Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Mordecai Brown
Page 23
The Big Time
After that season in Omaha, Mordecai joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 1903.
In February the St. Louis Cardinals were in Dallas, Texas for spring training before heading back north and east for the season. Morning fog still clings to the outfield grass, and the air has that early spring bite that makes every throw sting the fingers. Brown is already on the field before most of the pitchers, rolling a scuffed ball between his good hand and his offbeat, but better right.
Manager Patsy Donovan walks by, chewing on a toothpick, watching Brown’s warm up without comment. Brown throws a few curves that break late and sharp, the kind that seem to fall off a table. Donovan finally stops.
“Looks like the hand’s talking today,” he says.
Brown shrugs. “Some days it listens.”
A few rookies gather behind the cage, whispering about the way the ball seems to jump sideways. Brown hears them but pretends not to. He’s still new enough to the big time that he feels he has to earn every inch of respect, and still close enough to the