Happy Birthday Three Finger Brown!
Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown would have been 133 years old today.
As a kid, I learned a little about baseball history from an old-timers bubble gum baseball cards I bought at the dime store. Of course, Three Finger Brown was one of them. As a Cub fan, I had an affinity for him.
Some interesting (and perhaps lesser-known) facts about Brown.
- Made his major league debut at age 26 in 1903.
- Brown accumulated 239 wins in his career but also led the league in saves four years in a row (1908-1911, unrecognized at the time of course).
- Known primarily as a Cub, Brown did get picked up by the Reds later in his career and even played in the Federal League. In 1916, he was purchased by the Cubs for his last year where he pitched in 12 games.
- Broke and held for many years, the record for number of chances handled by a pitcher without an error in 1908 with 108.
Here is his obituary that was in the New York Times when he passed in 1948