Marshall Phillip "Mark" Brownson III (June 17, 1975 – February 1, 2017) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

, who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) for the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

(1998–1999) and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

(2000).

Career

Brownson was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 30th round (856th overall) of the 1993 Major League Baseball draft, out of Wellington High School. He spent one semester at

Palm Beach State College Palm Beach State College is a public college in Lake Worth, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. Palm Beach State College enrolls nearly 25,000 students in over 100 programs of study including bachelor of applied science, associat ...

. Brownson made his big league debut on July 21, 1998, hurling a 4- hit,

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

, against the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

. , his

game score Game score is a metric devised by Bill James as a rough overall gauge of a starting pitcher's performance in a baseball game. It is designed such that scores tend to range from 0–100, with an average performance being around 50 points. F ...

of 85 is the highest by any

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

debutant pitcher in the Wild Card Era. Unfortunately, he struggled throughout the remainder of his short MLB career, compiling an 8.54

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) in the 10 games after his magical debut. Brownson pitched in his 11th and final major league game on July 20, 2000, just a short time after his 25th birthday. Brownson had pitched through a torn labrum during the 2000 season and required surgery after the season, from which he never fully recovered.

Personal and death

Mark Brownson was born in

Lake Worth Beach, Florida Lake Worth Beach, previously named Lake Worth, is a city in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located about north of Miami. The city's name is derived from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Wort ...

. He was married with two daughters, Madisyn and Aliah. According to his wife, he struggled to adjust to life after baseball. Brownson developed a dependence on painkillers related to nagging arm injuries which eventually developed into a

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

problem. The couple divorced in 2012, after which Brownson spent time homeless in Florida. After Brownson retired from baseball, he and his wife opened a pool cleaning business in Florida, before relocating the business to Arizona. Brownson died on February 1, 2017, aged 41. He was predeceased by his brother Travis and survived by his mother Ginny Brownson and father Jack Brownson.

References

External links

MLB Players Alumni Association Necrology
December 19, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brownson, Mark 1975 births 2017 deaths Atlantic City Surf players Bridgeport Bluefish players Colorado Rockies players American homeless people Major League Baseball pitchers Sportspeople from Lake Worth Beach, Florida Baseball players from Palm Beach County, Florida Philadelphia Phillies players Asheville Tourists players Arizona League Rockies players Bowie Baysox players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Huntsville Stars players New Haven Ravens players Pawtucket Red Sox players Salem Avalanche players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players