Today in Postseason History: Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown clinches World Series for the Cubs

Besides having the best, most apt nickname in the history of baseball, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown had 239 wins, a 2.06 ERA and two World Series championships to his credit. He posted six straight 20-win seasons from 1906-11 -- the last of which featured him closing 13 games to go along with his 21 wins.

After a childhood accident involving his farm's feed chopper, Brown lost most of his index finger and severely damaged the rest of the digits on his throwing hand. He later fell while that hand was healing and re-broke many of the bones.

Perhaps more astonishing than the fact that a guy with only three good fingers grew up to be a Hall of Fame pitcher is that those two World Series championships were with the Cubs. On Oct. 12, 1907, Brown pitched a two-hit shutout against Ty Cobb and the Tigers to win Game 5 and clinch the first World Series in Cubs history.

Brown and the Cubs repeated in 1908 and infamously haven't won a Fall Classic since, thanks in part (maybe) to the Curse of the Billy Goat.