"Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:15 PM -0500 6/23/05, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>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

Could there be an allusion here to the Tom Brown of _Tom Brown's
Schooldays_, despite the Victorian England provenance of that book,
which would certainly have been well known in the U.S. as well as
Britain at that time?  Just a thought.

Larry

>  > ----------
>>  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
>>  >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>