Career
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Brown was a notable graduate of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, California, where he played high school baseball with Darryl Strawberry. The 1979 Crenshaw High Cougars baseball team was the subject of Michael Sokolove"s The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw. Brown was selected by the Giants in the second round (44th overall) during the 1979 amateur draft.
Professional baseball career
= San Francisco Giants After a steady climb through the Giants minor league system, Brown made his major league debut for them in 1984 as a September call-up.
In 1986, Brown batted.317 and made the Netherlands All-Star team after hitting nearly.350 in the season"s first half. The same season, he was involved in an infamous brawl.
At the end of 1986 he complained of shoulder soreness. That offseason, an examination by Doctor Frank Jobe in Los Angeles discovered that there was indeed a serious problem, and surgery was performed that winter.
The following season, with Brown hitting a paltry.242 after 38 games, the Giants sent him packing on July 5 along with Keith Comstock, Mark Davis, and Mark Grant in a midseason trade to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, and Craig Lefferts.
= San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers After dropping to a.235 average in 1988 for San Diego, Brown was dealt to the Detroit Tigers and was out of baseball by 1989 at the age of 28. In his career he batted.269 with 38 home runs, 184 RBIs, 164 runs, 410 hits and 21 stolen bases in 449 games. Life after baseball
In 2004, Brown worked in Iraq driving an 18-wheel truck delivering diesel fuel for Halliburton.
He took fire on numerous occasions, including in a convoy that was attacked on April 9, 2004, in which six Halliburton drivers and one soldier were killed and another driver kidnapped and later released.
By 2006, Brown had returned to the United States. Brown died at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston on December 26, 2006, nearly a month after he suffered burns in a fire at a vacant house he owned in Sugar Land, Texas.
He was 45 years of age.
