Sherwood Brewer

Nickname: Sherry or Woody
Died: April 23, 2003 in Chicago, Ill.

Sherwood Brewer who played second base in the Negro Leagues, died on April 23, 2003, at the age of 79 after a battle with cancer.

His playing career included the Seattle Steelheads, Harlem Globetrotters, New York Cubans and the Indianapolis Clowns. He played briefly in minor league baseball and returned to the Kansas City Monarchs. He appeared in the 1950 East-West All-Star Game. Brewer served in World War II and the Korean War.

His father died when Brewer was just 11 months old and he was raised by an aunt and uncle. According this his obituary, Brewer credited his uncle with getting him interested in the game of baseball. It was during his time in the army that his skills were noticed.

"I guess someone saw me. When I got out of service and back home, I had a lot of letters from different ball clubs," Brewer said, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in 1995.

He served briefly as the manager of the Monarchs.

In 1996, Brewer helped to organize the Yesterday's Negro League Baseball Players Foundation. He worked at the bakery at the University of Illinois until he retired in 1988.

Sources: Sherwood Brewer obituary.