Tommy Brown
From BR Bullpen
Thomas Michael Brown (Buckshot)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 170 lb.
- Debut August 3, 1944
- Final Game September 25, 1953
- Born December 6, 1927 in Brooklyn, NY USA
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[edit] Introduction
"We were in New Orleans for a three-game series. I went 4-for-4, 3-for-3, 3-for-3 and in between, I had six walks. That’s 16 straight times to reach base. Then we came to Nashville and they walked me the first four times. That made it 20 in a row and a Southern Association record. A groundout ended the on-base streak . . ." - Tommy Brown, remembering how he set the Southern Association record of reaching base 20 times in a row
Tommy Brown, sometimes called "Buckshot", broke into the major leagues at the age of 16 and had a nine-year major league career.
Leo Durocher gave him the nickname, because his strong arm had a tendency to spray the balls everywhere.
[edit] Early days
Brown, born in Brooklyn, had quit school at age 12 and begun working on the docks with his uncle. He played on neighborhood teams, and one day the first baseman on the team suggested they go to a Dodger tryout together. He was only 15 at the time of the tryout.
He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 16 in 1944. At first he was sent to Bear Mountain, NY, and then to the Newport News Dodgers in the Piedmont League. He was leading that league with 11 triples in late July when he was called up to the majors. Overall, he batted .297/~.341/.462. He didn't want to go, feeling that he was learning a lot where he was, but he wasn't given a choice. When he got off the all-night train, Durocher put him in a doubleheader that day.
[edit] Brooklyn Dodgers
He debuted in the majors on August 3, 1944 under manager Leo Durocher. He played 46 games with 146 at-bats. He hit only .164/.208/.192 with 16 errors.
He was not, however, the youngest player in the league. Those honors went to Joe Nuxhall, who was 15 at the time. (However, Brown was to be one of the ten youngest players in the league all the way through 1949, his fifth season.)
The Brooklyn Dodgers regular shortstop before World War II was Pee Wee Reese, and in 1944 the Dodgers had been using Bobby Bragan at shortstop but also at catcher.
The next year, 1945, Brown improved to .245 at the age of 17 and became the youngest player to hit a home run in the majors. He also had 4 triples in 57 games. After one of those triples, he stole home against pitcher Rene Monteagudo, becoming the youngest player to steal home. He spent most of the year with the St. Paul Saints, batting .286 with 10 homers.
Although he had been a shortstop in 1944 and 1945, after that in the majors Brown was to play mostly other positions - third base, outfield, second base, and first base, until he went back to shortstop late in his career with the Chicago Cubs.
Brown missed the 1946 season due to military service. Ironically, he had been playing primarily due to player absentees due to World War II, but when the War ended and they came over, he now had to serve his term of duty.
The Dodgers won the pennant in 1947, but Brown appeared in only 15 games and did not play in the 1947 World Series.
He said that some of the Dodgers during spring training signed a petition against playing with Jackie Robinson, but Brown refused to sign.
1949 was a step forward for Brown, in his fifth season. He was 21 years old and hit .303/.347/.427 in 41 games. It was higher than star shortstop Pee Wee Reese slugged. He appeared in two 1949 World Series games.
Although in his fifth major league season, at age 21 he was still younger than Duke Snider at age 22, Gil Hodges at age 25, and rookie Don Newcombe at age 23. He was no longer the youngest player on the squad though, as third-year player Erv Palica was a couple months younger.
1950 was even better, as he hit .291 with a .378 OBP and slugged .616 in 48 games at the age of 22. He hit 3 consecutive home runs in a game in September.
The Dodgers were to continue to play well in the 1950's, but they traded Tommy, still only 23 years old, in June of 1951.
[edit] Phillies and Cubs
Brown finally got a chance to play a lot. In the second half of the season with the Philadelphia Phillies, Brown had 196 at-bats, hitting 10 home runs but batting only .219. Although still a youngster, he was a savvy veteran who was playing third base on September 3, 1951 when rookie Willie Mays hit what appeared to be an inside-the-park home run. Brown claimed Mays had failed to touch third, and Mays was called out and awarded a double.
The Phillies were unwilling to give Brown more of a chance and traded him to the Chicago Cubs in June of 1952, where he played under manager Phil Cavarretta. He hit well with the Cubs during the rest of the season, hitting .320/.358/.420 for them with 11 doubles in 61 games. The Cubs put him primarily at shorstop, a position he had not played in the major leagues since 1947, and he made 14 errors in his 39 games at that position.
The Cubs in 1952 and 1953 were going with Roy Smalley and Eddie Miksis as the double-play combination, and were not very happy with it. They had a couple of promising black players in the minors, Ernie Banks and Gene Baker, but they were not ready to bring them up.
Smalley and Miksis and Brown all played some shortstop in 1953, with Brown hitting .196/.279/.304 that year in 138 at-bats. The next year, Banks and Baker took over at shortstop and second base, both hitting .275 with some power.
Brown was finished in the major leagues at age 25. His career offensive line was .241/.292/.355 for a 75 OPS+.
[edit] After the majors
Tommy took the route of the older players who had also washed out of the majors and joined the Pacific Coast League. Brown hit .263/~.333/.400 for the 1954 Los Angeles Angels; he was second on the club with 14 homers and was primarily a corner outfielder. In '55, Tommy hit .250 in a brief spell with Los Angeles then went to the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association. He hit .299 for Nashville that year.
In 1956, he reached base a league-record 20 consecutive times - 10 hits and 10 walks. On the season, he hit .316 with 10 homers and 85 RBI, finishing in the top 10 in the Association in batting average. 1957 marked a .256/~.361/.355 line for Nashville with 77 walks. In '58, Brown batted .266 for Nashville and the Chattanooga Lookouts. He finished his career in 1959 with Chattanooga and the New Orleans Pelicans, hitting .259 with 8 homers.
After his baseball days, he stayed in Nashville, married a Nashville woman, and worked in the Ford glass plant for 35 years.
"Being 12 years old, working on the docks and playing street ball, I didn’t have much time. That’s the only thing I missed was being a kid." - Tommy Brown
Sources include 1945, 1947 and 1958 Baseball Guides, Stephen Davis's 1954 PCL season for Diamond Mind Baseball, Pat Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database
[edit] Related Sites
[Numerous photos of Tommy Brown]
An article called Looking Back: Tommy Brown - Local Record-Breaking Player apparently appeared in a Nashville paper in 2005. It includes an interview with Tommy Brown about his career. While it is no longer exactly on the web, it is cached here: Looking Back: Tommy Brown - Local Record-Breaking Player
