Willard Brown: Use it when you need it

Posted on 11th February 2026 by Gary Joseph Cieradkowski

Thank you to everyone who sent in a vote on which uniform I should depict Willard Brown wearing for my next story. You can look at the four options HERE.

The response was overwhelming, with many not only offering their vote, but also writing to explain why they voted the way they did. These are the kind of comments I especially enjoy reading – it never ceases to interest me what part of baseball history people are passionate about.

And speaking of passionate, the winner was the 1948-49 Santurce Crabbers uniform, which you can see below. A very close second was the 1945 Oise All-Stars, followed much further behind by the 1947 St. Louis Browns and finally the 1942 Monarchs.

Now, without further delay, here’s my story and illustration of Willard “Home Run” Brown…

Catcher Sammy Haynes told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Brown “didn’t put as much into baseball as he should have. He’d walk to the outfield, even in the majors. He never ran unless he had to.”

Other observers have opined that what many took for Brown’s lack of hustle was actually his natural ability to make everything he did look easy. Monarchs first baseman John “Buck” O’Neil recalled, “He was the most natural ballplayer I ever saw. He was so natural that people thought he was lazy.” In another interview, O’Neil elaborated: “Willard Brown stole bases standing up; he didn’t slide because he didn’t have to. He’d get there just in time to beat the throw; that’s enough, that was all he needed.”

Ellis “Cot” Deal, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox who was teammates with Brown in the Puerto Rican Winter League, recalled, “As a player, he gave the appearance of loafing, but he was not.”

As for his reluctance to run to and from the dugout between innings, Brown’s explanation is simple: “What’s the use of me flying off the field? I’ll use it when I need it.”

I’m sorry to have to throw a bunch of stats at you, but you really need to see how dominant Willard Brown was during his 10 full Negro American League (NAL) seasons between 1936 and 1948 (he played in Mexico in 1940 and 1944-45 were spent in the army). Take a look at this list and tell me how a little more hustle could improve on these highlights:

• 8-time NAL Hits Leader (1937-1939, 1941-1943, 1946, & 1948)

• 8-time NAL Total Bases Leader (1937-1939, 1941, 1943, & 1946-1948)

• 7-time NAL RBIs Leader (1937-1939, 1941, 1943, 1947, & 1948)

• 6-time NAL Doubles Leader (1938, 1939, 1941, & 1946-1948)

• 5-time NAL Home Runs Leader (1937, 1938, 1943, 1946, & 1948)

• 4-time NAL Triples Leader (1937, 1939, 1946, & 1947)

• 4-time NAL Slugging Percentage Leader (1939, 1943, 1947, & 1948)

• 2-time NAL Runs Scored Leader (1941 & 1943)

• 2-time NAL Singles Leader (1942 & 1943)

• 2-time NAL Stolen Bases Leader (1941 & 1942)

• NAL Batting Average Leader (1947)

• NAL On-Base Percentage Leader (1937)

I mean, talk about using it when you need it, right?

The guy led the league in hits eight out of ten seasons! Those seven RBI titles show he got the job done when it counted. What other heavy-hitting slugger could also say he led the league in stolen bases twice? And this was during the real heyday of Negro League baseball, when both leagues were fielding at least one or two teams that could easily have finished in the first division of the White American and National leagues. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at who this guy was and where he came from.

WILLARD JESSE BROWN was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the only child of Manuel and Allie Brown. There’s a raft of vastly different years given for Brown’s birth year, ranging from 1911 to 1921, with the latter being used as his “baseball age” to make him appear younger to scouts later in his career. However, Social Security, military, and census records all confirm June 26, 1915, as his actual birthdate.

Like most kids at the time, Willard Brown grew up playing baseball. Talking to a reporter from the Kansas City Star in 1985, Brown remembered, “We’d just be playing. I’d forget the time. It’d be after 9, and I was supposed to be in.” Brown began pitching and playing shortstop on local teams, his quick reflexes and natural athleticism making up for his homemade glove crafted from discarded burlap sacks.

