Brian Deon Barton was born April 25, 1982, in Los Angeles, California, to the proud parents of Derard Barton and Malisia Childress. He has two brothers and three sisters.

Barton began his baseball career at the young age of six, and joined his first organized team, the Cleveland Indians (also his first professional organization), at the age of eight with Sportsman Little League in Inglewood, California. A few years later, he played in the Reviving Baseball in Innercities (RBI) program and later returned in 2000 to help the Los Angeles based team defeat Puerto Rico to clinch the RBI World Series.

Barton attended Westchester Senior High School, where he lettered in three sports (baseball, football, and track). He earned conference co-MVP honors, and was a first team All-City selection and Daily Breeze first team selection in the South Bay. He attended Loyola Marymount University majoring in Aeronautical Engineering and lettering in baseball. After one year at Loyola, Barton transferred to the University of Miami helping them to two College World Series appearances while earning All College World Series honors in 2004. He majored in Aerospace Engineering at Miami and is one semester from completing his degree.

Barton was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a non-drafted free agent on August 9, 2004. During his three seasons in the Indians organization, he put up some productive numbers leading way to being selected in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 draft.
Barton made the Opening Day roster on March 31, 2008 and recorded his first major league hit (4/1/08) with a single to left off of Colorado Rockies pitcher Taylor Buchholz on the first pitch he saw. He later hit his first major league homerun (5/27/08), a solo shot, off of Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon. He later finished the 2008 season with a .268 batting average, 2 homeruns, and 13 RBI.

Barton was traded to the Atlanta Braves on April 20, 2009 for pitcher Blain Boyer.

He played the 2010 season with Bridgeport Bluefish And Newark Bears of the Atlantic League where he hit .368 to win the league batting title.

In his free time, Barton enjoys reading, writing (currently working on a book), putting together puzzles, fishing, and spending time with his family and friends. He considers these activities relaxing. However, his biggest passion is traveling where he has visited Ethiopia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Hawai'i, Canada, England, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, Peru,Taiwan and Venezuela. His goal is to visit every country in the world, then space.