Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Mordecai Brown

Page 68

Thanks to the Giants’ poor baserunning, Pfiester had a chance to escape unscathed, but Mike Donlin hit a double to right, driving in Tenney, and the Giants led, 1-0. When Cy Seymour walked, putting two men on base, Chance had seen enough and replaced Pfiester with staff ace Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.

On that October 8th, no one else knew that Mordecai Brown clutched a half dozen notes inside his coat pocket. The message of each was clear. We’ll kill you if you pitch and beat the Giants. A black handprint marked each note, the signature of the Italian Mafia.

Pushing through the overflowing Giant partisan crowd, Brown made his way in from the outfield bullpen. He proceeded to strike out Art Devlin, ending the inning.

In the second inning, Chance led off with a single, but Mathewson picked him off. Chance thought he was safe and he threw his cap on the ground in anger. He argued with the umpire, as did his teammate, Artie “Solly” Hofman, who was coaching at first. But the play stood; Hofman was ejected, and Chance went back to the dugout, still upset. Meanwhile, Mathewson easily retired the side, striking out two more Cubs.

In the bottom of the second, Brown too was in command, retiring the Giants in order, aided by what the “New York American”