Back in the 1920s, the Kansas City Monarchs would spend spring training in Shreveport. The Monarchs were the top Blackball team of that era, and young Willard Brown took full advantage of having these greats around to learn from. He ingratiated himself as the Monarchs’ batboy, and eventually the players allowed the eager kid to take batting practice with them. The veteran ballplayers were in awe of the boy’s raw power. “They would let me hit,” Brown told the Kansas City Star, “and all of them would get to talking and say, ‘How you hit the ball so far?’ I’d say, I don’t know, just practice.”

By 1934, Willard Brown was ready to turn pro. The 19-year-old joined the Monroe Monarchs, a minor league-level Black club out of Louisiana. The next summer, the big league Kansas City Monarchs came calling. Brown received a $250 signing bonus on top of $125 a month and a dollar-a-day for meals.

SINCE THE EARLY TWENTIES, the Monarchs were consistently the best Black club playing west of Ohio, but by 1935, the team was aging fast. The old stars like Bullet Joe Rogan, Hurley McNair, and Newt Allen were all 35-45 years old, and the entire team’s median age was 34. Willard Brown was the first of many young players Monarchs’ owner J. L. Wilkinson acquired as he retooled the team for the future.

At a time when most rookies were met with hostility from the veterans whose jobs they were trying to take, longtime Monarchs shortstop Newt Allen was supportive of the 20-year-old Brown. Once the newcomer proved he could handle himself on the field, Allen encouraged management to make Brown the team’s regular shortstop and move him over to second base.

When Brown struggled with hitting big league-level breaking balls, the Monarchs’ veteran pitching staff stepped up. Pitchers Bullet Rogan and Chet Brewer fed him nonstop curveballs until Willard Brown could hit them as well and as far as he could a fastball.

Observers were struck by Willard Brown’s raw power at the plate. He wasn’t an incredibly large guy – he was a shade under 6 feet without the bulging biceps of the prototypical slugger. Homestead Grays pitcher Wilmer Fields remembered, “He had short arms, but was strong as a bull.” Hall of Famer Josh Gibson was Willard Brown’s main rival in the late 1930s and 40s. Brown recalled Gibson telling him, “’You hit the ball as far as me. Anywhere I can hit ‘em, you hit ‘em. Look like further. And you not as large as I.’ And he’d get to feeling my arms and say ‘How you hit the ball so far?’” As a nod to his long-ball hitting, Josh Gibson bestowed the nickname “Home Run” Brown on his rival.

While many of the younger long-ball hitters like Joe DiMaggio started switching to lighter bats to boost their swing speed, Bullet Joe Rogan convinced Brown to use a heavier stick. His preferred tool was 36 inches long and 40 ounces in weight – Babe Ruth’s specs circa 1927. “I always used a 40-ounce bat, and anything I could get that big bat on, I could hit pretty good.”

Besides the heavier bat, Brown attributed his hitting success to simply keeping his eye on the ball. “I was a contact hitter.” Brown told the Kansas City Star in 1985. “I didn’t have no big swing. I didn’t care if it was up there; I could hit the ball that was over my head over the fence. You know, bad pitches. Ball hit the ground, and I don’t know, I just followed it.”

His hitting philosophy was simple: “Most home runs aren’t strikes. You go and get the ball.”

And that leads us to another key to Willard Brown’s success: a willingness to swing at balls that were far outside the strike zone. This was a skill Brown learned when facing amateur pitching and umpiring during games against town teams and semipro clubs, which comprised most of the Monarchs’ schedule. As Brown explained to historian John Holway, “Some of those places you’d go, those umpires would call strikes up around your cap. I learned how to hit them to keep from being called out.”

In 1937, the Monarchs shifted Willard Brown from shortstop to center field to make room for rookie Byron “Mex” Johnson. With the addition of more young players like outfielder Ted Strong, pitcher Booker McDaniel, and first baseman Buck O’Neil, the rejuvenated Kansas City Monarchs began their second-generation dynasty. Behind “Home Run” Brown’s power hitting, the Monarchs would win the Negro American League pennant every season from 1939 to 1942 and 1946.

