Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Mordecai Brown

Page 5

and Brown's story got buried under several layers of historical sediment.

Following is a further theoretical accounting of why he's overlooked, despite a résumé that should put him in the inner circle of the Hall of Fame.

He played in the wrong era for long term fame. The Deadball Era is a graveyard of under remembered legends. Fans today can name Mathewson, Johnson, Wagner, and Cobb. After that, the memory fog rolls in.

There are no films of Brown pitching. There was sparse sportswriting compared to later decades. In fact it is now virtually impossible to find a newspaper story concerning him or the games he played until they reported his death in 1949. He was no radio era celebrity. He retired before baseball voices became national.

There was no remembered World Series hero moment that gets replayed endlessly, though he actually won the final game of the 1907 World Series and the fourth game of the five game series win in the 1908 World Series, each with shutouts both times the National League Cubs beat Cobb’s American League Tigers.