Bannon: Jake Arrieta, Mordecai Brown, and the farming accident
From Tim Bannon at the Chicago Tribune on May 3, 2016:
With his victory against the Pirates on Tuesday night, Jake Arrieta improved to 6-0, becoming the first Cubs pitcher since Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown to win his first six starts of the season.
Brown did it in 1908 and went on to win his first 11.
But who was “Three Finger” Brown, and what happened to his other fingers?
Brown was born in 1875 on the family farm in Nyesville, Ind.
When he was 5 or 7 (accounts vary), one of his brothers dared him to put his right hand into a corn chopper. He did and lost most of his right index finger and damaged his right middle finger. Weeks later, he fell and mangled the little finger on the same hand.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, “Brown’s deformed hand enabled him to throw a bewildering pitch with lots of movement. Although the jumping ball was a problem when Brown was an infielder, it was an advantage when he pitched.”
Read the full article here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-jake-arrieta-mordecai-brown-cubs-20160504-story.html
- Related link: Read Mordecai Brown’s SABR biography, by Cindy THomson
Originally published: May 5, 2016. Last Updated: May 5, 2016.