Willard Brown

Willard Jessie Brown served as batboy during Kansas City Monarchs spring training in Shreveport as a kid, quit school to turn professional for eight dollars a week plus room and board, and spent the next quarter century hitting baseballs so far that Josh Gibson gave him the nickname "Home Run." Brown played center field for the Monarchs from 1935 through 1950, batted .351 in the Negro American League, led the league in hits eight times (tying Ty Cobb's record for most times leading a league in that category), won two Triple Crowns in the Puerto Rican Winter League, and on August 13, 1947, became the first black player to hit a home run in the American League. Buck O'Neil said, "He was the most natural ballplayer I ever saw. He'd steal second base standing up." The Special Committee on Negro Leagues elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Shreveport

Brown was born on June 26, 1915, in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father Manuel worked as a mill laborer and later owned a cabinetmaking shop. His mother Allie lived to 100. Brown grew up between Shreveport and Natchitoches, served as batboy for the Monarchs during their spring training stops in Shreveport, and left school to sign with the Monroe Monarchs of the Negro Southern League in 1934 as a shortstop and pitcher. His first contract paid eight dollars a week plus room and board. "I thought that was big money," he said.

The Kansas City Monarchs signed Brown in 1935 with a $250 bonus and $125 a month. He converted from shortstop to center field in 1937 and batted .379 with 10 home runs, 81 hits, and 60 RBI in 56 games. Josh Gibson recognized the power early and gave Brown the nickname that stuck for the rest of his career.

The Monarchs

Brown led the Negro American League in hits eight times between 1937 and 1948, tying Ty Cobb's record. He led the league in RBI seven times. In the 1942 Negro World Series, the Monarchs defeated the Homestead Grays, and Brown went 7 for 16 with two home runs and a stolen base. He helped the Monarchs win four pennants between 1937 and 1941 and six pennants overall from 1937 through 1946.

Brown carried his power across the Caribbean. In the Puerto Rican Winter League he batted .350 for his career, the highest average in league history, and hit 101 home runs. In the winter of 1947-48 he won the Triple Crown with a .432 average, 27 home runs, and 86 RBI. No one passed his home run mark. He won a second Triple Crown in 1949-50, edging Bob Thurman by a single point at .354. Puerto Rican fans called him "Ese Hombre," which translates to "That Man." Puerto Rico inducted him into its Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 as part of the inaugural class.

Brown appeared in three Caribbean Series in 1950, 1951, and 1953, hitting .343 with five home runs and 19 RBI across all three. In the 1953 Series, his team went 6-0, and Brown won the MVP.

St. Louis

In July 1947, three months after Jackie Robinson broke the color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the St. Louis Browns signed Brown and Hank Thompson from the Monarchs. They became the second and third black players in the American League after Larry Doby. On July 20, Brown and Thompson appeared together against the Red Sox, the first time two black players played as teammates in a major league game.

Brown did not want to go. "The first time they told me I was going to the Browns, I didn't want to go," he said in a 1983 interview. "Major league team? They got to be kidding. They didn't have nothing." The Browns could not beat the Monarchs "no kind of way, only if we was all asleep."

His best game came at Yankee Stadium on July 23, when he went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI. On August 13, he hit a home run off Hal Newhouser of the Tigers, an inside the park shot that made him the first black player to homer in the American League. The hit came off teammate Jeff Heath's bat. When Brown returned to the dugout, Heath smashed it. The incident is often cited as racial hostility, though Hank Thompson later named Heath among five Browns who "went out of their way to make life easier" for the black players, and Heath was notoriously protective of his lumber.

Brown hit .179 in 21 games and was released on August 23. He never received time in the minor leagues to adjust. Brown and Thompson rejoined the Monarchs. Brown returned to the Negro American League and batted .404 in 1948, leading the league in hits and RBI.

Houston

Brown played in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and the Texas League through the 1950s. In 1954, at 39, he batted .314 with 35 home runs and 120 RBI in the Texas League. He played his final professional season with the Monarchs in 1958.

Brown retired to Houston and worked in the steel industry. In December 1979, he returned to Puerto Rico for an Old Timer's Day event and told Luis Rodriguez Mayoral that the island "was where I was treated best." Brown served in the Army during World War II, participated in the Normandy invasion, and played on the integrated OISE All-Stars in the 1945 European Theater World Series in France alongside Leon Day. The Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored him in its Military Spotlight Series for his service.

Brown was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1989 and entered a Veterans Administration hospital in the early 1990s. His son Willard Jr. died two years before him. Brown died on August 4, 1996, in Houston, at 81. He was buried in Houston National Cemetery.

Brown finished with a .351 batting average, 54 home runs, 127 doubles, 44 triples, and 80 stolen bases across documented Negro League games. Dick Clark of the SABR Negro Leagues Committee called him "the preeminent right-handed slugger for the Negro American League throughout the '40s." Bill James compared him to Jose Canseco, Juan Gonzalez, Andre Dawson, or Frank Robinson. Quincy Trouppe said, "Who knows? Brown may have been as great, or greater, than Gibson, if he had been a little more patient."