LOS ANGELES — Tommy Brown, the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league game and the last living member of the landmark 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers team that included rookie Jackie Robinson, has died. He was 97.
Brown died Wednesday at a rehabilitation center in Altamonte Springs, Florida, his oldest daughter, Paula Brown Caplice, said Thursday. He had broken his hip and arm in a fall.
“He had a nice life and he loved his sports,” she told The Associated Press by phone.
Born Thomas Michael Brown on Dec. 6, 1927, in Brooklyn, he signed with his hometown Dodgers after a 1943 tryout and spent the first four months of the 1944 season in the minors.
Nicknamed “Buckshot,” the 6-foot-1 Brown was 16 years, 241 days old when he started at shortstop at Ebbets Field against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 3, 1944, during the World War II manpower shortage.
That made Brown the youngest non-pitcher to play in a major league game, and the second-youngest player after left-hander Joe Nuxhall, who was 15 years, 316 days old when he debuted for the Cincinnati Reds on June 10, 1944.
Brown doubled for his first big league hit in the Dodgers’ loss.
On Aug. 20, 1945, Brown homered against Preacher Roe and the Pittsburgh Pirates at 17 years, 257 days old, a major league record that still stands. It was the Dodgers’ lone run in an 11-1 defeat.
“It probably won’t be broken, either,” said Brown Caplice, who would call her father every Aug. 20 and ask him what had happened that day.
“He said, ‘Ah, yes, I hit my first home run,’” she said. “The Dodgers signed Preacher Roe a few years later. My dad joked his home run ability went down when Preacher Roe signed. They became good friends.”
Five days later, Brown homered again, this time off New York Giants pitcher Adrián Zabala in an 8-6 Brooklyn win. That made Brown the second-youngest player to hit a homer — behind himself. They were his only homers in 1945, when he batted .245 and had 19 RBIs.
Brown spent the 1946 season serving in the U.S. Army.
He returned to the Dodgers in 1947, joining a roster that included future Hall of Fame shortstop Pee Wee Reese and Robinson, whose debut that season broke baseball’s color barrier.
Brown’s daughter recalled her father telling her about a petition that circulated among several white players in the Dodgers clubhouse protesting the addition of Robinson, who was Black.
“He said, ‘I’m not signing anything like that,’” she said. “I thought that was pretty standup for a 20-year-old on a club with a lot of senior players trying to bully. That told me who he really was.”
She said her mother, Ann, and Robinson’s wife, Rachel, became friends.
Brown appeared as a pinch hitter in the 1949 World Series and was hitless in two at-bats as Brooklyn lost to the New York Yankees in five games.
“We didn’t like the Yankees in our house,” Brown Caplice said, laughing.
Brown became a utility player for the rest of his career, appearing in 166 games at shortstop, 94 in the outfield, 50 at third base, 24 at second base and 21 at first base.
The Dodgers traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in June 1951, and they sold his contract to the Cubs the following year.
Brown’s major league career ended at age 25 in 1953. He played in the minors until 1959 and then retired.
He had a .241 career batting average with 31 home runs and 159 RBIs.
Brown’s death leaves Bobby Shantz, who is 99, as the last living major league player who was active during the 1940s.
Besides his oldest daughter, Brown is survived by wife Charlene, daughters Michele and Pamela, and son Bill. His first marriage ended in divorce and his second wife preceded him in death.
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