The shortstop moved up to the Springfield Browns of the Class B Three-I League in 1939, and his 14 home runs and 80 RBIs in 119 games earned him a second late-season call-up to the big club.

The 21-year-old made his major league debut on September 16, 1939, and appeared in seven games, getting two hits — including a home run in Fenway Park off future Browns star Denny Galehouse[2] — in eleven at-bats.

Neighbors struggled to a .216 average and when World War II broke out he quit organized baseball to join the Army Air Corps.

He served with the 22nd Air Transport Training Detachment at Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he played baseball for the Sheppard Field Mechanics, a team that featured Dave Short of the Chicago White Sox, Ray Poole of the Philadelphia Athletics, Bill Gray of the Pacific Coast League's Hollywood Stars and future big-leaguer Ray Murray.

At war's end, Bob Neighbors decided against returning to professional baseball, remaining in the military, although he did manage and play for the Maxwell Field team.