"Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term

[Paul Johnston]

I'd say more likely the player (Thomas Tarleton Brown), an British-born
outfielder and occasional pitcher, who played with a number of AA and NL
teams from 1882-98.  The Boston attestation would fit; he played with the
Red Stockings (i. e. Braves) in '88 and '89, jumped to the Boston Players
League club in '90 and followed that team--quite a good one--to the AA for
the league' final year in '91.  He was a .265 lifetime hitter; he would have
been in the twilight of his career with the Washington Nats in '96.  Weak
hits back to the pitcher?  I don't know, but he had a lousy year in '95, and
probably hit his share of these.

Paul Johnston
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: "Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> 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
> >>  >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
>