Roosevelt Brown

Roosevelt Lawayne Brown

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 200 lb.
• High School Vicksburg High School
• Debut May 18, 1999
• Final Game September 29, 2002
• Born August 3, 1975 in Vicksburg, MS USA

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Biographical Information

Roosevelt Brown played four years in the majors, ten years in the minors, and two years in Japan.

Brown was born in Vicksburg, MS, as was his cousin Ellis Burks plus contemporaries Dmitri Young and John Thomson; all four were in the majors during 1999 to 2002. He played baseball and football at Vicksburg High School. Both Brown and Thomson were picked in the 1993 amateur draft, Brown by the Atlanta Braves. Roosevelt hit only .113 in his first stint in the Rookie League but came back a second year to hit .331, and then hit .309 in 1995 in A ball. In mid-1996, he was traded to the Florida Marlins for Terry Pendleton. After 1997, he was drafted away from the Marlins' organization by the Chicago Cubs. Brown started to blossom in 1998 and 1999 in the Cubs' organization, playing for multiple teams each year and sometimes hitting well over .300 with some power. With AAA Iowa in 1999, he appeared in 74 games, hitting 22 home runs and slugging .713.

Although he continued to play in 2000 and 2001 for Iowa each year, Brown made his major league debut in 1999 and played some games in 2000 and 2001 with the Cubs. Finally, in 2002, he spent an entire season in the bigs, batting .211 in 111 games. Brown's most impressive major league season was 2000, when he appeared in 45 games, hitting .352 with a .538 slugging percentage. He had the second-highest OPS+ on the team, behind Sammy Sosa, whose 50 home runs led the National League. Roosevelt played for Orix in Japan in 2003 and 2004, and returned to play AAA ball in the Chicago White Sox organization in 2005, hitting over .300. His minor league career average was .300 and his minor league career slugging percentage was .501.

Brown was a coach for the Mississippi Braves in 2009.