Tommy Brown, the only player in AL/NL history to homer before his 18th birthday and the last living member of the historic 1947 Dodgers, died on Wednesday at the age of 97.

Born in Brooklyn in 1927, Brown signed with the then-hometown Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943. He made his MLB debut at just 16 years old when he started at shortstop at Ebbets Field on Aug. 3, 1944, against the Cubs.

Brown remains the youngest position player to debut in AL/NL history -- and the second-youngest player overall behind only Joe Nuxhall, who recorded two outs as a 15-year-old for the Reds in 1944 during the World War II player shortage.

A little more than a year later, Brown hit his first career home run off four-time All-Star pitcher Preacher Roe in an Aug. 20, 1945, loss to the Pirates at Ebbets Field. Just 17 years old at the time, Brown remains the youngest player to homer in an MLB game.

Brown then missed the 1946 season while serving in the U.S. Army, but he returned to the Dodgers in '47. It was that same year that trailblazing Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Brown and Robinson remained teammates until 1951, when Brown was traded to the Phillies midseason.

Brown was not only the last living member of that groundbreaking 1947 Dodgers club, but he was the last living position player who played in the Majors at any point in the 1940s. The only living player to appear in an AL/NL game in that decade is now 1952 AL MVP Bobby Shantz, a four-time All-Star pitcher.