Bobby Brown (third baseman)

Robert William Brown (born October 25, 1924) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and executive who was the president of the American League (AL) (1984–1994). He also was a physician who studied for his medical degree during his eight-year playing career with the New York Yankees (1946–1952, 1954).

For other people with the same name, see Bobby Brown (disambiguation).
Bobby Brown
Third baseman
Born: (1924-10-25) October 25, 1924
Seattle, Washington
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 22, 1946, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
June 30, 1954, for the New York Yankees
MLB statistics
Batting average.279
Home runs22
Runs batted in237
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Biography

Education

Born in Seattle, Washington, Brown attended Galileo High School in San Francisco, then Stanford University and UCLA, before receiving his medical degree from Tulane University. During his time at Stanford, he and another student were involved in the rescue of a Coast Guardsman from a plane crash, for which Brown received a Silver Lifesaving Medal.[1]

Playing career

Sometimes known as "Golden Boy" during his baseball career, Brown played 548 regular-season games for the Yankees, with a lifetime batting average of .279 and 22 home runs. In addition, he appeared in four World Series (1947, 1949, 1950, 1951) for New York, batting .439 (18-for-41) in 17 games. Brown batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He missed ​1 1⁄2 seasons due to military service during the Korean War.

Brown had a bases-loaded triple in Game 4 and a two-run triple in the championship-clinching Game 5 of the 1949 World Series. He tripled again in the final game of the 1950 World Series.

A famous apocryphal story that has made the rounds for years in baseball circles concerns the time when Brown's road roommate was star Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, who had little formal education. The two were reading in their hotel room one night – Berra a comic book and Brown his copy of Boyd's Pathology. Berra came to the end of his comic, tossed it aside, and asked Brown, "So, how is yours turning out?"

Brown is the last living member of the Yankees team that won the 1947 World Series. There are no living players who played on an earlier World Series-winning team.

Baseball executive career

Brown practiced cardiology in the Dallas–Fort Worth area until May 1974, when he took a leave of absence to serve as an interim president of the AL Texas Rangers – then returned to medicine following the season.[2] In 1984, he succeeded Lee MacPhail as AL president and held the post for a decade; Gene Budig replaced him. In 1992 and 1993, Brown presented the World Series Trophy (on both occasions to the Toronto Blue Jays) instead of the Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig. The presidencies of both the American League and the National League were eliminated in 2000, and their duties were absorbed by the office of the Commissioner.

Legacy

A decorated veteran of two wars, a noted baseball player who served on five championship teams, an accomplished physician, and the former president of the American League, Brown is considered to have few equals in the history of major league baseball.[3] He is a regular at the Yankees' annual Old-Timers' Day celebrations.[4]

On March 26, 1957, Brown was a contestant on the game show To Tell The Truth. (Repeats of the episode are occasionally broadcast on the Game Show Network and can also be seen on YouTube.)[5]

Brown's wife of more than 60 years, Sara, died on March 26, 2012. They were married in October 1951, shortly after the 1951 World Series.[6]

References
  1. Freeze, Ken (May 9, 1943). "Kingfisher Crash Off San Francisco". Check Six. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  2. Huber, Mike. "Bobby Brown (SABR Baseball BioProject)". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  3. Fournier, Richard (June–July 2013). "Pro Players Few and Far Between in Korea". VFW Magazine. p. 28. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  4. Herrmann, Mark (June 22, 2014). "Hideki Matsui makes his Old-Timers' Day debut at Yankee Stadium". Newsday. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  5. ""To Tell The Truth:" CONTESTANT #2: Dr. Robert W. Brown (Physician & Yankees player)". To Tell The Truth. CBS. March 26, 1957. Retrieved June 5, 2016 – via YouTube.
  6. "Sara Brown Obituary – Dallas, TX". Dallas Morning News. March 28, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2019 – via legacy.com.
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