As the story goes, this child, born in El Dorado, Arkansas, into a family of sharecroppers, had to write a book report about baseball as punishment for “spitting on a teacher.” This assignment/ punishment was designed to teach him about life beyond Collinston, Louisiana, where he lived after moving there at age two, but it also served to introduce him to BASEBALL!
He did not play organized baseball until 11th grade, but as he grew up, he was a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and learned much from listening to St. Louis Cardinals Baseball broadcaster, Harry Caray, describe various aspects of the game on the air.
Again, as the story goes, while attending Southern University in Baton Rouge, low grades made him fear he would lose his academic assistance (type of scholarship); therefore, he tried out for the school’s baseball team in hopes of gaining an athletic scholarship!
He started slowly there his first year but hit for a .500 average the next and went on to help his team win the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Baseball Championship and was selected for the U. S. Team in the 1959 Pan American Games.
Initially intending to try to be a St. Louis Cardinal, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs as a “free agent” in 1960. In 1961, he won the Northern League (minors) batting championship with a .361 average!
For the Cubs, he hit some homeruns and aspired to be a power hitter, but he had great speed and base-running skills—a natural! How ever, by 1964 the Cubs had not been impressed by a .260 batting average and lost patience, making him part of a trade with St. Louis for Ernie Broglio, who had won 18 games the previous year! Most “experts” thought the Cubs had “gotten a steal!” But….the deal turned out to be, instead, a “steal” for the Cardinals!
Mr. Lou Brock became one of the best base-sealers and lead-off hitters in the history of baseball and was instrumental in making the Cardinals three-time pennant winners and two-time World Series Champs in the 1960s.
During the past years, this speedster had been suffering from diabetes and some form of cancer, but his recent death at age 81 was not expected by most.
During his amazing major league career, “BROCK” stole 938 bases, and an unheard-of 118 in 1974. Both numbers were major league records until someone named Rickey Henderson (just kidding; “Everyone” who knows baseball knows about Rickey Henderson!) surpassed them later.
If you put Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and Bob Gibson together with other good players, which the Cardinals did, you have one of the most aggressive teams in the 1960s, one which made the American League teams take notice of their style.
LOUIS CLARK BROCK was a lifetime .293 batter, accumulating 3,023 career hits, scoring 100 or more runs in a season seven times, and leading the National League in steals eight times.
I would like to conclude this little snapshot of one of the best players ever (even though I was a New York Yankees fan during his career) with a quote that I had heard when I was a young pitcher and first baseman but did not know its originator. In his memoir, he tells readers/fans/impressionable young players the following: “STEALING—take a modest lead and stand perfectly still. The pitcher is obligated to move, if only to deliver the pitch. Furthermore, he has TWO things on his mind— the batter and ME! I have only ONE thing in mind—to STEAL off him. The very business of disconcerting him is marvelously complex.”
And though this description from Mr. Brock is probably a little “tongue-in-cheek,” it is so profound!
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