Tommy Brown, a career utility player and the final living member of the color-barrier-breaking 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, has passed away at the age of 97.
Brown died Wednesday at a rehabilitation center in the Orlando, Florida suburb of Altamonte Springs. He was there after breaking his hip and arm in a fall.
His oldest daughter, Paula Brown Caplice, confirmed the news to the Associated Press, saying, ‘He had a nice live and he loved his sports.’
Brown was born in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bensonhurst in 1927, he tried out for his hometown Dodgers in 1943.
After playing in the minors in the first four months of the 1944 season in Newport News, Virginia, he made his major league debut with the Dodgers on August 3, 1944 against the Chicago Cubs at his home stadium of Ebbets Field. He hit a double in his debut for his first major league hit.
At the time, he was the youngest non-pitcher to ever play in a major league game and the second-youngest player ever after left-handed-hurler Joe Nuxhall made his debut the same year at age 15.
Over a year on from his debut on August 20, 1945, Brown hit a home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates off Preacher Roe to set the MLB record for the youngest player to ever hit a home run at the age of 17 years, 257 days old. The record still stands today.
Brown Caplice told the AP that every year, she would call her father on August 20 to ask him what had happened on that very 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.’
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