Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960–1962 and 1965, and then the full seasons of 1966 through 1969. He threw and batted right-handed and was listed as tall and . Johnson did not establish himself as a big-league regular until he was almost 31 years of age. He had trials with the Chicago Cubs (34 games played in 1960), Los Angeles Angels (only one appearance in 1961), and Milwaukee Braves (61 games in 1962). Only after he was summoned to the Los Angeles Dodgers from Triple-A Spokane, when the Dodgers lost regular outfielder Tommy Davis to a broken ankle on May 1, 1965, did Johnson earn a foothold in the major leagues. He became the Dodgers' regular left fielder during their 1965 world championship season, started over 60 games in both left and right fields in 1966 (during which the Dodgers captured their second straight National League pennant), and started another 85 games in the Dodger outfield in 1967. He remained in the majors for two more years as a reserve player, returning to the Cubs (1968) and Angels (1969) to bookend a stint with the Cleveland Indians (1968). He was employed by the Dodgers' Community Relations Department. Early life Johnson was born on September 22, 1934 in Lexington, Kentucky, to Sidney Bell and Shirley Johnson. He had three brothers and one sister. At Dunbar High School in Lexington, he played both basketball as well as baseball. Johnson desired to play basketball at the University of Kentucky under coach Adolph Rupp. However, at the time, not only were members of the Southeastern Conference (of which Kentucky is an affiliate) not recruiting black athletes, most of its universities were segregated. Early baseball career Johnson was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1953. After moving around from team to team in the minor leagues for about eight years, he made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1960. The Cubs traded Johnson to the Los Angeles Angels for Jim McAnany on April 1, 1961, and he played in 61 games for the 1962 Milwaukee Braves. However, after that, the Braves traded Johnson to the Detroit Tigers system, which sent him back to the