Dave Brown

stat1label = Win–loss record stat1value = 62–22 stat2label = Earned run average stat2value = 2.39 stat3label = Strikeouts stat3value = 492 teams = * Dallas Black Giants (–) Chicago American Giants (–) New York Lincoln Giants (–) Gilkerson's Union Giants highlights = * Negro National League ERA leader (1920) Eastern Colored League ERA leader (1924) Negro National League wins co-leader (1921)

Dave K. Brown (June 9, 1897 – May 24, 1985) was an American left-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. Considered one of the better pitchers in Negro league history, he was also known for serious off-the-field problems. His career came to a premature end when he became a fugitive after allegedly killing a man in 1925. According to his Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography, he was innocent of the crime and continued to play baseball under the alias "Lefty Wilson" before retiring and quietly living the rest of his life as "Alfred Basil Brown," dying in 1985.

Brown’s career winning percentage (62–22, ) and earned run average (2.39) is the best of any Negro Major League pitcher with at least 600 innings pitched

Early career Brown was born in Marquez, Texas. He was the ninth and final child to farm laborers Silas and Anna Brown. He was regarded as a "timid nice guy" who did not cause trouble, but during his time with the Black Giants, he was allegedly involved in a highway robbery. Although Brown was reported to have become a fugitive, Rube Foster agreed to pay $20,000 for Brown's parole, and he became a member of Foster's Chicago American Giants. However, this story may have been fabricated by Foster after Brown left the team.

Brown was the only pitcher from the 1921 team to return to the American Giants in 1922. His 13–3 record contributed to another pennant, and he remained in the league's top five in most major pitching statistics.

League change and career end Before the 1923 season, Brown left the American Giants for the New York Lincoln Giants of the newly formed Eastern Colored League. Foster voiced his displeasure, claiming that Brown had been paroled to him and that he had promised Brown's mother to take care of him. Foster asserted that the public would vilify Brown if he reneged on Foster's trust. and Brown's performance improved; he maintained a 2.06 ERA across 16 games.

In 1924, the Lincoln Giants took an early lead in the standings but fell to third place by the end of the season. Marcell was the team's third baseman and had a reputation for trouble off the field. the New York Evening Post mistakenly reported that it took place at 61 West 135th Street, which it described as Adair's residence. the number of shooters, the number of shots fired, (The New York Evening Post wrote that one man fired four shots.) and on May 16, the Baltimore Afro-American wrote that the police were unable to locate any of them. He pitched for teams in Wanda, Minnesota in 1927; Bertha, Minnesota in 1928; and Sioux City, Iowa in 1929, among others. In 1929, after he became the manager of the team in Sioux City, a newspaper reported that Wilson was a former pitcher for "the Chicago negro National league [sic] club," despite the American Giants having never fielded a pitcher by that name. When the Courier published a similar list in 1952, they included Brown on their second team.

On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball declared the Negro leagues, from the span of 1920–1948, to be "Major Leagues." and eleventh-lowest WHIP in major league history.