Teammate Team
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Notable Events and Chronology
Biography
Brown was a longtime star with the Negro National League’s Kansas City Monarchs. He was nicknamed “Home Run” by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson for out-slugging Gibson in their head-to-head confrontations. He began as a shortstop for the Monroe, LA Monarchs and was later discovered by Kansas City Monarchs’ owner J.L. Wilkinson. Wilkinson offered Brown a $250 bonus, a $125-a-month salary, and $1 a day as meal money. Brown accepted the increase over his $10-a-week stipend in Monroe.
Brown matured into a complete and dangerous hitter. With Brown batting cleanup, the 1942 Monarchs routinely beat the Dizzy Dean All-Stars in exhibition games played in Chicago and Buffalo. Brown played in the 1942 and 1946 Negro World Series and hit a combined .304 with three HR and 14 RBI.
Brown became a hero in Puerto Rico by winning three home run and three batting titles from 1946 through 1950, earning the nickname “El Hombre” – The Man. In 1947-48, he won the Triple Crown, hitting .432 with 27 HR and 86 RBI in 60 games.
While leading the NNL with a .372 average in the fall of 1947, the 34-year-old Brown signed with the St. Louis Browns. He became the first black player to hit a home run in the American League. But he felt the St. Louis club was not as talented as the Monarchs: “The Browns couldn’t beat the Monarchs no kind of way, only if we was all asleep. That’s the truth. They didn’t have anything. I said, ‘Major league team? They got to be kidding.'” After playing only 21 games and being frustrated with a .179 average, he quit the Browns because of racial pressures and the team’s lack of a winning attitude and rejoined the Monarchs.
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