that's "three-fingered mordecai brown" you posted there and one of my favorite pitchers.
brown, an indiana native, lost and broke parts of his first two fingers in two farm accidents when he was a boy. he turned the loss into an advantage. his three fingers let him put a devastating topspin on his pitches, and his curveball in particular fooled batters, breaking just before it hit the plate.
according to wikipedia: "Brown's most productive period was when he played for the Chicago Cubs from 1904 until 1912. During this stretch, he won 20 or more games six times and was part of two World Series championships. New York Giants manager John McGraw regarded his own Christy Mathewson and Brown as the two best pitchers in the National League."
brown, who was said to "throw ground ball outs," is in the hall of fame. he finished with a 239-130 record and a 2.05 era over 13 years in the big leagues. he finished his days running a gas station in terre haute and pitching, into his 50s, on sandlot and semi-pro teams.
if he wanted to play for the peppers, i'd sign him up. alive or dead.
he's also got one of the great names in baseball, which is full of great names, like shoeless joe jackson, dizzy and daffy dean, preacher roe, pee-wee reese, mark "the bird" fidrych, "spaceman" bill lee and, of course, "oil can" boyd. heck, i'd sign them all up.
course the pay isn't much.
-mike
-- Edited by mhart on Wednesday 17th of April 2013 02:28:56 AM
jim - brown's two accidents happened when he was a boy several weeks apart. first he lost his index finger in a machine called "the chopper", then a few weeks later, he broke his thumb and the doctor didn't set it properly. so, if you look at the photo that joe posted, my guess is the thumb was a guide finger and the last three fingers were the ones he used for force and spin.
Mike, if you haven't seen 42, it is easily the best baseball movie ever made... Incredible, incredible movie about the history of the game and what it means to life... Made me want to be a Brooklyn Dodger fan as Branch Rickey, Pee Wee Reese, and Ralph Branca are portrayed as solid men of integrity far beyond their time. And damn, Jackie Robinson is without question a true American hero... Go see it on the big screen and get the full effect, it's worth the couple dollars and will make you feel good about the game... Just in time to get the season rolling!
Two things.. 42 was long and I think did not bring anything new to our consciousness. I saw it down in NJ and was happy that there were youngsters(teens) with their fathers, who also saw the film. I do think it is an important movie, to see the absurdity of racism, and the backbone it takes to fight it.(still) Also, the players (Three Fingers) etc. being exhumed, are part of the history of baseball that I would hope everyone at least has heard about. "Found another ballplayer?"Really? It's great that we are learning about these ball players, but come-on guys, this is baseball heroes 101, not an advanced class... I was more impressed by who the real Marcus Aurelius was.
rc
-- Edited by Ralph Caputo on Monday 22nd of April 2013 09:16:04 AM
-- Edited by Ralph Caputo on Monday 22nd of April 2013 10:33:09 AM
funny, raker. you nearly stole my thunder. see the question i put up under marcus' note, "play ball." for the fourth player (the other three i put there) did you think of chad bents? (the system won't let me spell his last name properly. it ends with a "z". )
so, do you know the answer?
-m.
-- Edited by mikehart on Tuesday 23rd of April 2013 05:05:30 PM
Ah...............but can you name other players who were missing appendages? I can think of four off the top of my brain.
And there's one guy whose name I can't think of that had (probably still has) six fingers (fairly recent - within the last 10 years). That could be a result of too many PED's, who knows?
