Chris Brown (baseball player)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Brown (born John Christopher Brown on August 15, 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi) was a Major League Baseball player during the 1980s.

Brown was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 2nd round (44th overall) during the 1979 amateur draft. After a steady climb through the Giants minor league system, Brown made his major league debut for them in 1984 as a September call-up and quickly entrenched himself as their starting 3rd Baseman. In his first full season in 1985, Brown batted .261/.345/.442, made the All-Rookie team, and finished 4th for the NL Rookie of the Year. In 1986 Brown batted .317/.376/.421 and made the All-Star team.

But things began to sour at the end of that season for Brown, whose reputation for malingering had preceded him. At the end of 1986 he complained of shoulder soreness, and when initial exams turned up no serious injury, teammates and the media accused him of bailing out. That offseason, an examination by Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles discovered that there was indeed a serious problem and surgery was performed that winter.

The following season, Brown hit a paltry .237/.299/.394 and the Giants sent Brown packing along with Keith Comstock, Mark Davis, and Mark Grant in a blockbuster midseason trade to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, and Craig Lefferts.

After a mostly unspectacular season and a half in San Diego, Brown was dealt to the Detroit Tigers and was out of baseball by 1990 at the age of 28.

Brown is famous for missing a game after complaining that he "slept on his eye wrong."

Brown is a notable graduate of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, California, where he played high school baseball with Darryl Strawberry. The 1979 Crenshaw High Cougars baseball team was the subject of Michael Sokolove's The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw.

[edit] Life After Baseball

Chris Brown currently resides in Houston, Texas with his wife Lisa and their 2 children.

As of 2004, Brown is in Iraq driving an 18- wheel truck delivering diesel fuel for a private company (Halliburton). He has been under fire on numerous occasions, including being in a convoy that was attacked on April 9, 2004 in which six Halliburton drivers and one soldier were killed and another driver kidnapped and later released.