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| Photo:Getty Images/Focus On Sports |
Brock finished his career with the most stolen bases in major league history (Since surpassed by Rickey Henderson) with 938, finished with over 3,000 hits, and hit over .300 on eight occasions.
Brock's 118 stolen bases in 1974 still stand today as second highest in modern baseball history behind the new standard of 130 set by Rickey Henderson in 1982.
Only days after the baseball world lost Tom Seaver, another Hall of Famer and all-time great would leave us as Lou Brock passed away at the age of 81.
Brock finished his career with the most stolen bases in major league history (Since surpassed by Rickey Henderson) with 938, finished with over 3,000 hits, and hit over .300 on eight occasions.
Brock is the only player in major league history to steal fifty or more bases in twelve consecutive seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1985.
The left-handed-hitting Brock was the most feared runner of his time, but he wasn't only a slap hitter, Brock hit double-digits in homers six times and it was Brock that is one of only two players in history (Joe Adcock) to smash a homer that reached the right-field bleachers at the home of the New York Giants and first few seasons of the Mets, the Polo Grounds.
The power of Lou Brock may have contributed to why he was considered a disappointment with the Chicago Cubs, who wondered why Brock didn't turn out to be the expected power threat for the Cubbies with only nine homers in each of his two full seasons at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs also may have lost Brock to a lack of coaching because of the college of coaches, a rotating bunch that took turns in managing the team.
I've always believed that the college of coaches may have hurt Brock's development as the coaching staff could have been more concerned about their upcoming (or brooding about their concluded) run as a manager, leaving Brock ( and likely other prospects as well) to fend for themselves at the big league level and slowing or even ruining their development.
I suppose the lack of development in Brock's game made the Cubs willing to move him and midway through the 1964 season, the Cubs traded him to rival St. Louis when the Cardinals were willing to offer righthanded pitcher Ernie Broglio.
Broglio had won 20 games in 1960, 18 the season before, and at 28 Broglio was far from aging.
What the Cubs didn't know was that Broglio was about to break down and would win seven games in his two and a half years in Chicago before retiring at the age of 30.
Meanwhile, Brock's arrival in St.Louis led the Cardinals from far behind in the National League race to catch Philadelphia, and Brock's baserunning abandon was given credit for much of the rally.
Brock has stated that the Cubs never allowed him to steal on his own and the numbers bear that out.
Brock almost matched his total of stolen bases in 1962 and 63 in the half-season that Brock spent in St.Louis (40 to 34) as the Cardinals immediately gave him the green light whenever he chose.
Brock would lead the league in steals every year from 1966-1974 with the exception of 1970 and merely having Brock on the basepaths would drive pitchers wild.
Brock's 118 steals in 1974 broke Maury Wills all-time record and he did so at 35, an advanced age to do so during any era, let alone the seventies.
Brock's average rose in the 1970s even as the Cardinals dropped in the standings as Brock used his speed to its best advantage to the newly installed artificial turf at Busch Stadium.
Brock hit well even in his final season in 1979, hitting .304 in 120 games, but the same artificial turf that allowed him to flourish began to slow his legs, but Brock still finished with 21 steals on the year to conclude his career with 938.
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Brock not only helped the 1964 Cardinals to the World Series, but he also was a key member of the 1967 and 1968 Cardinals that won the title in 1967 before losing it in 1968.
All three of those World Series went seven games and in Brock's 21 postseason games, Brock hit .391 with four homers in 87 at-bats along with 14 steals.
However, it was one play that Brock might be remembered most for in a World Series and that play (along with others of course) may have cost St.Louis the series.
Brock's speed and baserunning were already feared throughout baseball but before the end of the 1968 season, the Detroit Tigers scouts had noticed that when Brock was on second and a base hit was struck that teams conceded the run and would be happy to keep the secondary runner at first.
Brock had begun to glide around third base at less than full speed, and he didn't have to slide and the Tigers practiced trying to throw Brock out and they would get only one try to catch Brock sleeping.
Tim Wendell's book Summer of 68 tells the story as the Cardinals led 3-2 in the fifth inning of game five with the Cardinals leading the series 3-1 needing only to finish the next few innings for back to back championships.
Julian Javier singled to left and Brock rounded third and figured to go in standing up as usual, but Willie Horton's throw bounded to catcher Bill Freehan on one hop, where a waiting Freehan blocked the plate and tagged a surprised Brock on the arm for the out.
Had Brock slid into home, he would have scored easily as Horton's throw would have never allowed Freehan to dip down and tag a sliding Brock in time.
The Tigers would rally to win game five and then the final two games in St.Louis for the upset victory and the Cardinals would never again reach the World Series in Brock's career.
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Brock's health had suffered in recent years with bouts with blood cancer and an infection that forced his left leg to be amputated below the knee in 2015.
Brock was known by people in the game and by fans as one of the nicer people to meet and I don't remember anyone taking shots at him in any way.
One more great player of my childhood walks away from us for good and when it's a classy person like Lou Brock it seems like we have lost even more.
Part of youth is remembering the stars in sports as special and for people that grew up in the eighties and nineties, their belief is that Rickey Henderson is the greatest base stealer ever because he was the king when they were young and the numbers back that up.
However, to this child of the seventies, no matter the statistics, the base-stealing king will always be Lou Brock.
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