Dave Brown (baseball) - League Change and Abrupt Career End

League Change and Abrupt Career End

For the 1923 season, Brown left Rube Foster's American Giants for the brand new Eastern Colored League. Foster voiced his displeasure, pointing out that Brown had been paroled to him and that he had promised Brown's mother to take care of him. He pointed out that the public would vilify him if he revoked. Brown posted a losing record in his first season with the New York Lincoln Giants but he and Charleston returned to Cuba the following winter and helped Santa Clara compile one of the best records in Cuban baseball history. His second season with the Lincoln Giants improved on the first and he defeated "Cannonball" Dick Redding and the Brooklyn Royal Giants to win the New York City championship.

Brown's career came to an abrupt end in 1925. He went to a bar one night with Frank Wickware and Oliver Marcelle. Marcelle was a third baseman with a reputation for trouble off the field. A fight erupted at the bar, possibly involving cocaine, and Brown killed one of the participants. Wickware and Marcelle were questioned the next day at the ballpark, but Brown had disappeared.