AS HIS FAME increased, “Home Run” Brown played his role well. He was known as a sharp dresser and had a friendly, outgoing personality that earned him many friends.

When the Monarchs were playing at home in Kansas City, Willard Brown resided at the Streets Hotel in the heart of KayCee’s Black entertainment district. While he enjoyed the attention that came with being one of the Kansas City Monarchs, Brown was able to avoid the pitfalls of overindulgence that many young ballplayers fell into. When he went out to the clubs, admirers lined up to buy the famous “Home Run” Brown a drink. The slugger would accept so as not to seem ungrateful, but, as he told the Kansas City Star, “I’d hold it until I’d get rid of it and take off. So I didn’t care nothing about no drinking.”

Brown’s hardscrabble upbringing in Louisiana shaped his practical approach to finances. As his star rose on the field, so did his paycheck. His rookie salary of $125 a month increased to $800 by 1940. While he didn’t deny himself occasional well-earned luxuries, he was careful with his spending. In a 1982 recorded interview with William J. Marshall, Brown recalled, “I wasn’t gonna throw that money away, it’s too hard to get. So I saved some.”

One factor that probably contributed to Willard Brown’s grounded outlook was that he married a woman several years older than he was. While her husband was out setting Negro League records, Dorothy Brown kept house and raised their only child, Willard, Jr. Like his old man, Willard, Jr. would also serve as the Monarchs’ batboy.

According to Puerto Rican Winter League historian Thomas Van Hyning, Willard Brown made sure his fans knew he appreciated them. Besides socializing in bars and restaurants after a game, Brown would find time to visit “hospitals and cheer up children, World War II and (later) Korea veterans, and seniors.

Historian Shawn Hennessy recorded this wonderful vignette of the slugger’s life off the field from the daughter of Ford Smith, Brown’s teammate on the Monarchs and in the Puerto Rican Winter League:

“We shared a very large house in Puerto Rico with the Brown family,” Ford’s daughter, Jackie (Smith) Garner, told me during one of our many phone calls. “Our families were very close. Willard would visit our home in Phoenix throughout the years,” she said. “I remember Willard always had a nice smell,” Jackie said. “After the Crabbers games, we would relax in the house and Willard would sit in his chair and read the paper. He smelled nice. It is a memory that stayed with me,” she said. “Later, as an adult, I was reminded of Willard having a nice scent and was talking about that with my mom [Senoma Smith] and she said, ‘Willard sure did love his Chanel No. 5.’” Despite it being a woman’s perfume, it was just something that Willard enjoyed and would wear.

AT THE VERY HEIGHT of his career, Willard Brown was called to serve in the army. After the Normandy Invasion, he was posted to a quartermaster unit hauling ammunition and guarding prisoners. When the war ended in May 1945, Willard Brown resumed playing ball – not in the Negro Leagues but for the U.S. Army.

As the American troops were slowly shipped back home, the military decided that baseball would help entertain the men left behind in Europe. The ranks of the Army and Navy were filled with former professional baseball players, and teams battled for the championship in several occupied regions. The winners then advanced to the playoffs, with the best two teams competing in the 1945 GI World Series.

Former Dodgers and Phillies pitcher Sam Nahem was the manager of the Oise All-Stars, a team representing the army’s Communications Zone (Com-Z). Nahem cobbled together a roster of semipro and college players with a couple of over-the-hill major leaguers sprinkled in. Knowing that he would be going up against teams stocked with big league stars acquired through creative transfers and unit changes, Nahem thought out of the box and recruited Willard Brown and former Newark Eagles ace Leon Day. The addition of the power-hitting outfielder and star pitcher not only evened out the competition but also made history as one of the U.S. Army’s first integrated sports teams.

The Oise All-Stars advanced to the GI World Series, where they met the 71st Infantry Division “Red Circlers” that represented General George Patton’s Third Army. Their lineup boasted eight former major leaguers and six others who would play in the big leagues after the war.

