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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Baseball
On October 8, 1908, Mordecai Brown clutched a half-dozen notes
inside his coat pocket. The message of each was clear: we'll kill
you if you pitch and beat the Giants. A black handprint marked each
note, the signature of the Italian Mafia.
Mordecai Brown--dubbed "Three Finger" because of a childhood farm
injury--was the dominant pitcher for the great Chicago Cubs team of
the early twentieth century. Brown's handicap enabled him to throw
pitches with an unconventional movement that left batters
bewildered--the curve ball that Ty Cobb once called "the most
devastating" he had ever faced.
How Brown responded to the Mafia's threats in 1908 mirrored the way
he took life in general: with unflappable courage and resolve.
Telling his story for the first time, Cindy Thomson and Scott Brown
track Mordecai from the Indiana countryside to the coal mines, from
semipro ball to the Majors, from the World Series mound back down
to the Minors. Along the way they retrieve the lost lore of one of
baseball's greatest pitchers and chronicle one man's determination
to attain a dream that most believed was unreachable.
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