subject: A Journey From Indianapolis To The Grave Of Baseball Legend Mordecai Brown [print this page] Mordecai Brown, a major league baseball legend, receives frequent visits at his Terre Haut gravesite in central Indiana. Brown's pitching was perhaps a big reason that the Chicago Cubs were able to win two World Series championships. Maybe his best performance came in 1908, when he pitched no runs for 11 innings in the World Series, winning two games for the Cubs. His grave can be found in the Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery which is right at the Illinois border. Frequent visits from baseball fans to pay homage are commonplace at this cemetery. It makes an excellent day trip from nearby Indianapolis.
An injury that left him with a mangled hand would earn him the nickname of Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown. An accident involving a corn shredder in Indiana caused him to lose the index finder on his right hand as well as part of another finger when he was just 7 years old. He didn't let that traumatic experience shatter his professional baseball dreams. Actually, it gave him an advantage for pitching a snappy curve ball.
It would take working as a coal miner and playing on the company baseball team to launch Mordecai Brown's career in baseball. He pitched in the minor league before joining the Saint Louis Cardinals as a up-and-coming major league pitching star. He was 26-years-old when he made it to the big leagues in 1903, and he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for his second season. Over the next seven years, Brown would pitch over 250 innings each season. He was showered with awards, and he was also the first pitcher in league history to win four consecutive shutouts. Amazingly, since Mordecai Brown helped the Cubs to back-to-back titles the Cubs haven't won a World Series in the many years that followed.
Having played nearly to the age of 40 Ol' Three Fingers career had considerable longevity. In total, he won 239 games, and even maintained an impressive batting average. Brown would eventually go on to become a player manager after an injury that occurred mid-career. His history in Indiana stretches back to his birth in Parke County. His boyhood home, near the antique covered bridges of Parke County, now has a historical marker for all to observe.
Not far from the Terre Haute's Clabber Girl Museum is the Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery. The Clay County Courthouse in Brazil, the Fountain of Tales in Brazil and the Academy of Hoosier Heritage in Mooresville are all must-see day trip attractions on the route from Indianapolis.
Mordecai Brown died in 1948, and one year later he became the first Hoosier inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in New York. The Mordecai Brown Grave is found in section J of Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Terre Haute. He's buried at grave site number 218, right next to his wife Sarah who died in 1958. Visitors come so frequently to this somber attraction that the cemetery provides a map that helps navigate people to the site. Escape from Indy for a day and come pay homage to an Indiana sports legend.