The Red Circlers took the first game behind Ewell Blackwell’s 5-hit pitching. According to Stars and Stripes, Willard Brown was “the only man who had much luck hitting Blackwell.”

Game 2 was a Negro League showcase, with Leon Day winning a tight 2-1 victory and Willard Brown’s single scoring the winning run. In Game 3, Oise responded with another 2-1 win, highlighted by Brown scoring the first run. Game 4 saw the Red Circlers defeat Leon Day, evening the series. In the deciding game, the underdog Oise All-Stars held on to take another 2-1 squeaker, becoming the 1945 GI World Series champs.

If you’d like to read a deeper-dive into the 1945 GI World Series, please check out my story on Leon Day and the 1945 GI World Series.

AFTER THE WAR, Willard Brown returned to the Monarchs. It was business as usual for Brown, who led the Negro American League in hits, doubles, triples, and home runs. But baseball was changing fast. In the spring of 1947, it was announced that Jackie Robinson would play first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, ending six decades of segregation in the major leagues.

As one of the Negro Leagues’ premier superstars, Willard Brown had been tentatively scouted by the White major leagues as early as 1943. Brown later told the Shreveport Times in 1976, “In 1943, there was a scout – Tom Greenwade, yeah, that’s who it was – I thought he was kidding when he asked me how I would like to play in the major leagues. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll be ready.’ Then I went into the service. I don’t know, maybe they was looking.”

The early success of Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn led the Cleveland Indians to sign Larry Doby in early July. Both teams saw a marked increase in attendance at both home and on the road as fans flocked to the ballpark to see the first Black major leaguers since 1887. Over in St. Louis, the Browns, who usually had the worst attendance in the majors, decided to integrate their club with not one but two Black players. On July 17, the Browns cut the Kansas City Monarchs a $10,000 check and purchased the contracts of Willard Brown and Hank Thompson.

Upon joining the Browns, the two newcomers were met with mixed reactions from the other players. While a few were welcoming, many passively refused to talk to Brown and Thompson, and several were openly hostile. One even briefly left the team, refusing to play alongside Blacks.

Despite being “major league,” the team Brown and Thompson joined were a far cry from the champion Kansas City Monarchs. Outside of their one wartime season pennant in 1944, the St. Louis Browns were perennial American League bottom-feeders. As Willard Brown told the Kansas City Star, “That team couldn’t beat the Monarchs no kind of way, if we was all asleep. That’s the truth. They didn’t have nothing. I said, ‘Major-league team? They got to be kidding.’”

Besides the woeful state of the team’s ballplaying ability, Willard Brown was immediately disappointed with the equipment provided by the Browns. “The bats were my biggest problem – them little old bats I was hitting with.” Brown told author Jack Etkin, “Thirty-three inches. Pitchers’ bats. I didn’t bring any bats. That was the mistake I made. I could’ve brought my bat with me. But the Monarchs said, ‘You don’t need no bats. They furnish you bats in the major leagues.’ And I said, ‘That’s right, they do.’” They didn’t; Brown had to make do with the shorter and lighter bats provided by the team.

Instead of playing every day, Brown shared right field with Al Zarilla. Neither man was happy with the decision – not playing every day often screws with a player’s timing at the plate.

Hostility from teammates, lack of proper bats, and not playing regularly all contributed to Willard Brown’s poor showing at the plate. After 18 games, his average sat well below the .200 mark.

There was one bright spot, however. On August 13, 1947, Willard Brown became the first Black player to hit a home run in the American League. Before the game, Jeff Heath gave Brown one of his discarded bats. Heath used a heavier model that was closer to Brown’s preferred specs; however, the knob at the end of the bat was broken off. “I done put some tape on the end of it,” Brown told author Jack Etkin.

The historic home run came in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Detroit Tigers were leading St. Louis 5-3. Two-time AL MVP Hal Newhouser was on the mound for Detroit and had walked catcher Jake Early. Browns manager, Muddy Ruel, called on Willard Brown to pinch hit.

