Posted on 12/28/2006 12:12:57 AM PST by Rte66
HOUSTON -- Former major league third baseman Chris Brown died Tuesday, nearly a month after he apparently was burned in a fire at his home outside Houston.
Brown, 45, died at 1:15 a.m. CDT at Memorial Hermann Hospital.
Authorities say their investigation is continuing into the circumstances surrounding the house fire and how Brown was burned.
(Excerpt) Read more at click2houston.com ...
Their reporter stated that no one was in or near the home when it burned. Neighbors said it had been vacant for months. Brown and his wife had moved into it last year.
No one seems to know how Brown received his burn injuries or how he got to a hospital 9 miles away, just after the fire was reported and firemen arrived on the scene.
Neighbors told the reporter that Brown's wife had been living there and they had all been worried for her when the fire happened, thinking she and children were inside.
Later, it came out that the couple had just separated and that his wife lives elsewhere, but nearby in the same Sugar Land subdivision. Reporter was unable to reach her for comments.
Reporter also said that the home was in foreclosure and there was a divorce pending.
Brown was working for Halliburton in Iraq and had returned home this summer. Because he was so badly burned from the time he arrived at the hospital, no one was able to question him about where or how he had received the injuries or how he got to the hospital.
Seems like quite a mystery - possibly arson with an unknown accomplice?
Another excerpt:
" ... Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the Sugar Land police and fire departments, said arson is suspected, but that the fire remains under investigation.
Firefighters arrived about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 30 at the home Brown owned in Sugar Land and found it "fully engulfed" in flames, Adolph said. Firefighters found no people or furniture inside, he said, and neighbors told authorities no one had lived there for some time.
Adolph said officials at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital told the Sugar Land fire department later that morning that Brown was there being treated for burns he suffered in a fire at his house. How Brown got from the burning house to the hospital about 9 miles away is part of the ongoing investigation, Adolph said. ... "
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4429711.html
" ... Brown, who played for the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers from 1984 to 1989, was born John Christopher Brown in Jackson, Miss. He graduated from high school in Los Angeles, where he played on the same team as former major league star Darryl Strawberry.
He was drafted by the Giants in 1979 and came to the major leagues in 1984. His major league career batting average was .269.
While he was praised as having a lot of talent, teammates and opponents alike called him the "Tin Man" because, like the character in The Wizard of Oz, he had no heart, they said.
An online biography said that, between 1984 and 1988, he missed more than 250 games for ailments such as a hurt shoulder and a bruised tooth.
He led the Giants in hitting in both 1985 and 1986. In 1986 he had a .317 average and played in the All-Star Game in Houston, but his career was marred by a reputation for being moody.
He was traded to the Padres in 1987. The next year he was traded to Detroit.
In recent years he lived in Houston and, according to another biography, drove an 18-wheeler, delivering diesel fuel in Iraq for a private contractor.
A spokeswoman for the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office said the cause of death remains under investigation. ... "
[From another article, different source:]
" ... Brown played with the Giants, Padres and Tigers. Brown made the NL All-Star team in 1986, when he hit .317 with seven homers and 49 RBIs for San Francisco.
A few years ago, Brown took a job with Halliburton Co. and ended up in Iraq driving, inspecting and repairing 18-wheel fuel trucks. He said he'd faced enemy fire several times. "It's a place I would've never thought 20 years ago that I'd be," Brown said. ..."
[And from the link at KPRC]
" ... Brown underwent shoulder surgery after the '86 season and his statistics tapered off. He hit .242 in the first half of the 1987 season and the Giants traded him to the Padres. He batted .235 with only two homers in 1988 and the Padres dealt him to Detroit. He appeared in only 17 games with the Tigers in 1989 and batted .193 before he was released. He never returned to baseball.
Brown is the second member of the mid-1980s Giants infield to die this month. Jose Uribe played shortstop for the team from 1985-1992. He died in a Dec. 8 car crash in the Dominican Republic. He was 47. ..."
>>>Just seems like a very strange story.
I would liked to have missed this.
Houston PING
There was a FReeoer in this area and a lobbyist for city council who both died of mysterious circumstances (the lobbyist was shot in the head and later the fire chief changed his decision from accident to arson, the FReeper posted minutes before he died).
This athlete is getting much more press than the 2 of them combined.
Not in any way an insult but I would like to know why the police felt they had to "protect" OJ the night that Nicole Brown was killed.
I do not doubt that OJ had a hand in his wife's death. But the police response was to go to OJ's house to protect him from some unknown attacker who'd just killed his wife.
Also know that news reports suck. If you've ever been at the scene of an event you will realize how much they get wrong or blow out of proportion.
Mohamed Atta played the "Golden Tee Golf pinball" game the night before the 9-11 attacks.
Don't rely on the media for hard facts. You can cross-reference reports but that doesn't mean that nay of them are genuine.
I remember the FReeper fire, but not the outcome. I think that was in Pasadena, not Sugar Land, tho. The other I'm not familiar with.
Are you sure it was Friendswood? I would've remembered that. I know they kept saying "SE Houston" or "South Houston" so I thought that's where it was, the city of South Houston, which is part of Pasadena.
I was just a lurker here then, so all I knew was what was posted.
There has always been this lack of knowledge by the MSM in Houston that can't seem to generalize a location accurately enoung to report these types of things...
And when they give a S.E. Houston location, and then go on to give a general address, it winds up being on the other side of town...
I'd just be happy if they could at least narrow it down to North, South, East or West Houston...With the dividing point, or central datum point, being the conjunction of I-45 and I-10...
This strikes me as having a high possibility of being self-inflicted. I am sure they are looking into that.
I saw the street address in the old threads - it's right where I thought it was by the street name, generally in the Sageglen area off the Gulf Fwy at Bellfort, north of Hobby. Nice area near that big Baptist church.
I'm right around the corner from that big Baptist church...
And the Bellfort/Gulf Freeway area is wayyyyy north of us...Hobby Airport is just north of us as well...
But...That "is" in the Southeast area of Houston/Harris County...
That's what I'm thinking, too - except that someone had to drive him to the hospital, so he wasn't alone.
If he was unable to speak, that someone must have gone in to the ER and told the hospital people that it happened in a fire "at his home," because that's what they said from the beginning.
The mystery is whether a neighbor found him that way or his wife was somehow in the vicinity or if he had a "buddy" with him, or a new "flame" or something, who might have been helping him.
Now that he has died, maybe that person will come forward, if they were a Good Samaritan bystander or "just a witness."
Is it Sagemont or something like that? I was speaking generally of what I have seen from the freeway. I thought the church was on my right as I got off the South Loop going onto the Gulf Fwy. from the west.
I still don't know if it's South Houston or not, but it's on this side (west side) of I-45, anyway, so probably isn't. Sorry I was generalizing visually from memory, but had looked it up mapwise.
Yep, Friendswood/Scardale is just south of us...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.