Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Mordecai Brown

Page 16

Because of childhood curiosity, he actually had two separate injuries to his right hand. The first and more 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 while chasing a rabbit, which broke several finger bones. They were not reset properly, especially the middle finger. The net result was a bent middle finger, a paralyzed little finger, and a stump where the index finger used to be.

Despite that, he learned to throw, as many children did, by aiming rocks at knot holes on the barn wall and other wooden surfaces. Over time, with constant practice, he developed great control, which would carry into his Major League years. As a "bonus", the manner in which he had to grip the ball resulted in an unusual amount of spin. This allowed him to throw an effective curve ball, or knuckle curve, which broke radically down and over before reaching the plate, in addition to a deceptive fast ball and change-up. The extra topspin made it difficult for batters to connect solidly. In short, he "threw ground balls" and was exceptionally effective. It should also be noted that the knuckle curve, in essence and grip very similar