Home plate umpire Eddie Rommel took one look at Brown’s bat and told him that it was in violation of major league rules. Reflecting on the incident, Brown recalled, “The umpire made me pull the tape off it. Ain’t supposed to have tape on the end of the bat.”

Willard Brown then stepped into the batter’s box and unloaded on the first pitch. “It was a fastball about shoulder high and when I swung, I knew I hit the ball hard.” The homer wasn’t one of Brown’s tape measure over-the-fence jobs, but a rare inside-the-park homer. The two-run shot tied the game, and later in the inning Hank Thompson would score the game’s winning run.

What should have been a triumphant moment was marred when Jeff Heath took back his old bat and smashed it to pieces against the wall of the dugout. The motivation behind Heath’s actions has been disputed ever since. Some regard the destruction of the bat as being racially motivated; however, there is another side to the story.

Hank Thompson has said that Jeff Heath was one of the players who openly welcomed him and Brown to the team. Heath’s teammates described him as a quirky character with many superstitions – especially about his bats. Zack Taylor, who was one of Heath’s managers, later said, “He hated to lend his bats to anyone because he had a theory that there were just so many base hits in a bat and if somebody else got them out, they wouldn’t be there for him.”

A little over a month after signing Brown and Thompson, the St. Louis Browns pulled the plug on their integration experiment. Unlike Jackie Robinson, who had the benefit of a season of adjustment in the minor leagues and spring training with his new teammates before joining the Dodgers, Brown and Thompson were thrust onto the Browns in the middle of the season.

Both players had had to adjust to unfamiliar surroundings while learning to play major league baseball “on the job.” Hank Thompson’s fielding struggled a bit, but he managed to hit major league hitting to the tune of .256 – fifteen points higher than the team average that year. Despite occasional flashes of his trademark power-hitting, Willard Brown couldn’t do it consistently, and his average sank to .179.

The expected attendance boon from Black fans failed to materialize, and racial tension with the White St. Louis fans was the opposite of Jackie Robinson’s reception in Brooklyn. On August 23, both players were handed their release and returned to the Monarchs.

BACK IN THE NEGRO LEAGUE, Willard Brown went on a batting tear. He won his first and only batting championship with a .377 average and led the league in RBI, doubles, triples, and slugging. Although he never got another chance in the majors, “Home Run” Brown continued to be Blackball’s top slugger. After the collapse of the Negro Leagues in the early 1950s, Brown embarked on a minor league career that saw him leading the Dallas Eagles and Houston Buffaloes to Texas League championships. He finally hung up his spikes in 1958, aged 43.

But hold on – everything you’ve read so far was just Willard Brown’s summer job. While he was “Home Run” Brown in America, in all points south, he was “Ese Hombre.”

Like many Negro League stars, Brown played ball year-round. He spent his first winter season in Cuba in 1937-38. Two years later, he moved over to the Puerto Rican Winter League, hitting a massive .409 for Humacao. With the war curtailing travel, Brown joined the Kansas City Royals in the California Winter League in 1943-44 where he hit .455 playing against White major and minor leaguers.

Brown returned to the Puerto Rican Winter League in 1946-47, this time suiting up for the Santurce Crabbers. He hit .390 to win his first league batting crown. After his brief and disappointing stint in the majors, Willard Brown returned to the Crabbers for the 1947-48 season. Perhaps trying to show the major league what they were missing, Brown simply exploded; he won the Triple Crown, and his 27 homers in 60 games remains the record today.

The Puerto Rican fans were in awe of Brown’s raw power – they began calling him “Ese Hombre” – “That Man.” And for the next half-decade, “That Man” completely dominated baseball on the island.

