3x3.75” glossy silver gelatin photograph. Residing in Santo Domingo within the Dominican Republic, the Leones Del Escogido baseball club was established in 1921. Leones are the third most successful team in the Dominican Professional Baseball League, behind Tigres del Licey and Aguilas Cibaenas, having won 17 national championships and five Caribbean Series. During the 1952 Dominican League season, Leones was able to attract two of the biggest former US Negro Leagues stars of the day, Howard Easterling and future National Baseball Hall of Famer, Willard Brown. Pictured on this incredibly rare treasure is none other than “Esse Hombre” (as he was affectionately nicknamed by adoring fans) being congratulated just after hitting a 385 foot home run (we know this as the photo comes w/card stock sheet it was once attached to that includes text strip paste on and ink stamp publication date of 5/11/1952). Brown was Negro League baseball’s premier home run hitter of the 1940s, joining the Kansas City Monarchs in 1935 and spending his entire NL career w/the team before wrapping things up in 1951. He was not only a prodigious slugger but also a swift baserunner as well as an excellent outfielder w/a tremendously strong arm. Brown’s Monarchs dominated the Negro American League from 1937-42, winning five pennants in six years. Concurrently, he would spend his winters playing ball in Puerto Rico, where he starred for the Santurce ball club throughout the 1940s. During the summer of 1947, he was given a chance to play in the Major Leagues along w/teammate Hank Thompson, both were signed by St. Louis Brown’s owner, Bill Veeck following Jackie Robinson’s MLB debut. Unfortunately, both Brown and Thompson struggled during their brief stint w/the Browns and both were given their unconditional releases. Thompson would get a second chance later w/the New York Giants but Brown was never given another MLB shot. Thus, the vast majority of baseball fans across the country would miss out on the opportunity to witness Brown’s tremendous talents, one of professional baseball’s greatest all-around players of the 1940s. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Back of photo has surface paper attached as once mounted. Front remains clean and glossy w/sharp image. Richard Merkin Collection.