Lou Brock

Louis Clark "Lou" Brock (born June 18, 1939, El Dorado, Arkansas) is an American former player in Major League Baseball. Brock was a left fielder who played his career with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. He batted and threw left-handed.

Early life

Brock was born in El Dorado, Arkansas and played college baseball at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He signed with the Cubs as an amateur free agent and broke into the Majors in 1961.

Brock for Broglio

Brock was blessed with great speed and baserunning instincts, but his numbers with the Cubs failed to impress the Cubs management, which had played him at right field in Wrigley, a daunting task for any young player, while severely restricting his base-stealing ability. In 1964 after losing patience with his development, the Cubs gave up on Brock and made him part of a trade the Cubs made at the trading deadline (June 15) for pitcher Ernie Broglio of the St. Louis Cardinals, as part of a six-player deal overall. Cardinals general manager Bing Devine, however, specifically sought Brock at the insistence of Cardinals' manager Johnny Keane to increase team speed and solidify the Cardinals' lineup, struggling after the retirement of left fielder Stan Musial in 1963.

After Brock was traded to the Cardinals, his career turned around significantly, as he batted .348 for the Cardinals in the remainder of the 1964 season and stole 38 bases, leading them to winning the 1964 World Series. As Brock's career continued to thrive with the Cardinals, Broglio's crashed, and he was out of baseball by 1966. Brock on the other hand, had many more successful seasons playing with the Cardinals until his last season of play in 1979. To this day, the Brock for Broglio trade is considered by Cubs fans to be the worst in franchise history. However, at the time many thought the deal would benefit the Cubs. After the trade was announced, a writer for The Sporting News wrote that the Cubs had "picked the Cardinals' pocket" with this trade.

During his career, Brock helped the Cardinals to National League pennant in 1964, 1967, and 1968 and to World Series championships in 1964 and 1967, defeating the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, respectively. The Cardinals suffered one World Series loss during Brock's tenure. That was in 1968 against the Detroit Tigers - the Tigers rallied from down three games to one behind the excellent pitching of Mickey Lolich.

Facts and Stats

Lou Brock (center) with two fans

In 1967, Brock became the first player to steal 50 bases and hit 20 home runs in the same season.

His supreme talent for basestealing perhaps overshadowed his fine hitting, as he collected 3,023 hits in his career. He was also not particularly known as a power hitter, but he did display significant "pop" from time to time. In David Halberstam's book, "October 1964", the author states that manager Johnny Keane asked Brock to forego the power game in favor of the speed game. However, Brock got some licks in, here and there.

In his rookie season, Brock became one of three players to hit a home run into the center-field bleachers at the old Polo Grounds in New York since its 1923 reconstruction. His blast came on June 17, 1962, and would be followed by Hank Aaron's shot the very next day. Joe Adcock was the first to hit a ball over that wall, in 1953. Babe Ruth had reached the old bleachers (a comparable distance) before the reconstruction.

In 1967, Brock hit 5 home runs in the first 4 games of the season, becoming the first player to do so.

Brock remained best known for base-stealing and starting Cardinals rallies. He was said to have disdained Maury Wills' method of base-stealing, instead shortening his leads and going hard into second base, thus inflicting punishment on opposing players rather than himself by having to dive back into first base frequently. He was also an early student of game films. He used an 8mm movie camera from the dugout to film opposing pitchers and study their windups and pickoff moves to detect weaknesses he could exploit.

In a unique (if incidental) accomplishment, Brock was the first player ever to bat in a major league regular season game in Canada. He led off the April 14, 1969 game against the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park by lining out to second.

His best batting average was in 1964, when he batted .315, one of eight years he batted over .300, he was a 6-time National League All-Star, he led the league in runs two times (1967 and 1971),led the league in doubles (46 in 1968), and led the league in triples (14 in 1968).

Brock held the record for career stolen bases (938) until it was broken by Rickey Henderson. In 1974 he stole a major-league record 118 bases (breaking Maury Wills' record of 104 in 1962; Brock's single-season record was also later broken by Henderson). Brock led the National League in stolen bases eight times between 1966 and 1974 (former teammate Bobby Tolan led the league in steals in 1970).

Overall, Brock batted .293 in 19 seasons, amassing a total of 3023 hits.

Awards, honors and life after baseball

File:Brock statue.JPG

Statue of Brock outside Busch Stadium.

Brock was named the 1967 National League Babe Ruth award, the 1974 Major League Player of the Year, the 1975 Roberto Clemente Award, the 1977 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, and the 1979 Hutch Award.

Brock was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985. His number 20 was retired by the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1999, he ranked Number 58 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

After retiring from baseball, Brock prospered as a businessman, especially as a florist in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Lou Brock is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Brock still regularly appears at Cardinals games, where he is almost always greeted by a chant of "Loooouuuuuuuuuuuu".

Brock also lent his name to a unique rainhat, shaped like a miniature umbrella and to be worn at games during showers in lieu of retreating to the concourse. The product was called the "Brockabrella". There is no indication whether its name was in any way influenced by Brock's contemporary, utility man John Boccabella.

Brock and his wife are both ordained ministers serving at Abundant Life Fellowship Church in St. Louis.[1]

Brock's speed was referenced in the song Check the Rhime by the the pioneering "jazz rap" hip-hop ensemble A Tribe Called Quest

On December 5, 2006 he was recognized for his accomplishments on and off of the field when he received the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brock is the father of former USC Trojan and NFL player Lou Brock Jr.

Even though his stolen base record has been surpassed, the National League honors each stolen base leader with the Lou Brock award.

See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
• Template:Baseballcube
• Lou Brock at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• "photographs". University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Accomplishments