Baseball's comic all-star

COMEDIAN JOE E. BROWN (1892-1973), the oversexed millionaire who falls for Jack Lemmon's in-drag character from Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959), was a huge baseball fan. Not only was he a fine player, he enjoyed and excelled at the entertainment and spectacle aspects of the game. Moreover, since the World Series was born during his childhood, the sport became a central defining component for him. In fact, baseball surfaces throughout Brown's life and career in 10 meaningful ways.

First, there was simple joy of playing the game, which lasted long after his youth. As late as the 1930s, his Warner Bros. film contract stipulated that his employers fund a studio team. (Friend, fellow comedian, and baseball aficionado Buster Keaton often provided the rival diamond nine.)

Second, the new national game was so popular in the early 1900s that semi-professional teams popped up everywhere. One of young Brown's perennial part-time jobs was playing for various clubs.

Third, Brown was a good enough ballplayer that the New York Yankees considered adding him to their minor league farm system.

Fourth, as a touring vaudevillian, Brown frequently found himself in the company of on-the-road baseball players. Thus, like his friend Will Rogers, Brown often worked out with different major league teams at various ballparks.

Fifth, the comedian's greatest films arguably were the baseball trilogy of "Fireman Save My Child" (1932), "Elmer the Great" (1933), and "Alibi Ike" (1935).

Sixth, the comedian was so identified with the sport that, when he entertained troops during World War II, popular demand required that part of his stand-up shtick be diamond-directed. When one such wartime performance later involved some Japanese prisoners, those "who could speak English said they had seen his 'Elmer the Great' movies. [And] they wanted to talk baseball," according to Brown.

Seventh, not only was baseball material something Brown never tired of, it also was a way of periodically recharging his batteries. In 1940, for instance, he returned to the stage in a production of "Elmer the Great." In 1947, Brown recorded a double-album entitled "How to Play Baseball," with the comedian explaining the national pastime to a youngster named Elmer.

Eighth, the man with the famous mouth long maintained professional ties with the sport, from being a 1953 New York Yankees television announcer to doubling that same year as the president of the national Pony Leagues (for 13- and 14-year-olds).

Ninth, the ongoing significance of the sport was such that, throughout Brown's life, his conversations were peppered with baseball references and stories. Fittingly, a sizable portion of Brown's 1956 autobiography, Laughter Is a Wonderful Thing, concentrates on baseball. For example, he wrote at length about his hometown (Toledo, Ohio) Trolley League. This was semipro ball, with Brown able to earn pocket money while playing with some of his older local diamond heroes. His favorite was a bartender/outfielder named Billy Smith, whose fame was based upon a putout that anticipated Willie Mays' later celebrated catch of a Vic Wertz blast during the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians. Both of these defensive gems were predicated upon the fielder needing to turn his back to the ball in order to race to the deepest part of center field. Then, with an outfield wall bearing down upon him, he makes an over-the-back basket catch of what should have been an extra-base hit.

While Mays' amazing effort is forever preserved on film, Smith's memorable moment is lost to time, except for the oral tradition of those who originally saw the catch. Regardless, playing with this local legend meant a great deal to the baseball-obsessed Brown.

Finally, Brown was a pioneering collector of baseball memorabilia. These prized possessions included Hall of Famer Tris Speaker's spikes from the 1920 World Series; Pittsburgh Pirate Paul Waner's bat from one of Big Poison's National League batting title years (Waner's younger brother Lloyd, also an excellent hitter, was known as "Little Poison"); a Babe Ruth bat from the Bambino's legendary 60-home run season in 1927; and Gas House Gang pitcher Dizzy Dean's St. Louis Cardinals uniform from the 1934 World Series, which eventually found its way to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brown's most prized item, however, was a gift from his New York Yankee pal Lou Gehrig. At the end of the 1939 season, in which Gehrig had given his now celebrated "luckiest man on the face of the Earth" speech (after being forced from the game by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), the "Iron Horse" gave Brown his last first baseman's glove.

Ultimately, the comic passed his passion for the game onto his beloved son, Joe L. Brown, who spent his adult life in professional baseball. The 1955 capstone to that career was Joe L. becoming general manager of the Pirates. Appropriately, when the comedian received his celebrated "Some Like It Hot" part just four years later, even that had a baseball catalyst. Director Billy Wilder and Brown were passionate Los Angeles Dodger fans. As Wilder kept running into the comedian at games, he decided Brown would be perfect for his picture!