Lou-u-u-u!!!!

As church was ending Sunday night, Jonathan let me know that he had gotten an alert that Lou Brock had died at the age of 81. He had been in bad health, but this was still a shocker to me.

The first year I really got into baseball was 1974 when I was 12. I rooted for the St Louis Cardinals of course. Lou Brock was the left fielder for that team. He began to steal bases that season at an astounding rate. The record for stolen bases in a season was 104 by Maury Wills. Lou Brock was stealing bases at a rate that would beat that record. The Cardinals were in a tight division race all year with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Lou Brock’s great year helped keep them in the race. I remember listening on the radio when Lou Brock broke the record. He would ultimately steal 118 bases. The Cardinals ultimately lost the division in a large part to the Cubs blowing a game to Pittsburgh (on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the 9th that allowed the Pirates to tie and ultimately win the division clinching game). Lou Brock finished second in the MVP race to Steve Garvey of the Dodgers. I felt the only reason that happened was Garvey’s team won the pennant that year (and were easily beaten by the A’s in the World Series that year). 

Lou Brock was my first favorite baseball player. His base stealing that year captivated me. We even tried to incorporate stolen bases that year in our pick up baseball games. We didn’t have catchers so we had to make our own rules as to what a stolen base was. The pitcher had to throw over to a base you were leading off from in order for you to try and steal a base. If you took an extra base on a hit (say going first to third on a single) that counted. I remember Joe Ford and I both stole 59 bases that year. We didn’t keep up with stolen bases again in any future year.

I read with interest of the infamous trade (Brock for Broglio) that brought Lou Brock to the Cardinals in 1964 and spurred them to a pennant and finally a World Series win over the Yankees. Lou Brock was at his best in the World Series. He hit .391 in three Series (a record for anyone playing over 20 games). His 14 stolen bases in the World Series is a record. I remember him breaking TY Cobb’s career stolen base record (with 893) in 1977. I was working at the Paducah Drive In in 1979 when I heard Lou Brock (on the radio) literally knock Dennis Lamp of the Cubs out of the game by lining his 3000th hit off of the pitcher’s hand. Brock won the National League Comeback Player of the Year that year as well rebounding from hitting .221 the year before to hit .304. He retired after that year.

Lou Brock revolutionized base stealing. He bought a movie camera and would take films of pitchers to pick up particular movements that made on the mound to give him a better idea of their pickoff moves and when they were going to pitch so he could get a better jump. He revolutionized the pop-up slide. Using that slide, he could immediately be in a position to advance should a throw be bad. He led the National League in steals every year but one from 1966 to 1974. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1985. Base stealing has fallen off severely in the last decade or so. The MLB leader in steals last year stole only 46. 

Lou Brock was a successful man outside of baseball as well. He was also a very articulate man. Donna and I went to see him and Red Schoendienst a few years ago at Busch Stadium. He told many wonderful stories of his days in baseball with the Cardinals. I still have my autographed baseball that has both his and Red’s signatures on it. He came back to Busch Stadium often and was always greeted with an enthusiastic “Lou-u-u-u-u!” from the crowd.

It made me sad to hear someone who was a big part of my life pass away. It also makes my realize my own mortality when my favorite players of my youth pass away. Thanks for the memories Lou…

An Evening with Red and Lou

Last month, an email arrived for me touting “An Evening with Red and Lou”. This was of course (as any Cardinal fan knows) an evening with Lou Brock and Red Schoendienst. Lou Brock was my first favorite St Louis Cardinal player. The first year I started being really interested in the Cardinals was in 1974 when Lou Brock broke Maury Wills stolen base record. Red Schoendienst was the Cardinal manager that year. I wanted to go but I’d knew I’d spent a lot of money on ball games over the past few months. Donna came to me and having gotten the same email, urged me to go. She agreed to go with me so I went ahead and got a couple of tickets.

We ended up going the day before and I got to even see the Cardinals Reds game for cheap that night. Our hotel was only about two blocks from Busch Stadium (where the event would be held). On Monday night, we walked on over and waited in line for the gate to open. Donna suddenly noticed that Lou Brock was being driven in on a golf cart prompting chants of “Lou” from the crowd. The doors opened at 6 and we were promptly led down the stairs through the Cardinal Club and onto the warning track on the field!

We were allowed to walk from one dugout to the other on the warning track and sit in both. The field was roped off so my dream of throwing a pitch from the mound will have to wait. The 1967 World Series trophy was available for a photo op so we got our pictures made with it and were each given a complimentary copy. Several people carried around trays of food. One was small pieces of Beef Wellington which were excellent. The other was deep fried artichoke. I’d never tried an artichoke in my life but we tried them. They were not bad, they tasted somewhat like an eggroll. After about an hour, we were ushered upstairs to the Redbird club for dinner.

We had an interesting group at our table. One couple had been married for 53 years and their family had bought them tickets. There was one gentleman from the area who was a staunch Blues fan and kept up with that all night. A couple of young men were from Carbondale. One of them had a friend who worked on John Calapari’s staff at Kentucky. He soon moved to a seat next to me when he found out I was a UK fan/alum to show me photos he had of the locker room and discuss UK basketball. The food was excellent – Mushroom stuffed chicken, mashed red potatoes and the best grilled asparagus I’d ever eaten. For dessert, we had an excellent chocolate custard.

Finally, it was time for the main event. Dan McLaughlin (FOX Midwest broadcaster) introduced Lou and Red to huge cheers from the crowd. Dan talked to them for about an hour and a half asking them all sorts of questions about their baseball careers. It was especially funny to hear about Red’s tryout for the Cardinals when Branch Rickey’s secretary gave him a quarter to get him through spending the night. He tried to sleep on a bench at Union Station but was kicked out. He ended up in a “fleabag” motel which he woke the next day covered in bedbug bites! Red was especially entertaining and held up quite well for being a 92 year old. I loved every minute of the Q&A session and Donna admitted she enjoyed it as well. As we left, we got our final gift - a baseball enclosed in Plexiglas personally signed by both Red and Lou.

I am already excited to go back for another one. Dan McLaughlin said they were trying to set up another one of these with Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee – two of my favorite players from the 1980s Whitey Herzog teams. If you are a big Cardinal fan (like me), it’s something I’d recommend doing.