NYESVILLE — If Cubs fans believe in karma — and many do (just mention Steve Bartman to one of them) — they need to travel to tiny Nyesville, Ind., to gently touch a 10-letter name on a granite monument.
They should trace the letters with their middle finger — not because of Bartman (give this guy a break), but because the stone’s honoree had no index finger. They should focus on the third of this man’s four given names …
Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown.
I’m not trying to invoke some sort of “Field of Dreams” mysticism here. But the Chicago faithful need to tap every possible resource to end professional sports’ longest drought.
Yes, the Cubs haven’t won a World Series in exactly 100 years. And the pitching star of the 1908 championship team was named Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown. He’s better known as Hall of Famer “Three Finger” Brown, thanks to two boyhood farm accidents that sheared off the index finger of his right hand and the tip of his middle finger, and mangled all but his ring finger. Still, Brown’s seldom heard third name — Centennial — could become a prophetic choice by his parents. They picked it because Mordecai was born in 1876, the 100th anniversary of the nation.
Now, the Cubs appear poised to pursue their first world championship since Brown, Tinkers, Evers, Chance and Co. did it one century ago.
In 2008, touching “Centennial” on Brown’s monument at Nyesville could become the baseball equivalent of drinking from the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Fla. After viewing the elegant, understated shrine at Brown’s birth site in Parke County, Cubs fans should add their names to the guestbook, along with a message of thanks to the man responsible for this special place.
Fred Massey, the great-nephew of “Three Finger” Brown, tirelessly led a fundraising drive to erect a memorial to honor the Nyesville native. In 1994, that monument — a lifelong goal for Massey — became a reality. Since then, it’s become a popular stop for visitors to the annual Parke County Covered Bridge Festival.
If the 2008 Cubs, who have the best record in the National League — so far — keep winning, the “Three Finger” Brown stone could draw larger crowds during this fall’s Covered Bridge Festival. It’s scheduled for Oct. 10 through 19. Coincidentally (that word keeps coming up), during that same time span, the National League’s final two teams will be competing for a berth in this year’s World Series.
“If they win it, there’ll be a lot of activity around the monument,” Fred predicted.
Thank goodness, Fred made it happen. Besides, there’s no reason to doubt his tenacity. The 83-year-old West Terre Haute resident worked for 27 years in the steel mills around Joliet, Ill. In his off hours, Fred counseled inmates as a volunteer chaplain at Statesville Correctional Center and nearly two dozen other Illinois prisons. Those encounters could get tense.
Fred, like his famous great-uncle, never flinched.
“If it’s starting to get too tough for everybody else, that’s when it’s getting just about right for me,” Fred said during a drive from West Terre Haute to Nyesville last month. “And I’ve maintained that philosophy all the way.”
He probably inherited that toughness. That 1908 season featured a one-game playoff between the deadlocked top two National League teams — the Cubs and the New York Giants. Embittered Giants players and their fans felt they’d been cheated out of the outright pennant. An infamous Giants-Cubs regular-season game in September was ruled a tie, because New York hitter Fred Merkle failed to touch second base after an apparent game-winning hit. When the two teams finished with identical records, a playoff was forced.
Amid that atmosphere, the Cubs received death threats — apparently from irate New York gambling mobsters. Brown, not scheduled to pitch, defiantly begged player-manager Frank Chance to let him take the mound. And, after the Chicago starter faltered in the first inning, “Three Finger” took over and shut down the Giants. The Cubs beat New York, and then beat Detroit in the World Series.
Brown’s stats that year, well, would make him wildly wealthy in 2008. With his nasty, dropping curveball, he won 29 games, with only nine losses, pitched nine shutouts, completed 27 games, and even saved five in relief. His earned-run average was a miserly 1.47. His career numbers — a 239-130 record, a 2.06 ERA and 49 saves, is equaled by fewer than a handful, ever. In 1999, Major League Baseball named “Three Finger” one of the 20th century’s 100 best players.
Fred thought that should be remembered. The Cubs should remember Fred and his great-uncle, Mort, as he knew “Three Finger,” in special ways, too, especially this season.
The club opted not to participate in the fund drive for Brown’s Nyesville monument in ’94. Back then, a front-office staffer, Fred recalled, told him, “the Cubs didn’t do anything like that, monumental things, you know.”
No special ceremony or tribute involving the 1908 team’s descendants is planned this season, said Cubs spokeswoman Dani Holmes, because “the ‘centennial’ receives recognition by the national media on almost a daily basis.” On Wednesday, the club handed out replica 1908 caps to the first 10,000 fans entering Wrigley Field for a game against Cincinnati.
The Cubs should rethink and enhance their plans. They should invite Fred, a lifelong Cubs fan, to throw out the first pitch at an upcoming game, and declare it “Three Finger” Brown Night … Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown Night.
After all, how often does this kind of timing come around?
Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.
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