Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Mordecai Brown
Page 120
Later Majors
The 1911 regular season ended on October 12, with the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics as the pennant winners of the National League and American League, respectively. Finishing second to Mathewson’s Giants at 92-62, .597, isn’t all that bad unless you’re the Chicago Cobs of 1906-1910.
Mordecai Brown outdid his second place Cubs, posting a 21-11 W-L record, .656; but his ERA jumped to 2.80, dropping to 14th in the league, though he was number one in Saves.
It was a hot July afternoon at West Side Grounds, the kind of heat that made the infield dirt rise in little puffs with every footstep, like dust devils. Mordecai Brown arrived earlier than usual, carrying the same battered canvas bag he’d used since Terre Haute. Inside were the tools he trusted more than any trainer; a tin of axle grease, a strip of emery cloth, and a small bottle of liniment that smelled like turpentine and old barns.
He wasn’t scheduled to start. Manager Frank Chance had told him the night before, “Be ready in the late innings. They’ve been jumping on our boys early.” Brown nodded, though he didn’t like