Aug. 23, 1947

[disgrig]

Today is the anniversary of the day the St Louis Browns' ended their experiment with integration in 1947. After a little less than six weeks, the Browns' management decided to release Willard Brown and Henry Thompson. The announcement came after the Browns lost at home to the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-0. Neither Brown nor Thompson appeared in the game. After being released, Thompson and Brown passed through waivers with no other American League team picking them up. At this point they were immediately re-signed by the Kansas City Monarchs. Thompson and Brown boarded a plane and flew to New York where they joined the Monarchs for a game at Yankee Stadium. A week later, on Aug. 29, Thompson and Brown were back at Sportsman's Park where the Monarchs beat the Memphis Red Sox, 6-0.
Thompson played second base for the Monarchs and was 1 for 4 at the plate with one run scored. Brown played centerfield and was 2 for 3 at the plate with a triple and a run scored.

Henry Thompson, of course, went on to have a few good years with the New York Giants in the 1950s. Willard Brown never played in the major leagues again after being released by the St Louis Browns but he recently made it to Cooperstown. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 based on his strong years in the Negro Leagues and Latin American winter leagues.

[metrotheme]

I read a bunch of Negro League books this summer, and one of them (might have been the book that was about Buck O'Neil's last summer) said that if Brown didn't play for a good team, that he wasn't too motivated to play (hence why alot of reports on him came off that he was lazy or didn't always go full throttle). I think he was used to playing in front of more fans w/ the Monarchs and playing on a better team. He knew that he had a bunch of hacks in front of him and I don't think he really busted his hump, nor did he get any sort of regular playing time. I think Brown was too good in the Negro and Latin leagues to have such a poor performance in the Majors (and I doubt it was the change in comeptition). I think his major league tenure's will be one of baseball's greatest enigma (especially because there are barely any living St Louis Browns players who were his teammates that year).

[disgrig]

Yes, I read the by Posnanski of the Kansas City Star on Buck O'Neil. He definitely made it sound like Brown was good enough to do better than his numbers with the Browns would lead you to believe. The bad thing was he and Hank Thompson did not get to play consistenly and for a long enough period of time to really prove themselves in the American League.

By the way, there are four living members of the 1947 Browns and at least one of them has said that Brown and Thompson weren't with the team long enough for him to get to know them well.