Former big leaguer Tommy Brown passed away today at age 97, according to The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh. “Buckshot” Brown played in 494 games with the Dodgers, Phillies, and Cubs from 1944-53, and he holds distinctions as the youngest player to ever hit a home run in a Major League game, and the youngest non-pitcher to ever appear in a Major League game.
Brown broke into the majors in August 1944 when he was just 16 years old. With several players serving in the military during World War II, big league teams were forced to fill out rosters with several players that wouldn’t have normally made the Show, opening the door to several young players like Brown. He played in 46 games for his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944, and then made 57 more appearances in 1945. It was on August 20, 1945 that Brown hit his first career homer and entered the record books at 17 years and 257 days old.
By 1946, Brown was old enough to enlist for military duty himself, and he missed the 1946 season while serving in the U.S. Army. He returned to baseball in 1947, and played in 169 more games for Brooklyn over parts of the next five seasons. Playing primarily as a shortstop, Brown also saw a lot of time at the other three infield positions and in left field over the course of his career. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher gave Brown his nickname of “Buckshot,” as Brown had a strong but erratic throwing arm that led to more than a few wayward throws in his early days.
While Brown didn’t see much action as a part-time player with Brooklyn, it was admittedly hard to crack the lineup of a star-studded Dodgers team. As Lindbergh noted, when Brown returned from the war to participate in the Dodgers’ Spring Training camp, he lost the competition for the first base job to none other than Jackie Robinson. Brown still played a valuable role as a utilityman during this memorable Dodgers era, and he had two pinch-hit at-bats during Brooklyn’s five-game loss to the Yankees in the 1949 World Series.
The Dodgers traded Brown to the Phillies in June 1951, and he played in 96 more games for Philadelphia over the next two seasons before landing with the Cubs for the final 126 games of his MLB career. Brown finished with a .241/.292/.355 slash line and 31 homers over 1387 career plate appearances, with his best numbers coming in bench duty with the Dodgers in 1950, and amidst a surge in playing time in 1952 after he went to Chicago.
Brown played in six more minor league seasons before retiring at age 31. This included a stint with Nashville’s minor league team from 1955-58 that ended up changing the course of Brown’s life, as he met his future wife in Nashville and spent 35 years working at the city’s Ford Glass plant after his baseball career was over.
We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Brown’s family and friends.