Excuse me once again for throwing numbers at you, but Willard Brown’s list of Puerto Rico Winter League accomplishments rivals his Negro League ones:

• 2-time Triple Crown Winner (1947-48 & 1949-50)

• 2-time PRWL Championship (1950–51 & 1952–53)

• 3-time Batting Champ (1946-47, 1947-48, & 1949-50)

• Only 3-time League Leader in both Batting and RBI

• 3-time (consecutive) Home Run Champ (1947-48, 1948-49, & 1949-50)

• 4-time RBI Champ (1946-47, 1947-48, 1949-50, & 1950-51)

• All-time Leader in Career Batting (.350) and Slugging (.604)

Every winter in Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1954, Willard Brown played with and against many future major league stars – White, Black, and Latino. Based on their recollections, we can see how truly talented Brown was. New York Giants pitcher Rubén Gómez told author Thomas Van Hyning that Brown was “the most dominant player he had ever played with, except for Willie Mays.” Cot Deal, a major league pitcher who played on the Santurce Crabbers in the late 1940s, remembered, “Willard Brown was one of the best hitters I ever saw, and that includes Williams and DiMaggio.” In the 1980s, LA Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda, who had played with, coached, or managed every big league star since 1950, simply stated, “Willard Brown was one of the greatest hitters I ever saw.”

During the 1956-57 season, Ese Hombre came out of retirement to help the short-staffed Santurce team. True to his nickname, Willard Brown hit home runs in his first two at-bats.

After retirement from baseball, Willard Brown worked at various jobs in the Houston area. He was a popular attendee at early Negro League players’ reunions and kept up with the game as an Astros fan. In the late 1980s, Brown began suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He spent his final years in a Texas VA hospital and passed away on August 4, 1996, at the age of 81. He was elected to Puerto Rico’s Hall of Fame in 1991 and, in 2006, finally received his plaque in Cooperstown.

WE’LL NEVER KNOW what Willard Brown could have done had he reached the Major Leagues at age 22 instead of 32. His record in Puerto Rico shows he had no problem hitting big league pitching. Negro League historian John Holway found that in 11 games from 1935 to 1942 in which Brown faced major league pitchers, he hit .373 with 5 doubles and 2 home runs. Proper equipment, coaching, and support from his teammates might have made “Home Run” Brown one of the greatest major league sluggers of all time.

* * *

In my illustration of Willard Brown, you might have wondered what the red “Tek” logo is on his jersey. In the 1948-49 season, which this uniform style dates to, the Santurce Crabbers were sponsored by the Tek brand toothbrushes. Kind of the evil forerunner to the cheesy ads found on MLB uniforms today.

Most of this piece was written using the numerous newspaper articles referenced in the text, but I also want to credit a few other valuable sources. John Holway’s book, Black Diamonds: Life in the Negro Leagues from the men who lived it, features a great interview with Brown. The Santurce Crabbers : Sixty Seasons of Puerto Rican Winter League Baseball by Thomas Van Hyning details Brown’s best winter league years.

William J. Marshall’s 1982 audio interview with Willard Brown can be found online as part of the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

Oddly enough, for a Hall of Famer, no one has attempted to write a book-length bio of “Home Run” Brown. Until then, Rory Costello’s excellent biography of Brown, available on the Society for American Baseball Research’s SABR.org website, is thus far the most complete, well-researched look at the slugger’s life and career.

If you’d like to read a deeper-dive into the 1945 GI World Series, please check out my story on Leon Day and the 1945 GI World Series.

* * *

This story is Number 90 in a series of collectible booklets

Each of the hand-numbered and signed 4 ¼” x 5 1/2″ booklets feature an 8 to 24 page story along with a colored art card attached to the inside back cover. These mini-books can be bought individually, thematically or collected as a never-ending set. In addition to the individual booklets, I envision there being themed sets, such as the series I did on Minor League Home Run Champions. You can order a Subscription to Season 8 as well. A year subscription includes a guaranteed regular 12 issues at a discounted price, plus at least one extra Subscriber Special Issue. Each subscription will begin with Booklet Number 090 and will be active through December of 2026. Booklets 1-89 can be purchased as a group, too.

Willard Brown: Use it when you need it

Willard Brown: Use it when you need it

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