As a player, Brown was listed at 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and 156 pounds (71 kg); he threw right-handed.^[2] He played primarily as an outfielder and middle infielder.^[2] Note that minor league baseball records from the era that Brown was a player and manager are often incomplete.

Player edit

Brown's professional baseball career spanned 1900 to 1917, with gaps, and a final season in 1926.^[2] In 1900, he started his minor career with the Helena Senators,^[2] where he was teammates with Joe Tinker.^[3][4] Early career stops included Pendleton, Oregon; Portland, Oregon; and Aberdeen, Washington,^[2] where in 1904, where he was catcher, manager and ran a shoe store.^[3] His longest stay with a single team was with the Aberdeen Pippins of the Southwest Washington League during 1903–1905.^[2] Baseball records do not list him as playing professionally during 1908; he returned to play in 1909 with the Spokane Indians and in 1910 with the Vancouver Beavers.^[2] After not playing professionally during 1911–1914, he resumed playing with Vancouver in 1915 and 1916, and in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1917.^[2] Records also show him playing 34 games in the Southwestern League in 1926, when he was also manager of the team based in Ponca City, Oklahoma.^[2][5] Brown appeared in at least 666 minor league games as a player.^[2]

Manager edit

Brown was a manager for all or part of 14 seasons, as early as 1902 and as late as 1926.^[2] For many of those season, he was also a player. He first managed the Pendleton team in 1902, and then managed every season from 1904 through 1911, including four seasons in Aberdeen.^[2] After managing in Vancouver in 1910 and 1911, he did not manage for four seasons, then returned to manage in Vancouver during 1916, 1917, 1920, and 1922.^[2] His final season as a manager was 1926 with Ponca City, also his final season as a player.^[2]

Owner edit

Between the 1909 and 1910 seasons, Brown took over sixty percent ownership of the Vancouver Beavers for $500,^[3] moving to Canada to take on the role of the team's player-manager. While Brown owned the Beavers, manager Kitty Brashier guided the team to Northwestern League championships in 1911; the Beavers were also champions in 1913 and 1914, while the team was second in the league in 1912.^[3]

Brown also owned the Vancouver Beavers (later the Vancouver Capilanos).^[1] As a promoter, he organized the first night baseball game played in Canada, in 1930.^[1] Brown had built 5,000-seat^[3] Athletic Park on land leased from the Canadian Pacific Railway.^[1] The park opened 18 April 1913.^[1] The Beavers moved from Recreation Park that same year.^[3] He also initiated the building of Capilano Stadium,^{[citation needed]} a 5,157-seat baseball stadium which opened 1951 in Vancouver.

Brown retired as owner of the Capilanos in 1953, the year he became President of the Western International League, a post he held only one year.^[3] He was named honorary league president in 1954, and honorary president of the Vancouver Mounties in 1956.^[3]

Honours edit

In 1952, Sporting News named Brown one of the ten best general managers in baseball.^[3] In 1966, Brown was inducted as an inaugural member into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in the baseball category, ^[6] and in 1989 he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame as a builder.^[7] The Vancouver Canadians mascot is named “Bob Brown Bear” in honour of him.

Born on July 5, 1876, in Scranton, Pennsylvania,^[1][2] Brown attended the University of Notre Dame during the 1890s, where he played football with the Fighting Irish and won varsity letters in football and baseball.^[3] In 1898, he enlisted in the United States Army to fight in the Spanish–American War.^[3] He graduated from Notre Dame in 1900.^[3] Brown died on June 23, 1962, in St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver.^[3]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference (Minors)