Brown debuted for Brooklyn at age 16 during World War II, and remains the only player in AL/NL history to homer before turning 18.
Tommy Brown, the utility man who played seven of his nine major league seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, died on Wednesday at age 97.
With Pee Wee Reese in the Navy and away from the Dodgers for three seasons during World War II, the team turned to other options at shortstop. That included Brown, who was born in Brooklyn and filled in for 101 games at shortstop during the 1944-45 seasons before missing the 1946 season himself while serving in the Army.
At 16 years, 241 days old when he debuted for the Dodgers on August 3, 1944, Brown is second-youngest player in major league history, behind only pitcher Joe Nuxhall earlier that season for Cincinnati.
A year later Brown hit his first home run, off Pirates pitcher Preacher Roe. Brown’s daughter Paula Brown Caplice told Beth Harris of Associated Press she would call her father every year on the anniversary of that first home run:
“He said, ‘Ah, yes, I hit my first home run,’” she said. “The Dodgers signed Preacher Roe a few years later. My dad joked his home run ability went down when Preacher Roe signed. They became good friends.”
Brown hit two home runs as a 17-year-old in 1945, and remains the only player in National League/American League history to homer before turning 18.
When Brown returned to the Dodgers in 1947, Reese was back at shortstop, which moved Brown into more of a utility role, shifting mostly between left field and third base for the next five seasons.
On September 18, 1950 Brown had a career day at Ebbets Field, hitting three home runs in a four-hit game against the Cubs. It was one of four games by a Dodger with at least three home runs in a game that season, along with Gil Hodges (four homers), Duke Snider, and Roy Campanella.
Traded to the Phillies in June 1951 for Dick Whitman — the outfielder, not the advertising executive — Brown played part of three more seasons in the majors with the Phillies and Cubs, through 1953.
Brown played six more seasons in the minor leagues after that, including an incredible stretch in May 1956 for the Nashville Sounds, when he made history by reaching base in 20 consecutive plate appearances, including 10 hits and 10 walks.
From an interview with Bill Traughber at SABRGraphs, Brown reminisced about the streak:
“We were in New Orleans for a three-game series,” Brown reminisced. “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. I was hitting fourth in the batting order and they wouldn’t give me anything good to hit. Fred Russell [Nashville Banner sports writer] gave me a big ole plaque commemorating the record.”
Brown in his nine major league seasons hit .241/.292/.355 in 494 games for the Dodgers, Phillies, and Cubs, with 31 home runs and 39 doubles.
Related reading
- Brown’s obituary by Beth Harris at Associated Press
- Brown’s obituary by Richard Goldstein in New York Times
- An interview of Brown, by Bill Traughber at SABRGraphs
- Dodgers Rewind on Brown, here at True Blue LA in 2022
- Brown’s SABR bio, written by C. Paul Rogers III
- Remembering Brown on a Twitter thread by Ben Lindbergh, who also talked about Brown on the Effectively Wild podcast