Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock dies at 81. Interesting history courtesy of NY Times
From The New York Times;In response to:
Lou Brock, Baseball Hall of Famer Known for Stealing Bases, Dies at 81
The son of sharecroppers, Brock attended a one-room schoolhouse, but was inspired by possibilities beyond the poverty and segregation of the rural South.
By Richard Goldstein
Published Sept. 6, 2020 Updated Sept. 7, 2020, 12:49 p.m. ET
Lou Brock, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame outfielder who in a career spanning two decades became the greatest base-stealer the major leagues had ever known when he eclipsed the single-season and career records for steals, died on Sunday. He was 81.
d*ck Zitzmann, Brock’s agent, confirmed the death to The Associated Press, but did not provide any details. Brock began receiving treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in 2017. His left leg was amputated in 2015 as a result of a diabetes-related infection.
On June 15, 1964, a floundering Cardinals team traded one of the National League’s leading pitchers for an outfielder who had failed to live up to his promise. That deal, sending the right-hander Ernie Broglio to the Chicago Cubs for Brock as the centerpiece of a six-player swap, became one of the most one-sided trades in baseball history, but hardly in the way that many envisioned.
Broglio won only seven games for the Cubs over the next two and a half seasons, then retired. Brock, sought by Cardinals Manager Johnny Keane for his largely untapped speed, helped take St. Louis to the 1964 World Series championship and went on to turn around games year after year with his feet and his bat.
Brock’s 118 stolen bases in 1974 eclipsed Maury Wills’s single-season record of 104, set in 1962, and his 938 career steals broke Ty Cobb’s mark of 892.
He led the National League in steals eight times. Although Rickey Henderson would break Brock’s stolen-base records, Brock’s luster remained undimmed. A left-handed batter, he had 3,023 hits and hit .300 eight times. He helped propel the Cardinals to three pennants and two World Series championships. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Louis Clark Brock was born on June 18, 1939, in El Dorado, Ark., and grew up in Collinston, La., in a family of sharecroppers who picked cotton. He attended a one-room schoolhouse, but at the age of 9 he was inspired by possibilities beyond the poverty and segregation of the rural South.
He was listening one night to a feed from the St. Louis radio station KMOX. Harry Caray was broadcasting a game between the Cardinals and Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers, the summer after Robinson broke the major leagues’ color barrier, a time when, as Brock put it, “Jim Crow was king.”
“I was searching the dial of an old Philco radio,” Brock recalled. and when he heard about Robinson, “I felt pride in being alive. The baseball field was my fantasy of what life offered.”
As a boy, Brock never played organized baseball. Instead of a ball and bat, he swatted rocks with tree branches. But he received an academic scholarship to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and played baseball there, catching the attention of Buck O’Neil, the longtime Negro leagues player and manager, who was scouting for the Cubs.
The Cubs’ organization signed Brock in August 1960, and he made his major league debut late in the ’61 season. But two summers later, he was batting only .251 and struggling with the Wrigley Field sun as the Cubs’ right fielder. He was considered perhaps the fastest man in the league, but the Cubs were reluctant to turn him loose on the basepaths. ....
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Lou Brock, Baseball Hall of Famer Known for Stealing Bases, Dies at 81
The son of sharecroppers, Brock attended a one-room schoolhouse, but was inspired by possibilities beyond the poverty and segregation of the rural South.
By Richard Goldstein
Published Sept. 6, 2020 Updated Sept. 7, 2020, 12:49 p.m. ET
Lou Brock, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame outfielder who in a career spanning two decades became the greatest base-stealer the major leagues had ever known when he eclipsed the single-season and career records for steals, died on Sunday. He was 81.
d*ck Zitzmann, Brock’s agent, confirmed the death to The Associated Press, but did not provide any details. Brock began receiving treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in 2017. His left leg was amputated in 2015 as a result of a diabetes-related infection.
On June 15, 1964, a floundering Cardinals team traded one of the National League’s leading pitchers for an outfielder who had failed to live up to his promise. That deal, sending the right-hander Ernie Broglio to the Chicago Cubs for Brock as the centerpiece of a six-player swap, became one of the most one-sided trades in baseball history, but hardly in the way that many envisioned.
Broglio won only seven games for the Cubs over the next two and a half seasons, then retired. Brock, sought by Cardinals Manager Johnny Keane for his largely untapped speed, helped take St. Louis to the 1964 World Series championship and went on to turn around games year after year with his feet and his bat.
Brock’s 118 stolen bases in 1974 eclipsed Maury Wills’s single-season record of 104, set in 1962, and his 938 career steals broke Ty Cobb’s mark of 892.
He led the National League in steals eight times. Although Rickey Henderson would break Brock’s stolen-base records, Brock’s luster remained undimmed. A left-handed batter, he had 3,023 hits and hit .300 eight times. He helped propel the Cardinals to three pennants and two World Series championships. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Louis Clark Brock was born on June 18, 1939, in El Dorado, Ark., and grew up in Collinston, La., in a family of sharecroppers who picked cotton. He attended a one-room schoolhouse, but at the age of 9 he was inspired by possibilities beyond the poverty and segregation of the rural South.
He was listening one night to a feed from the St. Louis radio station KMOX. Harry Caray was broadcasting a game between the Cardinals and Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers, the summer after Robinson broke the major leagues’ color barrier, a time when, as Brock put it, “Jim Crow was king.”
“I was searching the dial of an old Philco radio,” Brock recalled. and when he heard about Robinson, “I felt pride in being alive. The baseball field was my fantasy of what life offered.”
As a boy, Brock never played organized baseball. Instead of a ball and bat, he swatted rocks with tree branches. But he received an academic scholarship to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and played baseball there, catching the attention of Buck O’Neil, the longtime Negro leagues player and manager, who was scouting for the Cubs.
The Cubs’ organization signed Brock in August 1960, and he made his major league debut late in the ’61 season. But two summers later, he was batting only .251 and struggling with the Wrigley Field sun as the Cubs’ right fielder. He was considered perhaps the fastest man in the league, but the Cubs were reluctant to turn him loose on the basepaths. ....
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(continued in my first comment below)
Comments (4)
( Also...Bob Clemente...Willie Mays...Rusty Staub..
Joe Morgan et al.). ...baseball at 72°F ...it's..
MAH- velous !