Tommy Brown, the last surviving member of the historic 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, died this week at age 97.
Brown, who played nine years in the major leagues in the 1940s and early '50s and seven years with the Dodgers, died Wednesday at a rehabilitation center in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
“He had a great life and loved sports,” said his daughter Paula Brown Caprice. told the Associated Press.
Brown made his debut with the Dodgers on August 3, 1944, at the age of 16, starting at shortstop against the Cubs at Ebbets Field, and returned after being discharged to serve in the U.S. Army during the 1946 season. Part of the 1947 Dodgers club featuring rookie Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line.
Brown tried out for the Dodgers in 1943, signed with them, and played the first four months of the 1944 season in the minor leagues.
In his major league debut in the summer of 1944, he hit a double in a loss to the Cubs.
He became the youngest player to hit a home run in the major leagues on August 20, 1945, at the age of 17 years and 257 days, when he hit a solo off Pirates pitcher Preacher Law.
That is a record that still stands today.
“A few years later, the Dodgers signed Preacher Law. My father joked that his home run ability went down when they signed Preacher Law. They became good friends,” Brown said.・Caprice said.
That season, he hit yet another home run, making him the second-youngest player in history.
He finished that season with a batting average of .245.
Mr. Brown's daughter said that as a member of the 1947 Dodgers team, she opposed a petition circulated within the team protesting Robinson's addition.
“He said, 'I'm not signing anything like that,'” Brown-Caprice said. “I thought that was pretty admirable for a 20-year-old in a club with a lot of senior players who try to bully him. It showed me what a real person he is.”
Brown appeared in the 1949 World Series against the Yankees and spent time with the Dodgers until being traded to the Phillies midway through the 1951 season.
He then sold Contact to the Cubs a year later.
The Brooklyn native played in the majors until 1953 and continued his professional baseball career in the minor leagues until 1959, when he retired.
He finished his career in the major leagues with a batting average of .241 and 31 home runs.
