Public-domain card plateportrait
Dave Brown, 1923
Brown's left-handed file gets a card artifact, with the limits of the record still visible around it.
Small source at 254 by 386 pixels, readable as a card artifact.
Open Dave Brown, Lefty AceNegro Leagues (1918-1925, then under aliases)
Dave Brown
The early-'20s lefty whose record outran his record
Partially documented
For three seasons Brown was the best left-handed pitcher in Black baseball — the ace of a dominant Chicago American Giants staff. Then a 1925 killing he was tied to sent him underground, and the on-field record simply stops. The arm was elite; the documentation of how it worked is thin and got thinner the moment he disappeared.
What it was
An elite left-hander who anchored the Chicago American Giants in the early 1920s, leading the league in run prevention at his peak.
Reputable analysisDave Brown — SABR BioProject
Why it is lost
His career ended abruptly when he became a fugitive in 1925 and pitched only under aliases afterward; the biography records statistics and the disappearance, not pitch mechanics.
Reputable analysisDave Brown — SABR BioProject
The surviving record
Breakout season run prevention
In his 1920 breakout he led the league in earned-run average at 1.82 while going 13-3.
Reputable analysisDave Brown — SABR BioProject
Negro Leagues league totals are reconstructed from surviving box scores and carry season-to-season completeness gaps; treat the figures as the best available reconstruction.
Career cut short
His professional career effectively ended in 1925 when he went on the lam and later pitched semipro ball under the alias 'Lefty Wilson.'
Reputable analysisDave Brown — SABR BioProject
Every line here is what the recovered record can actually support, labeled by its source and its confidence. Where the legend says more than the record can prove, the gap is shown, not filled.