Tommy Brown, who turned the youngest place participant in fashionable major-league baseball when he made his debut as a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers in August 1944 on the age of 16, died on Wednesday in Altamonte Springs, Fla. He was 97.
His daughter, Pamela Brown Leon, stated the trigger was problems of a current fall at a rehabilitation middle close to the place he lived in Altamonte Springs, north of Orlando.
Within the spring of 1943, Brown was amongst some 3,000 youngsters attending a Brooklyn Dodgers tryout camp on the Parade Floor, the baseball complicated at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The Dodgers signed him to their farm system on the outset of the next season.
On Aug. 3, 1944, newly referred to as up by the Dodgers from their farm staff in Newport Information, Va., Brown made his main league debut taking part in shortstop in a doubleheader towards the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Subject, the Dodgers’ residence stadium.
Enjoying in each video games, Brown had a double and a single however let a floor ball undergo his legs, and his tosses in infield warm-ups went crusing past the attain of the Dodgers’ 6-foot-6 first baseman, Howie Schultz, who was often called Steeple.
Although he was nervous on that lengthy August afternoon, Brown entered the baseball file books, and remained there.
“For a time I used to be one in every of their starters, and about probably the most I knew about baseball was that the ball was spherical,” he advised The Los Angeles Occasions lengthy afterward, recalling his early Dodger years.
Brown joined the Dodgers at a time when many main leaguers had entered the navy throughout World Conflict II, compelling groups to search out substitute gamers. Brown was a fill-in for the longer term Corridor of Famer Pee Wee Reese, who was away taking part in shortstop for Navy groups.
At his demise, Brown additionally held the file because the youngest participant to hit a major-league residence run. He was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days previous when he related on Aug. 20, 1945, off the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Preacher Roe, who was later a number one starter within the Dodgers’ rotation.
Brown was additionally the final surviving member of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers staff, on which Jackie Robinson debuted, integrating Main League Baseball.
Brown had a batting common of solely .164 and dedicated 16 errors whereas taking part in usually at shortstop within the final two months of the 1944 season. Supervisor Leo Durocher referred to as him Buckshot for his spraying throws.
However Brown went on to a nine-year profession within the main leagues, principally with the Dodgers. He was often a backup however performed each place aside from catcher.
Thomas Michael Brown was born on Dec. 6, 1927, within the Bensonhurst part of Brooklyn. He stop college at age 12 to work on the Brooklyn docks with an uncle.
Brown was hitting .297 when he was summoned from Newport Information, the place he was taking part in for Supervisor Jake Pitler, who was later the Dodgers’ first-base coach.
“Pitler referred to as me in and advised me to pack my issues, that Durocher wished me to play shortstop for his Dodgers,” Brown recalled in an interview for the Society for American Baseball Analysis. “I stated, ‘No, I don’t need to go.’ I advised him to let me end out the yr. I used to be hitting properly and studying an excellent deal. However he stated, ‘No, you’ve acquired to depart proper now.’
“I rode that prepare all evening,” he continued, “and I walked into the clubhouse and advised them I simply acquired off the prepare. Durocher stated he didn’t care, that we had been taking part in a doubleheader and I used to be taking part in.”
Brown’s debut, when he was 16 years and 241 days previous, got here two months after Joe Nuxhall, a left-handed pitcher from Hamilton, Ohio, turned the youngest fashionable main leaguer when he pitched in a recreation for the Cincinnati Reds at age 15 years and 10 months.
Brown shared the Dodgers shortstop job in 1945 with Eddie Basinski, one other of the wartime hopefuls, who was acclaimed extra for his excellence in taking part in the violin. After spending the primary post-war season within the Military, Brown returned to the Dodgers.
He didn’t hit for a lot of a mean. However the right-handed-batting Brown, at 6-foot-1 and 170 kilos — a great measurement for an infielder of his period — did have some energy, connecting for 3 residence runs in September 1950 in a recreation at Ebbets Subject towards the Cubs. He led the Nationwide League in pinch-hits with seven that season.
However with Reese again at shortstop, and Billy Cox, an excellent fielder, at third base, and with Duke Snider and Carl Furillo holding two spots within the outfield, the place Brown performed at instances, there wasn’t a lot room for him within the lineup.
He was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in June 1951. They despatched him to the Cubs in June 1952, and he hit .320 for them in 61 video games in the course of the second half of the season. However he tailed off in 1953 and was returned to the minors. He retired at age 31, by no means having made it again to the majors.
Brown settled in Nashville after his taking part in years, having spent some minor league seasons with the Nashville Vols of the Southern Affiliation. He labored at a Ford glass manufacturing facility for a few years, then moved to Florida.
Along with his daughter, he’s survived by his spouse, Ellen Brown, and a son, William.
Brown had a profession batting common of .241 with 31 residence runs.
Although his bat had some pop, he missed out on a customary reward for sluggers from a Dodgers sponsor of the Forties, Outdated Gold cigarettes.
“We referred to as homers ‘Outdated Goldies,’” the Dodgers broadcaster Purple Barber as soon as remembered. “We’d roll a carton of Outdated Golds down the display screen at any time when any ballplayer hit a house run. There was a gap within the display screen and the batboy grabbed them for the participant. When Tommy Brown hit one, Durocher stated, ‘Give me the cigarettes, he’s too younger to smoke.’”
Hank Sanders contributed reporting. Sheelagh McNeill contributed analysis.