Three Finger Brown

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and manager active during the first two decades of the 20th century, a period known as the dead-ball era. Born in Nyesville, Indiana, to Jane and Peter Brown, he worked in the coal mines of western Indiana before turning to professional baseball, an occupation that gave rise to his nickname "Miner." As a youth he suffered a farm-machinery accident on April 17, 1888, that cost him parts of two fingers on his right hand. Rather than ending his prospects, the injury led him to develop an unusual grip that produced an exceptional curveball — sometimes described as a knuckle curve — which broke sharply before reaching the plate. The pitch made him one of the elite hurlers of his era and earned him the nickname "Three Finger Brown." Among fans and friends he was perhaps best known as "Brownie," and the headline nicknames "Miner" and "Three Finger" were largely the inventions of sportswriters. Brown was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.