May 04--With his victory against the Pirates on Tuesday night, Jake Arrieta improved to 6-0, becoming the first Cubs pitcher since Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown to win his first six starts of the season.
Brown did it in 1908 and went on to win his first 11.
But who was "Three Finger" Brown, and what happened to his other fingers?
Brown was born in 1875 on the family farm in Nyesville, Ind.
When he was 5 or 7 (accounts vary), one of his brothers dared him to put his right hand into a corn chopper. He did and lost most of his right index finger and damaged his right middle finger. Weeks later, he fell and mangled the little finger on the same hand.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, "Brown's deformed hand enabled him to throw a bewildering pitch with lots of movement. Although the jumping ball was a problem when Brown was an infielder, it was an advantage when he pitched."
"It was a great ball, that downward curve of his," Ty Cobb once said. "I can't talk about all of baseball, but I can say this: It was the most deceiving, the most devastating pitch I ever faced."
Brown pitched in the majors from 1903 to 1916, including a nine-year stretch with the Cubs. He won at least 20 games each season from 1907-11, including a career-best 29-9 (with a 1.31 ERA) in 1909.
Brown died in 1948 at 71. In his obituary, the Tribune described "the three-fingered right hand that could knock a fly off a toothpick with a curve ball."
Brown was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949. He is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park in Terre Haute, Ind.
Sources: Baseball Hall of Fame, Baseball Reference, Tribune archives
