Obituary: Larry Brown (1940-2024)

RIP to Larry Brown, an everyday infielder for Cleveland in the 1960s. He died in Florida on April 13 at the age of 84. He had been battling vascular dementia after suffering a series of strokes, according to his family-placed obituary. Brown played for the Cleveland Indians (1963-71), Oakland Athletics (1971-72), Baltimore Orioles (1973) and Texas Rangers (1974).

Larry Leslie Brown was born in Shinnston, WV, on March 1, 1940, but the family moved to Florida when he was young. His father, a coal miner, moved the family south for the health of his wife, Dora, who was suffering from the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. Florida proved to be an ideal place for a couple of young ballplayers like Larry and his brother Dick Brown. Dick, who was older by 5 years, would reach the majors as a catcher for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, Detroit and Baltimore before his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1970, at the age of 35. Larry Brown was coming into his own as a high school pitcher/shortstop and basketball player about the time Dick was moving into the high minors. As a senior for Lake Worth High in 1958, Larry Brown struck out 12 batters and threw a 1-hitter against defending Suncoast Conference champions Pompano Beach. He also batted .389 and caught the attention of pro scouts. Cleveland scout Mike McNally signed Brown in 1958, as Dick was completing his second season as a Cleveland catcher. They never got to be major-league teammates, though. By the time Larry reached the majors in 1963, Dick was playing for the Orioles.

Source: *The Monroe News-Star*, May 5, 1966.

Larry Brown stayed close to his Florida home for a few years, playing for the Cocoa Indians of the Florida State League in 1958 and the Selma Cloverleafs of the Alabama-Florida League in 1959. He was a steady hitter with an even .300 batting average in 1959, showed a little speed with 10 stolen bases in ’59 and made strides as a shortstop. Though he was 5’10” and just 160 pounds, he had a little pop in his bat, too. He was moved up to Reading of the Eastern League in 1960 and hit 15 home runs, though his batting average tailed off to .236. Brown solved Class-A pitching and hit .299 in a half-season with Reading in 1961 and was promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake City. He hit just .215 there, but another year-and-a-half spent at Triple-A Jacksonville in 1962 and ’63 shows he could make adjustments. More importantly, his defense kept improving as he moved up Cleveland’s organizational ranks. He spent time at second base and shortstop at Jacksonville and fielded well at both positions. The 1963 Indians were hit by a rash of injuries that cost them shortstop Dick Howser and second baseman Woodie Held, and Brown was called to the majors to help fill the holes.

Brown debuted as a pinch-hitter against New York Yankees pitcher Al Downing on July 6, 1963. He struck out — one of 14 K’s the Yankees pitcher had that day. However, Brown remained in the game at second base and later singled off Downing. He also drew a walk and scored on a Miguel de la Hoz home run. Brown stayed in the lineup as a middle infielder for the rest of the year. The team had not had much production from its starting shortstops, including Howser and Jerry Kindall, but Brown could hit for a fair average and field well. His first career home run, on July 31 against the Los Angeles Angels, was a historic blast. Angels pitcher Paul Foytack had just given up home runs to Held, Pedro Ramos and Tito Francona, and he threw what he said was supposed to be a brushback pitch to the rookie shortstop. Instead, it came right down the middle of the plate, and Brown hit Cleveland’s fourth consecutive home run. “It shows you I didn’t know where my pitchers were going,” Foytack said. It was the first time an American League pitcher had surrendered back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers.

Brown played in 74 major-league games in his rookie season and had a .255/.316/.340 slash line, with 5 home runs. Cleveland played Baltimore on September 6, and the Brown brothers appeared in the same game for the first time. Dick was the starting catcher for Baltimore, and Larry pinch-hit and played second base. Cleveland’s Brown moved to second base in 1964, teaming up with shortstop Howser, also a West Floridian, at shortstop. Brown’s batting average dropped to .230, but he reached career highs in home runs with 12 and RBIs with 40. A change by batting coach Al Rosen may have helped account for some of the power. He had Brown bat in a crouch, because the infielder had trouble hitting high pitches while batting more upright. If he was crouching, those high pitches would go for balls, and Brown could attack the low pitches. “Actually, I feel more comfortable in the crouch, and I see the ball better,” he said. “I expect to be called out a few times until the umpires get used to my new strike zone.”

Starting in 1965, Brown began to see most of his time at shortstop. Statistically speaking, he had his best season in 1965, when he slashed .253/.315/.268, hit 8 home runs, drove in 40 and had a career-high 22 doubles and 52 runs scored. His OPS+ of 93 was his best mark for a full season. After that, Brown’s batting average dipped into the .230s and .220s for several seasons. The fact that Brown was able to play at all was remarkable, after a serious incident on May 4, 1966. Roger Maris of the Yankees had lofted a fly ball down the left field line. Brown and left fielder Leon Wagner took off running, and neither one could hear the other with the ball being so close to the crowd. The two Indians slammed into each other, with the ball dropping for a double. Wagner, who outweighed Brown by 40 pounds, broke his nose and missed a couple of games, but Brown suffered a fractured skull, nose and cheekbone. The Cleveland trainer had to pry his mouth open to keep Brown from choking on the blood, and he was hospitalized in New York in intensive care.

Cleveland players and medical staff tend to Larry Brown (left), while umpire Nestor Chylak checks Leon Wagner (right) following the collision between the two players. Source: *The Daily Herald*, May 5, 1966.

