Mordecai Brown Chic NL

Mordecai Peter Centennial "Three Finger" Brown (1876–1948) is documented here on the E90-1 American Caramel set, identified in collector shorthand by his Chicago National League team listing — "Chic NL" — to distinguish his Cubs-era cards from the later Federal League appearances. The right-handed pitcher, a switch-hitter at the plate, anchored the Cubs rotation through the franchise's most successful run in history, taking the mound for four pennant winners and two World Series champions between 1906 and 1910. The nickname was no embellishment: a childhood feed-cutter accident on his uncle's Indiana farm had cost him most of his right index finger and partially mangled the others, leaving him with a grip that imparted the kind of break on a curveball that opposing hitters spent the rest of his career trying to decode. By the 1909 American Caramel issue date, Brown had just outdueled Christy Mathewson in the famous Merkle replay game to win the 1908 pennant, and the E90-1 lithograph captures him at that career peak. He went on to jump to the Federal League in 1914–1915, which is what makes the "Chic NL" specifier necessary on collectors' inventories. He died February 14, 1948 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949 by the Old Timers Committee — Cooperstown's somewhat belated recognition of one of the deadball era's defining arms.