Baseball Remembers: Dave Brown
Baseball Remembers: Dave Brown
Speaking as a guy with a really boring, monosyllabic name that is also a color, I recognize that there is nothing about the name “Dave Brown” that is particularly memorable. It doesn’t help that Googling “Dave Brown” returns several pages of possible links, none of which have to do with the Dave Brown I’m writing about.
Let’s clarify who is not the subject of today’s piece:
The astronaut, Captain Dave Brown, who tragically died as a member of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
The actor and comedian, Dave Brown, member of the British comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh.
Dave Brown, the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Economics at Penn State.
Dave Brown, the Assistant Sheriff for San Diego County, California.
The Dave Brown who is a partner at some enormous law firm in Washington, DC, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions, SEC regulatory work, and other crushingly boring areas of law.
The Dave Brown who was the first pick of the 1992 NFL Supplemental Draft and went on the be the gloriously mediocre starting quarterback of the New York Giants for three years.
The Dave Brown who was once voted one of the top-10 all-time enforcers in the NHL and was on a Stanley Cup-winning team in Edmonton in 1990.
The Dave Brown who was a genuinely excellent defensive back for the Seattle Seahawks, and was the third player inducted into their Ring of Honor.
All due respect to those Dave Browns, I’m sure they all are/were excellent in their respective fields. But so was our Dave Brown, and he happened to have a couple of things to distinguish him among all of the other Dave Browns out there.
He was very likely on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and…
He killed a guy, and then disappeared from the face of the earth.
So, yeah, lots to unpack there.
Starting with the alleged murder and subsequent disappearance, I’m not going to retell that whole story here, for a couple of reasons. First, it’s been told already, and far better than I could. I recommend the SABR biography of Brown by Frederick (Rick) Bush. It’s wonderfully done, and goes into great depth, particularly on possible sightings of Brown after he disappeared. As a supplement, I recommend this article that has some of the original newspaper clippings and links to other articles that about his potential whereabouts.
The second reason I’m not going to dwell on the murder is because I’d like to focus on Dave Brown’s ability as a baseball player, because it was remarkable.
Brown’s career began at the same time as the Negro National League. He’d appeared in four games for the Chicago American Giants in 1919, but he played a full season for the Giants for the first time in 1920, which coincided with the NNL’s launch. He was 23 years old and immediately excellent, posting a 13-3 record and league-leading 1.82 ERA. He also led the league in ERA+, WHIP, hits per 9 innings, and WAR for pitchers, while also finishing 4th in wins and strikeouts. Had there been a Cy Young or Best Pitcher award at the time, Brown likely would have won it.
In his second year, Brown went 17-2, with a 2.50 ERA. That win total led the league, as did Brown’s .895 winning percentage, 5 shutouts, 2.76 FIP, 1.004 WHIP and 6.3 strikeouts per 9 innings. He was second in the league in ERA and WAR for pitchers, and was third in strikeouts. Any pitching award that year would have gone to Bullet Rogan, but Brown was probably next in line.
In his third year, Brown was 13-3 with a 2.90 ERA. He led the league with a .813 winning percentage, and was third in WAR and wins, fourth in ERA and fifth in strikeouts.
He jumped to the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League before the 1923 season, and had the worst year of his career, going 5-6 with a 3.28 ERA as the team struggled overall to a losing record and fifth-place finish among the league’s six teams. But, even in a down year, Brown was in the top-10 in the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.
His final full season was 1924, and it was a strong one. Brown posted a 13-8 record and league-leading 2.00 ERA, while also leading the league in ERA+ and WHIP, and being second in WAR, wins, and strikeouts. He was likely the best pitcher in the league again.
That’s a remarkable start to his career. Here’s the full list of pitchers since 1900 who had at least 20 WAR, a 2.50 or lower ERA, and a winning percentage of .650 or better in the first five years of their career:
Three of the eight (Alexander, Mordecai Brown, Foster) are in the Hall of Fame. Gregg and Wood had their careers interrupted by injury, while Reulbach and Guidry both had wonderful careers that fell a bit short of Hall of Fame recognition.
Since those five years (plus one game in 1925) constitute Brown’s entire major league career, he actually holds a major league record. Among all starting pitchers in major league history who threw at least 500 innings, Brown’s ERA+ of 169 is the best in big league history.
Interesting list, right? Three Hall of Famers, a guy who will certainly be elected (Kershaw), another who will have a great case if he can stay healthy (deGrom), a young guy with an awesome start to his career (Urias), one of the first guys ever thrown out of baseball for cheating (Devlin), and Brown, a suspected murderer who vanished.
Obviously, a murder is nothing to make light of. Brown earned his banishment and subsequent vanishment (I’m saying that’s a word).
But, had he let cooler heads prevail that night in 1925, Dave Brown likely wouldn’t need an article like this one to remind people what an incredible pitcher he was.