Lou Brock: 1939-2020

Lou Brock on the basepath at Busch Stadium during the 1970's.

Lou Brock, ready to hit.

Lou Brock with his Brockabrella and some ice cream, 1976.

Lou Brock throwing out the first pitch at a Cardinals game in 2016.

It’s been a sad couple of weeks for baseball, as another Hall of Famer passed away. Lou Brock died at age 81 on Sunday, September 6th. Brock was one of most exciting players of his era. He’s another player, similar to Tom Seaver, that no one ever had a bad thing to say about. There’s hardly a picture of Lou Brock where he isn’t smiling. Unless he’s on the basepaths, of course. Then he was all business. 

Brock was born in Arkansas and grew up in Louisiana. He was the son of sharecroppers, and he didn’t play organized baseball until he was a junior in high school. He attended Southern University and was signed by the Chicago Cubs in 1960. Brock made his professional debut in Minnesota with the St. Cloud Rox of the Northern League in 1961. That season, Brock led the Northern League in games, runs, hits, doubles, and batting average, hitting .361. He also stole 38 bases. It was the only time he spent in the minor leagues. 

Lou Brock was always known for his speed, but he flashed power at the plate as well. In 1962 he hit a ball into the center field bleachers at the Polo Grounds, about 450 feet away. The only other players to do that in a major league game since the 1923 remodeling of the Polo Grounds were Hank Aaron and Joe Adcock. (Pitcher Schoolboy Rowe did it in batting practice, as did Luke Easter in a Negro League game.) 

With the Cubs, Brock never quite found his groove. When he got off to a slow start in 1964, they decided to trade him to the St. Louis Cardinals. The trade was a six-player deal, but it’s always summarized as “Brock for Broglio.” (One of the other players involved was Bobby Shantz, who was the AL MVP in 1952 when he went 24-7 for the Philadelphia A’s.) Ernie Broglio was one of the Cardinals’ best pitchers. He won 21 games in 1960, tied for the league lead, and was coming off a season where he went 18-8 with a 2.99 ERA. It was widely guessed at the time that the Cubs had made the better trade. However, the Cubs didn’t know that Broglio was injured, and he would pitch in just 59 games for the Cubs, winning 7 games before his last major league game in 1966. 

At the time of the trade, Brock had been hitting .251 for the Cubs, and he hit a blistering .348 for the Cardinals for the rest of the season, as he helped lead the Redbirds to the NL pennant. Brock hit an even .300 in the World Series, with nine hits, one home run, and five RBIs, as the Cardinals beat the Yankees in seven games. Oddly enough, Brock didn’t attempt any stolen bases during the World Series. 

The Cardinals won the pennant again in 1967 and 1968. Both World Series went seven games, with the Cardinals beating the Red Sox in 1967, and falling to the Tigers in 1968. Brock was a star in both Series, as he stole seven bases in each Series, setting a World Series record that still stands. In 1967 Brock hit .414, and in 1968 he hit .464, giving him a World Series batting average of .391. Brock hit four home runs in the three World Series he played in. 

In 1965, Brock stole 63 bases, 20 more than in 1964. In 1966, he led the NL for the first time in steals with 74. It was the beginning of an incredible run of leading the NL in stolen bases for 8 of the next 9 years. That run was capped off by Brock’s amazing 1974 season, when at age 35, he stole a record 118 bases. Brock also led the league in caught stealing in 1974, with 33, which means that he attempted 151 steals in 1974. That takes guts. Lou Brock got on base 257 times in 1974, so 58% of the time he got on base he tried to steal. 

In 1977 Brock broke Ty Cobb’s career record for stolen bases when he thieved his 893rd bag. In 1978, Brock’s skills sharply declined, as he hit just .221 and lost his starting job in left field. It looked like Brock might not make it to 3,000 hits. He went into the 1979 season at 2,900 hits. Brock announced at the beginning of the 1979 season that it would be his last year. At age 40, he bounced back to bat .304, and he got hit number 3,000 at Busch Stadium on August 13, 1979. Ironically enough, it was against the Cubs. Speaking after the game, Brock said “I’ve always wanted to leave baseball in a blaze of glory. I’ve always wanted to orchestrate my own exodus and I’m doing a pretty good job of it.” Brock was also an All-Star in his final season. 

Lou Brock was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, in 1985. Brock remained an immensely popular figure in St. Louis, where he made his home. 

I met Lou Brock twice at baseball card shows. The first time was when I was a kid, in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. I think it was a card show at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, where Brock was appearing with his old teammate Bob Gibson. I remember that they had run out of 8X10 photos of Brock, so I got his signature on a 4X6 postcard. I don’t remember anything specific about my encounter with Brock and Gibson that day, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything to Bob Gibson, who I was a little intimidated by, because I knew what a fierce competitor he was. (I’ve met Gibson twice since then, and he’s a nice guy. But I still wouldn’t want to face him in the batters’ box.) The second time I met Brock was in 2013. I was struck by what a nice, genuine person he seemed to be. Brock was joking with a girl in line in front of me about how he was a “mean old man,” all the while with a huge grin on his face. I told Brock that I had met him once before at a card show, and he thanked me for coming to see him again. I told him that he had been a teammate of my favorite player, Steve Carlton, and Lou said jokingly, “I didn’t like him after we traded him to the Phillies.” He was beaming the whole time we chatted, and he added an extra inscription to my photo, signing it “To Mark: My friend!” Lou was wearing a very colorful sweater, and he looked great, like he could have gone out on the field that afternoon and stolen another base or two. I’ll always have fond memories my short interaction with Lou Brock. 

Every story I’ve read about Lou Brock has reinforced his niceness: like Tom Seaver, nobody has an unpleasant anecdote about Lou Brock. There’s a funny story about the first time Seaver and Brock met, at the 1967 All-Star Game. Seaver was a rookie that year, and he had only faced the Cardinals once. (Brock had two at-bats against Seaver and collected two singles.) Brock thought Seaver was a clubhouse attendant and said to him, “Hey, kid, get me a Coke!” Seaver replied, “Get your own fucking Coke, I’m on the team.” A stunned Brock asked, “Who are you?” 

Brock would quickly learn who Seaver was, as Seaver was the pitcher that Brock faced more than any other in his career, and Brock was the hitter that Seaver faced the most during his career. In 157 plate appearances, Brock hit .250 off Seaver, with 10 doubles, and one home run. That’s well below Brock’s career average of .293, but it’s more than respectable against one of the greatest pitchers of all time. And Seaver did strike out Brock 21 times. 

Since Brock’s playing days, the stolen base has gone out of fashion in baseball. Rickey Henderson broke Brock’s career stolen base record in 1991. Since then, the closest a player has come to Brock’s total of 938 steals is Tim Raines, with 808. Now that Rajai Davis seems to have retired, the active stolen base leader is Dee Gordon, also known as Dee Strange-Gordon, with 331. I think Brock’s NL record of 938 steals will stand for a long time to come, which is a fitting tribute for such a great player.