[2] Often called "Home Run Brown" for making history as the first Black ballplayer to hit a home run in the American League, Brown's other nicknames included "Sonny", due to his preference for crowded Sunday games, and "Ese Hombre" ("That Man"), due to his offensive dominance playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

[2][3] For the Monarchs, Brown led the Negro American League in hits for eight seasons (1937–39, 1941–43, 1946, 1948) and runs batted in (RBI) seven times during his career.

Brown was a batboy in spring training for the Kansas City Monarchs, as the Negro league team held its workouts in Shreveport.

A rookie season of 56 games played with a .379 batting average, ten home runs, 81 hits, and 60 RBI (for which he led the latter three categories) proved to be the beginning of a career full of raw power.

In 1946 he would return to play for the Monarchs for another year, when everything changed Jackie Robinson broke the MLB's color barrier.

The Associated Press reported at the time that of all the Black players signed by MLB teams that season, "Outfielder Brown was considered to be the prize package of the lot, with only his age against him.

[14] Brown entered the baseball record books again on August 13, 1947, when he became the first African-American player to hit a home run in the American League: an inside-the-park homer off Detroit Tigers pitcher and future Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser.

[15] Brown's time in the MLB would be unfortunately brief - after two years spent enlisted in the U.S. Army during WWII, he wasn't able to match the physical prowess he had previously shown in the Negro Leagues and in Mexico and Puerto Rico during the winter off-seasons.

[15] That winter, Brown went to Puerto Rico and had one of his greatest seasons ever, batting .432 with 27 home runs and 86 RBI in just 60 games, winning the Triple Crown and earning the nickname Ese Hombre or "That Man".

He then won the Puerto Rican Winter League Triple Crown in the 1949–1950 season, and also hit for the cycle once in his career.

[citation needed] In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Brown as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army during World War II.