23 Facts About Pete Browning

Pete Browning was known as "The Gladiator", though sources differ as to whether the nickname applied to his struggles with ownership, the press, his drinking problem, or particularly elusive fly balls.

Young Pete Browning remained with his mother, ultimately living in the house where he had grown up until the day he died.

Pete Browning displayed considerable athletic prowess from an early age, and in 1877 began playing for a local semipro team, the Louisville Eclipse, and pitched an exhibition win against a National League team.

Pete Browning continued with the Eclipse into 1882, when the franchise became a member of the newly formed American Association, the first major league to rival the NL.

Pete Browning was consistently among the league's top batters through 1888, winning a second batting crown in 1885 and hitting.

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Pete Browning led the league in hits, total bases and on-base percentage in 1885.

The revised assessment is that Pete Browning was a superb outfielder when he was sober and not suffering from the effects of mastoiditis, a serious infection of the inner ear usually contracted during childhood.

An oft-reported story, possibly apocryphal, features one of Pete Browning's managers claiming that the team would be better off with a wooden statue of an Indian in the outfield, since there was at least a slim chance that a batted ball might strike the statue and rebound back in the direction of the field.

Pete Browning's baserunning was considered sub-par, exacerbated by his refusal to slide.

Pete Browning lost his appetite for playing in Louisville during a hellish 1889 season.

The league dissolved after its sole season, and Pete Browning spent the remaining four years of his career bouncing around between franchises in the NL.

Pete Browning spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds, then was back with the Colonels, who had joined the NL in a league merger, before ending his major-league career in 1894 with a handful of appearances for the St Louis Browns and Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the National League.

Pete Browning's recognized career hit total through 1893 ranked 10th in major league history to that point.

Pete Browning was tormented for his entire life by mastoiditis, which can result in deafness, vertigo, facial palsy, and brain damage.

Pete Browning was a man of eccentric personal habits, particularly in relation to his bats.

Pete Browning spoke to them, and gave each one a name, often that of a Biblical figure.

Pete Browning habitually stared at the sun, thinking that by doing so, he would strengthen his eyes.

Pete Browning computed his average on his cuffs on a regular basis, and was not above announcing to all when his train arrived at a depot that he was the champion batter of the American Association.

Pete Browning remained a lifelong bachelor, though his affection for prostitutes was a matter of much discussion in the newspapers.

Pete Browning remained a popular Louisville figure until June 7,1905, when he was declared insane and committed to a local asylum.

Pete Browning is buried in historic Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.

In 1884, Pete Browning became one of the first professional players to purchase and use the company's bats.

Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research named Pete Browning the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend for 2009 — a 19th-century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.