Brown Played for Chicago

My last post identified Ring Lardner as the common connection between the Important Literature books listed by Mr. Fenn. I have also revealed that the previous clue answer hints to the solution of the next clue. That answer (too far to walk) is 90 feet or the distance of a walk in baseball., thus baseball is the hint to whom is Brown and where is his home. Before we can identify his identity we need to follow the sub-clues laid down by Ring Lardner.

Those sub-clues lead to Chicago or more specifically the Chicago White Sox. There are several hint's to baseball and sports in Mr. Fenn's scrapbooks and more subtle ones in his books. The first one is this quote from The Thrill of the Chase, "All six of them would just sit there like wet socks hanging on a clothes line, waiting their turn." Wet socks is one of those listen good hints equating to "White Sox" not to mention the photo in Scrapbook xxxxxxxxx where he sits in his underwear and white socks and a bunch of white socks hanging to dry, just like one of the 8 men who threw the 1919 World Series.

Ring Lardner was the journalist who covered what is referred to as the Black Sox scandal where 8 men were bribed to throw the 1919 World Series to their opponent the Cincinnati Reds. Note white, red and black are all tea colours, but Mr. Fenn's Tea with Olga used the tea colours black, red and green and that green colour is going to help us identify Brown's home in the next post.

I have suggested the number 8 is important through Mr. Fenn's use of the pool game (8-ball), which is the game he won his silver bracelet. Also the thumb over Philadelphia event, which is taken from the Apollo 8 mission. Of the 8 men who were accused of throwing the World Series stands out, there is one individual named Joe Jackson, also known as Shoeless Joe Jackson. If you ever were wondering why Forrest Fenn was always without shoes in his stories about roping Cody the Buffalo and the Long Ride Home (note the title contains the word "home," a baseball term).

Forrest Fenn mentions the name Joe in many of his writings and hints to Jackson, through "how deep is a hole," hinting to Jackson's Hole. Shoeless Joe Jackson could sure hit a deep ball and is known as the best hitter of all time. “Joe Nosey" in the Mysterious writings post, is a hint to Nosey Joe who goes by the name Bull Moose Jackson (1952). Of course, I have said the chest contents link to hints to the clues. The gold jaguar claw is linked to another sporting team, the Jackson-ville Jaguars. Then there are the many Forrest Fenn mirror hints, which hints to Michael Jackson (Man in the Mirror).

Shoeless Joe Jackson was thought to be illiterate, although we know Mr. Fenn as an author is very smart, his constant insistence of his lack of college education and praying for Ds and only passing high school because his father was the school principal. His spelling and grammar errors are all a ploy to hint to the illiterate Joe Jackson.

The owner of the White Sox was so angry that Shoeless Joe through the World Series, that he had them banned permanently from baseball. In the book and movie "Eight men Out," Shoeless Joe went under the assumed name "Brown."

One final though Shoeless Joe Jackson was the ghost character who played baseball with Kevin Costner in the Iowa cornfield converted to a baseball diamond in the movie Field of Dreams. The author of the book Shoeless Joe Jackson (of which Field of dreams is based), Canadian author WP Kinsella thought baseball was a metaphor for his life, which ironically is exactly what Forrest Fenn said about "too far to walk."

The most convincing circular coincidence that ties this all together is the character Ray Kinsella (the name of Costner's character) seeks out J. D. Salinger in the book version. In the movie J. D. Salinger's name is changed to Terence Mann played by James Earl Jones.

Next post will reveal where is Brown's home and how it relates to Forrest Fenn's past. Mr. Fenn's clue, “It is not in a outhouse" is more revealing when looking at it literally, OUT (baseball) - house (home plate).

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