Lou Brock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lou Brock | |
|---|---|
| Outfielder | |
| Batted: Left | Threw: Left |
| MLB debut | |
| September 10, 1961 for the Chicago Cubs | |
| Final game | |
| September 30, 1979 for the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| Career statistics | |
| AVG | .293 |
| HR | 149 |
| RBI | 900 |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 for pitcher Ernie Broglio of the St. Louis Cardinals. 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. Interestingly, after the trade was announced, a writer for the Sporting News wrote that the Cubs had "picked the Cardinals pocket" on this trade.
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| Lou Brock is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame |
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.
[edit] Facts and Stats
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 overshadows his fine hitting, which is a shame, as he collected 3,023 hits in his illustrious career.
That same year, Brock hit 5 home runs in the first 4 games of the season, becoming the first player to do so. The odd part is that Brock was not generally considered a power hitter. However, in his rookie season, 1962, Brock became one of the very few players to hit a home run into the center-field bleachers at the old Polo Grounds in New York (Joe Adcock and Henry Aaron were the others). 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.
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.
[edit] Awards, honors and life after baseball
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".
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.
[edit] Trivia
- Brock hit one of the only three home runs ever hit over the center field wall at the Polo Grounds. 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.
- Brock also was the first player ever to bat in a 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.
- Brock 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 diving back into first. He also 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.
[edit] External links
- Lou Brock at:
| Preceded by Frank Robinson |
Babe Ruth Award 1967 |
Succeeded by Mickey Lolich |
| Preceded by Willie Stargell |
National League Player of the Month May 1971 |
Succeeded by Willie Stargell |
| Preceded by Don Gullett |
National League Player of the Month August 1974 |
Succeeded by Joe Morgan |
| Preceded by Don Sutton |
Lou Gehrig Memorial Award 1977 |
Succeeded by Don Kessinger |
| Preceded by George Foster |
National League Player of the Month May 1979 |
Succeeded by George Foster |
| Preceded by Willie Stargell |
NL Comeback Player of the Year 1979 |
Succeeded by Jerry Reuss |
| Preceded by Maury Wills |
Major League Baseball single season stolen base record holder 1974–1982 |
Succeeded by Rickey Henderson |
Categories: Major league players from Arkansas | 1939 births | Living people | Lou Gehrig Memorial Award | National League All-Stars | 3000 hit club | African American baseball players | Baseball Hall of Fame | Chicago Cubs players | Major league left fielders | People from Arkansas | St. Louis Cardinals players | Phi Beta Sigma brothers | Major League Baseball announcers | Baseball players who have hit for the cycle