“I saw Brown. It didn’t look like he could catch it so I put on a burst of speed,” Wagner explained. “When the ball went up I knew it had to be caught. It was one of those split-second plays that you can’t call a man off on… I thought I just brushed Brownie. I thought he was just shook up until I saw the blood.” Cleveland manager Birdie Tebbetts absolved both players of wrongdoing. “They were running toward the stands and the people were screaming. You couldn’t hear anybody,” he said. To make matters worse for the Brown family, the injury came six weeks after Dick Brown underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor that had affected his vision and ended his playing career.

Miraculously, Larry Brown missed only about five weeks with the injury and was back in the lineup on June 16. He was hitting in the .260s before getting hurt, and he never got back to that mark. He ended 1966 with a .229 batting average. Future batting coaches and managers, including Rosen and Joe Adcock, kept tinkering with Brown to improve his hitting, including giving him a longer bat and changing his grip. “I’ll stand on my head if someone thinks it will help,” Brown said. Cleveland manager Al Dark looked for replacements for Brown, and management brought in veteran Zoilo Versalles to challenge Brown for the shortstop job in 1969, Brown out-hit him, .239 to .226, but his role was reduced to a utility player in 1970. He hit .258 in 72 games as a backup second baseman, shortstop and third baseman. Cleveland management and Brown got into a disagreement over his salary in 1971, but he started the season as the starting shortstop in spite of the enmity between him and Cleveland’s brass. Thirteen games into the season, Brown was batting .220, and the Indians sold his contract to the Oakland A’s for a reported $100,000.

Playing for Oakland was a definite upgrade. Brown liked manager Dick Williams, was amazed by rookie phenom Vida Blue and felt the team had the chance to win a championship. “I honestly feel sorry for the guys,” Brown said of his former Cleveland teammates. “I’ve got a lot of friends on that team.” Brown accepted his role as backup to shortstop Bert Campaneris and hit .196 coming off the A’s bench. Oakland finished in first place in the AL West but was swept in the 3-game AL Championship Series by Baltimore. Brown made his only postseason appearance in Game Two, playing an inning at third base. The A’s won the first of three straight World Series in 1972, but Brown was only a bystander. He had taken over the role of starting second baseman after Dick Green was sidelined with surgery for a herniated disc in April, but then he was diagnosed with two herniated discs in June. Rather than undergo surgery, he was injected with an enzyme called chymopapain that shrinks and strengthens the disc. It was a radical treatment at the time, and Brown was hoping the treatment would lead to a quicker recovery so he could get back on the field. He did not play for the A’s again and ended his 1972 season with a .183 batting average in 47 games. (The sale of chymopapain was discontinued in 2003.)

Brown learned the downside of playing for A’s owner Charlie Finley in the offseason. He received his championship ring in the mail, only the diamond in the center was a “replica” of the stone that the other players got. “I had to call Charlie on that. He said the rings were for the players competing in the World Series,” Brown told The Evening Sun columnist Phil Jackman. “I was voted a full Series share, but Charlie said that was the players’ doing, not his. Then he said something about looking a gift horse in the mouth. That really got me. He had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain to him it didn’t matter to me whether it was a million dollars or a Coke bottle involved. I wanted what the others got. I was a member of that team, a championship team… ‘Too bad Mr. Brown. Good-bye,’ was the way the call ended. Whew, what a guy.”

Brown (#16) gets back to first base while Twins first baseman Harmon Killebrew looks for the pickoff throw. Source: *Chillicothe Gazette*, June 7, 1967.

Oakland released Brown in December 1972, and he signed with Baltimore as a free agent. He made the 1973 Orioles, but when the infield positions are occupied by Bobby Grich, Mark Belanger and Brooks Robinson, your chances to play are going to be few and far between. The 33-year-old Brown played in 17 games and had 7 hits in 28 at-bats for a .250 batting average and 4 runs scored. One of Brown’s rare starts came in the second game of a May 13 doubleheader against New York; he had 2 hits, including a 2-run homer off Lindy McDaniel, and scored twice. He became a free agent again and signed with the Texas Rangers in 1974. In 54 games, mostly as a backup third baseman and pinch-hitter, Brown batted .197 in his final season in the majors. During his time with the Rangers, there was another scary collision between fielders. This time, Brown was merely an eyewitness at third base, as Lenny Randle and Dave Nelson slammed into each other. “Baseball is supposed to be a non-contact sport. You’re only supposed to pick up an occasional bruise here and there,” he said. “But guys can get hurt bad. I was in what amounted to a coma three days after my accident, and I’m lucky to be alive.”

Brown retired after the 1974 season. In 12 years in the majors, he slashed .233/.300/.313, and his 803 hits included 108 doubles, 13 triples and 47 home runs. Brown scored 331 times and drove in 254 runs. He had a .964 fielding percentage at shortstop, as well as .976 at second base and .944 at third base. Baseball Reference credits him with 6.9 Wins Above Replacement.

Brown and his wife, Leni, founded a business called Sun Shader Hats after his retirement. It was a patented visor design that was sold across the country. After Brown sold that business, he worked as a driver for a medical company. He and Leni were active into their 70s, but when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he devoted himself to being her caregiver. Brown is survived by Leni, their daughters Laurie, Leslie and Leigh, and their families.