Photograph of baseball player Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown of the Chicago Cubs team. Photo dates to 1909.

About the Player
Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed "Three Finge" or "Miner", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth, Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand and eventually acquired his nickname as a result. Overcoming this handicap and turning it to his advantage, he became one of the elite pitchers of his era.

Brown was born in Nyesville, Indiana. He was also known as "Miner", having worked in western Indiana coal mines for a while before beginning his professional baseball career. Nicknames like "Miner" and "Three Finger" (or sometimes "Three-Fingered") were headline writers' inventions. To fans and friends he was probably best known as "Brownie".

In his later years, Brown was plagued by diabetes and then by the effects of a stroke. He died in 1948, and news of his passing reminded sportswriters of his past achievements. He was selected posthumously to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.

In 1999, 83 years after his last game and 51 years after his death, he was named as a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Source: Wikipedia.org