#468 Larry Brown - Cleveland Indians

Larry Leslie Brown
Cleveland Indians
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  160
Born:  March 1, 1940, Shinnston, WV
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1963-1971; Oakland Athletics 1971-1972; Baltimore Orioles 1973; Texas Rangers 1974

Larry Brown was a steady-fielding, light-hitting middle infielder for parts of 12 seasons with four different American League teams.  Most of his career was spent with the Indians, where he was a regular at shortstop in 1967 and 1968.  Brown was a career .233 batter and enjoyed his best seasons at the plate in 1965 (.253 average, 22 doubles) and 1968 (.234 average, career-high 116 hits).  He suffered a scary injury on May 4, 1966, colliding with teammate Leon Wagner (#367) on a play and suffering a skull fracture.  Brown missed six weeks of the season while recovering.  

A semi-regular with the Indians throughout the 1960s, he ultimately lost his starting job in early 1970 when Jack Heidemann took over as the team's regular shortstop.  Brown was sold to the Athletics the following season, and he'd play four seasons as a back-up infielder or pinch-hitter with the Athletics, Orioles and Rangers.  He retired following the 1974 season.  In 1,129 career games, Brown collected 803 hits and had 47 home runs with 254 RBIs.

Building the Set
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards, Babylon, NY) - Card #450
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show.  If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May.  If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July.  Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time.  I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.

After securing Doug's Jim Thome autograph, I returned to Uncle Dick's and their neon green shirts, pulled up a chair, and settled in.  Over the course of 45 minutes or so, I found 79 cards needed for our set, including this Brown card which was a little less than $4 after the dealer discount.  I was surrounded by six or seven other seated collectors, all who looked similar to me, with a touch of gray, focused on their individual quests.  I wiped out Uncle Dick's two 1965 Topps commons binders, paid for my haul and then retreated to a table with Doug to update our checklist.

The Card / Indians Team Set
That's Brown's #16 slightly visible on the back of his Indians jersey, and he's standing in foul territory here in Yankee Stadium.  With the Indians now known as the Guardians entering the 2022 baseball season, cartoons like the one of the back of this card are now a reminder of what was considered acceptable almost 60 years ago.

Brown's older brother Dick is referenced on the back too.  Dick Brown was a catcher for the Indians (1957-1959), White Sox (1960), Tigers (1961-1962) and Orioles (1963-1965).   The elder Brown, at the time a scout for the Orioles, tragically passed away in April 1970 at the age of 35 from a brain tumor.  He appeared in his sixth and final Topps flagship set in 1963.

1965 Season
Brown was the opening day second baseman for the Indians, with Dick Howser (#92) as his double play parter to start the season.  Injuries to Howser forced Brown to move to shortstop, with Pedro Gonzalez (#97) taking over at second base.  Brown appeared in 124 games overall, making 92 starts at shortstop and 20 starts at second base.  As mentioned above, this was to be one of his better seasons, as he batted .253 with 22 doubles, eight home runs and 40 RBIs.  The RBI total matched his career-high set the season before.

He had been batting .285 in early September when his daughter was injured in a car accident.  Although she recovered fully, his focus was understandably elsewhere, causing his average to dip over 30 points by the end of the season.  In his final 25 games, Brown batted just .138 (13 for 94).

1964 Topps #301

1966 Topps #16

1968 Topps #197

1970 Topps #391

1972 Topps #279

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1964 Topps #301
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1964-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1981 TCMA The 1960s II #416

53 - Brown non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/19/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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