It’s
about time I added “Downtown” Ollie Brown to the long-running
“Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread, and I threw a bit of a twist by
creating a 1973 edition while he was with the Oakland A’s:
Finding this image made me think it’d be fun to create the card while he
was with Oakland, definitely not a team he’s closely associated with.
Nevertheless, here it is, in all that green and gold glory.
Brown had his best MLB seasons behind him at this point, when he was one
of the first fan favorites for the expansion San Diego Padres from 1969
through 1972.
But his career wasn’t done yet as he would go on to play through the
1977 season, finishing up his 13-year Big League career with a .265
batting average along with 102 homers, 454 runs batted in and 964 hits
over 1221 games between 1965 and 1977.
It’s amazing to realize that he retired at the age of only 33. For me it
seemed like by the time he was with the Philadelphia Phillies at the
end of his career he was pushing 40!
Time
to go and give “Downtown” Ollie Brown a “career-capping” 1978 card to
celebrate his 13-year Big League career that spanned 1965 and 1977:
Brown finished up his time in the Big Leagues with 53 games with the
Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he played the last three-and-a-half
seasons after coming over from the Houston Astros in 1974.
During the 1977 season he hit .243 with 17 hits over 70 at-bats, while
driving in 13 runs while generally playing left field for the Phillies.
Brown was one of the San Diego Padres first stars, hitting 43 home runs during their first two seasons in 1969 and 1970.
His finest season is easily 1970 when he hit 23 of those homers, along
with 89 runs batted in and a .292 batting average and 34 doubles, all
career-highs.
By the time he retired after the 1977 season, he ended up with a .265
batting average, with 964 hits in 3642 at-bats in 1221 games, with 102
home runs and 454 RBIs.
Been a little while since I created a “Baseball Brothers” card, so here’s a 1971 card of Ollie and Oscar Brown:
Ollie, aka “Downtown” Ollie Brown, was perhaps the first star of the San
Diego Padres, as he hit 20 homers with 61 runs batted in in their
inaugural season of 1969.
He’d put together a nice 13-year Major League career spanning 1965 and
1977, hitting 102 homers with a .265 batting average playing for six
teams: San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Milwaukee, Houston and
Philadelphia.
Younger brother Oscar however, would play for a brief five seasons,
between 1969 and 1973, all for the Atlanta Braves, never really getting
close to full-time action.
He’d finish his career hitting .244 with 77 hits over 316 at-bats in 160
appearances as a Major League outfielder, never playing more than 76
games in any one season, that being in 1972.
I’ll start up this thread again, though it’s tougher to find images of
the lesser-known brother sets from the Majors from this time period.
We’ll see how lucky I get.
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