Mordecai Brown

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown posted a 2.06 career ERA, among the lowest in modern baseball history, trailing only Ed Walsh and Addie Joss among Hall of Fame pitchers. He won 239 games, anchored the Chicago Cubs pitching staff through four pennants in five years, and did it all with a right hand that was missing most of its index finger and had a paralyzed little finger. The injury that should have ended his baseball career before it started became the source of his greatest advantage.

Nyesville

Brown was born on October 19, 1876, in Nyesville, Indiana, a farming community near Terre Haute. When he was five years old, he caught his right hand in a corn grinder on his uncle's farm. The accident mangled the hand. His index finger was amputated below the knuckle, and the middle finger was permanently bent. He later broke the remaining fingers in a fall while chasing a rabbit. The little finger was left paralyzed.

He learned to pitch with the damaged hand, and the deformity became an advantage. The missing index finger and the bent middle finger gave his curveball an unnatural spin that made it drop sharply and unpredictably. Batters who timed their swings to the pitch's trajectory watched it dive away from the barrel at the last moment. Brown could not have thrown the pitch with a healthy hand.

The Cubs

Brown pitched briefly for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1903 before being traded to the Cubs. He won 15 games in his first season with Chicago and then became one of the best pitchers in the National League. He went 26-6 with a 1.04 ERA in 1906, the lowest single-season ERA in Cubs history and one of the lowest in the modern era. He won 20-6 in 1907 and 29-9 in 1908.

He was the pitching counterpart to Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants, and their rivalry defined National League pitching for half a decade. They faced each other 25 times between 1903 and 1916, and Brown won the majority of those matchups. Their most famous meeting came on October 8, 1908, when Brown relieved starter Jack Pfiester in the first inning of the replay of the "Merkle Game" and beat Mathewson 4-2 to send the Cubs to the World Series.

The Cubs won four pennants from 1906 to 1910 and two World Series, in 1907 and 1908. Brown won key games in both championships. He appeared alongside Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance on teams that set the standard for National League dominance in the dead-ball era.

Decline and the Federal League

Brown's effectiveness waned after 1911, though he remained a useful pitcher through 1912. He left the Cubs after the 1912 season and pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in 1913 before jumping to the Federal League, where he played for the St. Louis Terriers and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops in 1914 and the Chicago Whales in 1915.

He returned to the Cubs briefly in 1916 for his final season, pitching one last game against Mathewson on September 4 in what became a farewell appearance for both men. Both pitched all nine innings, with Mathewson winning 10-8.

The Record

Brown finished with a career record of 239-130 and a 2.06 ERA. He threw 55 shutouts and completed 271 of his 332 starts. His ERA is frequently overlooked in discussions of the all-time leaders because his win total, while impressive, falls below the round numbers that tend to dominate Hall of Fame arguments.

He died on February 14, 1948, in Terre Haute, Indiana, at age 71. The Old Timers Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1949, one year after his death. The damaged hand that made him a curiosity became the instrument of one of the most effective pitching careers in baseball history.