John Christopher Brown

Chris Brown left this planet way too soon. A talent that flared brightly but shortly. He suffered burns in a house fire in a vacant house he owned on November 30, 2006 and passed away as a result of those injuries on December 26, 2006. Police have never determined whether it was a homicide, suicide or accident.

Chris Brown attended Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles where he was a high school teammate of Daryl Strawberry. He was drafted by the Giants in the second round in 1979 and made his major league debut with them on September 3, 1984 against the Cincinati Reds. He was named to the National League All Star Team in 1986. On July 7, 1987 he was traded along with Keith Comstock, Mark Davis and Mark Grant to San Diego for Dave Dravecky, Craig Lefferts and Kevin Mitchell. He spent the last half of the '86 season and all of the 1988 season in San Diego playing in 124 games, with 402 AB, hitting 8 home runs. On October 28, 1988 he was traded from San Diego with Keith Moreland for Walt Terrell. In June of 1989 he was signed as a free agent by the Pirates. He played his final game April 16, 1989. In 2004 he worked as a truck driver for Halliburton in Iraq, at one point being in a convoy during 2006 in which several drivers and a soldier were killed. I got the card signed sometime while Chris was with the Padres through the mail.