Mordecai Brown
 

I know this is going to sound weird. All my life I wondered what Mordecai Browns pitching hand looked like. Finally! There's a picture of it in Hunt Auctions May 14, 2011 auction catalog. Page 33, item 102. Now for the others that are curious, go take a look and deny you were interested in seeing it.

It's a common image. This is on his wikipedia page.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._3_fingers.JPG

The example from the Hunt auction:

Thanks for sharing the photo's
 

Interesting photo's of 3 Finger Brown. Out of curiousity, how did he lose his finger and what happened to the other fingers ? (They middle finger is terribly crooked...)

Check out the pinky, too :eek:

Accident with farm equipment
 

If I remember correctly, his hand was damaged at a young age as a result of an accident with farm equipment.


Patrick

If I remember the story correctly, there was two seperate incidents, there was the accident with the farm equipment but there was a seperate time altogether where he slipped while running and broke a one of his remaining fingers, the middle one I believe. It never healed properly and appears crooked in the photos as a result.

Half the fingers of Antonio Alfonseca, ten times the wins.

I've read his biography. Nothing special but a good read. He was a decent guy and there weren't that many in early sports just like there aren't that many today. He's one of my favorite players of the era, maybe my favorite, and an underrated HOFer.

Here's an excerpt from his biography, as quoted on his wikipedia page:

"According to his biography, he suffered two separate injuries to his right hand. The first and most famous trauma came when he was feeding material into the farm's feed chopper. He slipped and his hand was mangled by the knives, severing much of his index finger and damaging the others. A doctor repaired the rest of his hand as best he could. While it was still healing, the injury was further aggravated by a fall he took, which broke several finger bones. They were not re-set properly, especially the middle finger."

Pretty amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzkyW7WcybU

Three-finger's biography
 

I agree with Don--the biography from 2006 or 2007 is a pretty good read, and also has some good photos. He was apparently a pretty good guy, and I already knew he wasone helluva pitcher! Cobb said Mordecai's curveball was the best he ever saw.

Larry

Cant teach the rotation he threw with.Great pitcher and inspiration to others

Thanks for the info...
 

Thanks for the info on Brown's hand. I can't imagine the English he would put on a ball, but I am guessing it would be like a Fork ball / Splitter action. Would love to see the rotation on his pitches with today's technology. Perhaps there is some old footage of him out there somewhere that might at the very least show the trajectory. Interesting...

Wow! He really whipped that ball back and let loose. Thanks for the link.

He really did whip it in there--always wondered what kind of fastball he had, and judging by his apparent arm velocity, it might have been pretty darn good. Yes, thank you much for the link!

Larry