Mordecai Brown
| Birthdate | 10/19/1876 |
| Death Date | 2/14/1948 |
| Debut Year | 1903 |
| Year of Induction | 1949 |
| Teams | Cubs, Federal League, Reds |
| Position | Pitcher |
Hall of Fame pitcher Mordecai Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand in a farming accident in 1888 – this helped his curveball grip.
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Three days before he took the commissionership, Judge Landis praises Mordecai Brown
Three days before he took the commissionership, Judge Landis praises Mordecai Brown
The big league careers of Mordecai Brown, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson overlapped for a decade of dominance from 1907-1916. During that time the trio combined for twenty 20-win seasons, three 30-win campaigns and 625 wins. At least one of them appeared in seven of the ten Fall Classics.
They were among the pitching backbone of the Deadball Era that lasted from the inception of the American League in 1901 and ended with the banning of the spitball and the emergence of Babe Ruth in 1920.
The end of the Deaball Era also coincided with the beginning of the Office of the Commissioner. The first man to hold the position was Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Shown here is a letter written by Landis just three days before he took the job. In it Landis praises the aforementioned pitching trio.
Landis first mentions The Big Train and The Christian Gentleman before writing about Brown.
“Walter Johnson is one of the outstanding characters of the game. You can’t think of it without thinking of him,” Landis writes in the second paragraph. Appointed as a federal district court judge by President Teddy Roosevelt, Landis continues, “Men like he (Johnson), Mathison (sic), and Old Mordecai Brown, and a host of others, made a real contribution to our society.”
Though Landis letters are plentiful due to his position as commissioner, early letters with such outstanding baseball content are quite difficult to come by.
Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown went 49-15 during the Cubs back-to-back championship seasons
Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown went 49-15 during the Cubs back-to-back championship seasons
Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown was the star pitcher for the back-to-back World Champion Chicago Cubs of 1907-1908 going 49-15. For an eight-year period from 1904-1911 he averaged more than 22 wins per season.
Shown here is Brown’s hunting and fishing license from 1938, issued by the state of Indiana. The next image shows the reverse of the license where the Hall of Famer penned his name.
Three Finger Brown 1876-1948 presents a challenge to autograph collectors; here's his signature
Three Finger Brown 1876-1948 presents a challenge to autograph collectors; here's his signature
Brown’s autograph is relatively difficult to obtain as he died in 1948, one year before his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here a 61-year old Brown signs the back of his fishing license.
Brown’s pitching career started in semipro baseball when the team’s pitcher failed to show up. The team asked Brown, then a third baseman to take the hill. Making his Major League debut in 1903 at age 26, Brown pitched until 1916 throwing his last pitch 45 days shy of his 40th birthday.
This T205 baseball card of Mordecai Brown is from 1911 when he won 21 and saved 13 more
This T205 baseball card of Mordecai Brown is from 1911 when he won 21 and saved 13 more
With a career spanning from 1903-1914, Brown won 239 games with just 130 losses. The baseball card here, a T205 is from 1911, his last 20-win season. That year Brown won 21 of 27 starts and led the league in both games (53), and saves (13).
A farm machinery accident at age 11 in 1888 cost Brown parts of two fingers in his right hand. The upside was the grip on his curveball which was reported to have a radical break before reaching the batter. It also resulted in one of baseball’s most memorable nicknames for Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.
