"Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

The request below comes from the assistant to Paul Dickson (author of the standard dictionary on baseball terminology).  In another email Skip McAfee guesses that "Tom Brown" likely arose from an incident (involving a player by that name) which occurred shortly before the attestation in the Boston Globe--a suspicion I agree with.

    Still, with his permission I'm running this by ads-l to see if anyone here sees something that we might be missing.

Gerald Cohen

> ----------
> From:         Skip McAfee
> Reply To:     xerxes7 at earthlink.net
> Sent:         Wednesday, June 22, 2005 7:37 PM
> To:   Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> Cc:   Paul Dickson
> Subject:      FW: "Tom Brown"
>
> Gerald:
>
> Do you have anything on the term "Tom Brown"?  Peter Morris believes it may refer to a ball hit feebly back to the pitcher.
>
> Skip McAfee
> xerxes7 at earthlink.net
>
> ---
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Joanne Hulbert <jhulbert at earthlink.net>
> > To: <newdefiner at aol.com>
> > Date: 6/21/2005 11:34:24 PM
> > Subject: "Tom Brown"
> >
> > Paul,
> > I came across this in the Boston Globe of April 18, 1896:
> >
> > "Hamilton hit a "Tom Brown" to the pitcher and turned to the water tank with disgust depicted on his Clinton brow. . . . "
> >
> > Could a Tom Brown be a fly ball to the pitcher?
> >
> > Joanne Hulbert
> >
>
>
>
>
>