Dave Brown (baseball)

Brown was born in Marquez, Texas. He was the ninth and final child to farm laborers Silas and Anna Brown. He was regarded as a "timid nice guy" who did not cause trouble, but during his time with the Black Giants, he was allegedly involved in a highway robbery. 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. However, this story may have been fabricated by Foster after Brown left the team. According to baseball researcher Frederick C. Bush, "it is also quite likely that, in his fit of pique in 1923, Foster attributed [Dave's brother] Webster's criminal history to Dave to smear his reputation." ==Chicago American Giants seasons==

After being used sparingly in 1919, Brown was the only pitcher from the 1921 team to return to the American Giants in 1922. His 13–3 record contributed to another pennant, and he remained in the league's top five in most major pitching statistics. ==League change and career end==

Before the 1923 season, Brown left the American Giants for the New York Lincoln Giants of the newly formed Eastern Colored League. Foster voiced his displeasure, claiming that Brown had been paroled to him and that he had promised Brown's mother to take care of him. Foster asserted that the public would vilify Brown if he reneged on Foster's trust. and Brown's performance improved; he maintained a 2.06 ERA across 16 games. In 1924, the Lincoln Giants took an early lead in the standings but fell to third place by the end of the season. Marcell was the team's third baseman and had a reputation for trouble off the field. and on May 16, the Baltimore Afro-American wrote that the police were unable to locate any of them. Marcell and Wickware eventually resurfaced and were cleared of wrongdoing, but Brown had disappeared. On July 23, a wanted poster was released that labelled Brown as Adair's killer and a fugitive. ==Rumors and legacy==

The FBI searched for Brown, but he was never officially seen again. Beginning in 1926, rumors abounded that Brown had adopted the alias William "Lefty" Wilson and continued playing baseball for semi-professional teams throughout the Midwestern United States. Wilson toured for Gilkerson's Union Giants in 1926. He pitched for teams in Wanda, Minnesota in 1927; Bertha, Minnesota in 1928; and Sioux City, Iowa in 1929, among others. In 1929, after he became the manager of the team in Sioux City, a newspaper reported that Wilson was a former pitcher for "the Chicago negro National league [sic] club," despite the American Giants having never fielded a pitcher by that name. When the Courier published a similar list in 1952, they included Brown on their second team. On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball declared the Negro leagues, from the span of 1920–1948, to be "Major Leagues." and eleventh-lowest WHIP in major league history. ==See also==