Major League Baseball Player. He played Major League baseball for seven seasons (1887 to 1891, 1893 to 1894), as a catcher, infielder, and outfielder with the New York Giants, Louisville Colonels, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Browns. Nicknamed "Big Bill" because of his 6' 2" 190-pound frame, and "California", because he hailed from San Francisco, he was the primary back-up to future Hall of Famer Buck Ewing in with the Giants. Known for his defensive ability and gamesmanship, he would often talk to batters when he was behind the plate in an effort to get them off their game. A favorite receiver of Giant pitchers Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch, he especially enjoyed using sarcasm to rattle the likes of the games top hitters, especially future Hall of Famer Mike “King” Kelly. While with the Giants, he appeared in two World Series, in 1888 versus the St. Louis Browns, and 1889 against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. Brown "jumped" to the New York Giants of the Players League in 1890 for better money, then when the Players League folded, joined the Philadelphia Phillies for the 1891 campaign. Playing 91 games at first base that season, he batted .278 with a career high four home runs and forty-three runs batted in. 1892 saw him head back to the minor leagues where he split time between the San Francisco Metropolitans and the Oakland Colonels of the California League. He made it back to the majors the next season when he caught on with the Baltimore Orioles. After appearing in just seven games with the Orioles, his contract was sold to the Louisville Colonels. It was with Louisville that he posted career highs in batting average .305, RBI 85, Hits 140, Runs 85, Walks 50 and Triples with 9. Despite his breakout season, he was supplanted the next year at first base by newcomer Luke Lutenberg. After appearing in just 13 games for the Colonels in 1894, his contract was bought by the St. Louis Browns, with whom he would appear in the final 3 games of his big league career. Contracting tuberculosis in 1895, he traveled to Arizona, Hawaii and southern California in an effort to find a climate that would be more beneficial to his condition, but his efforts proved to be fruitless. Even as his condition worsened, he held out hopes of returning to the majors. In an interview with the San Francisco Call a few months before his death, he proclaimed, "Don't count me out just yet, I'll be back, just you wait and see." He died at his home in San Francisco on the evening of December 20, 1897. Originally buried in Calvary Cemetery in San Francisco, his body was later removed to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma when the San Francisco City Council ordered a stop to all burials inside the San Francisco city limits and a relocation of all bodies within the Calvary Cemetery. In 418 major league games, William Brown accrued a lifetime .281 average with 6 home runs and 252 runs batted in in 1569 at-bats. In three World Series games he went 6 for 13 for a batting average of .462 with 1 home run and 2 runs batted in.