Background
Brown was born in Somersville, California, a mining town near San Francisco. His father Patrick was the local saloon keeper.
( A facsimile reproduction of the 1952 history of the Whi...)
A facsimile reproduction of the 1952 history of the White Sox Warren Brown’s team history of the Chicago White Sox originally appeared in 1952 as part of the celebrated series of major league team histories published by G. P. Putnam. With their colorful prose and delightful narratives, the Putnam books have been described as the Cadillac of team histories and have become prized collectibles for baseball readers and historians. In telling the story of the White Sox, Warren Brown recounts the almost incredible adventures of “the Hitless Wonders” who stole the pennant in 1906 with a team batting average of only .228. Among the many stories is an account of a round-the-world exhibition tour that Charles Comiskey’s White Sox and John McGraw’s Giants made in 1913. The climax of the tour came when the two clubs played before George V of England, who, after an White Sox rally had been nipped by a pop-up to the Giants’ third baseman, turned to his interpreter and remarked, “A most useful catch, was it not?” But it is the infamous team of 1919 that is the author’s major focus. This team was an overwhelming favorite to win the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, but eight White Sox players accepted bribes from gamblers to fix the Series. The players were eventually banned from baseball and branded by history as the notorious Black Sox.
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Brown was born in Somersville, California, a mining town near San Francisco. His father Patrick was the local saloon keeper.
Brown attended Saint Ignatius College (later renamed The University of San Francisco) for his prep school as well as university years.
When the Somersville mines flooded, the family moved to San Francisco, where Brown was a firsthand witness to the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. During his college years Brown played baseball for the Sacramento minor league team in the summers. After getting his undergraduate degree he began his sportswriting career with the San Francisco Bulletin.
After serving in United States. Army intelligence stateside during World War I, Brown returned to the Bulletin, but soon moved to William Randolph Hearst"s San Francisco Call & Post.
Brown was one of the first sportswriters to hail a local boxer named Jack Dempsey. He also doubled as the paper"s drama critic, specializing in vaudeville and musical comedy.
In the early 1920s Brown was transferred to the Hearst paper in New York for a year. That is where he hired a young sportswriter named Editor Sullivan, who went on to be a society columnist and then a mid-century American icon with his television variety show.
Starting in 1920, Brown saw every World Series for fifty years.
Brown"s final move was to Chicago to be the sports editor of Hearsts Chicago Herald-Examiner. He was a sports editor, columnist and baseball beat writer (usually at the same time) for several Chicago papers over the next 40 years. Mr. Brown was a friend and confidant of legendary University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.
Mr.
Brown and former Notre Dame running back Marchy Schwartz had dinner with Mr. Rockne in Chicago the night before his ill fated plane crash. He wrote Rockne"s biography in 1931.
Long credited to Grantland Rice, Mr.
Brown was actually the person that coined the nickname for fabled Illinois running back Red Grange. He wrote a column describing Grange"s running style and said he was like a "Galloping Ghost." The nickname is one of the most famous in sports annals.
Mr. Brown also coined the nickname "The Sultan of Swat" for legendary baseball icon Babe Ruth.
As a beat writer and columnist he was known for his acerbic wit and breezy reporting style. Following the 1945 World Series, he wrote a history of the Chicago Cubs as part of the Putnam series of books that covered all the major league baseball teams.
lieutenant was sufficiently well-received that The Chicago Cubs is one book in that series that has been periodically re-issued. lieutenant was a collection of anecdotes about celebrated figures in sports Brown had crossed paths with in his first 30 years as a sportswriter.
In 1973 Brown was given the J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mr. Brown"s three sons were all athletes at the University of Notre Dame. Sons Bill and Pete were swimmers while youngest son Roger was a backup quarterback for the Fighting Irish on the 1946 and 1947 National Championship teams.
Mr. Brown also had a daughter Mary Elizabeth Rempe (née Brown).
( A facsimile reproduction of the 1952 history of the Whi...)