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Louis Clark Brock (June 18, 1939September 6, 2020) was an American professional baseball left fielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent most of it as a left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. An All-Star for six seasons, Brock was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 in his first year of eligibility and was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014.
Best known for stolen base, Brock once held the major league records for most bases stolen in a single season and in a career. He led the National League (NL) in stolen bases in eight seasons. A member of the 3,000-hit club, he led the NL in doubles and triples in 1968, and in singles in 1972. In 1974, he was the runner-up for the NL Most Valuable Player Award. After retiring as a player, he served as a special instructor coach for the Cardinals.
Brock had great speed and base running instincts, but the young right fielder failed to impress the Cubs management, hitting for only a combined .260 average over his first two seasons. In 1964 after losing patience with his development, the Cubs gave up on Brock and made him part of a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals. The June 15 deadline deal for pitcher Ernie Broglio saw Brock, Jack Spring, and Paul Toth head to St. Louis for Broglio, Bobby Shantz, and Doug Clemens. Cardinals general manager Bing Devine specifically sought Brock at the insistence of Cardinals' manager Johnny Keane to increase team speed and solidify the Cardinals' lineup, which was struggling after the retirement of left fielder Stan Musial in 1963. At the time, many thought the deal was a heist for the Cubs. Broglio had led the National League in wins four years earlier, and had won 18 games the season before the trade.
In 1966, Brock ended Maury Wills' six-year reign as the National League's stolen base champion with 74 steals. In David Halberstam's book, October 1964, the author stated manager Johnny Keane asked Brock to forgo hitting home runs in favor of stealing bases. Brock went on to lead the National League in stolen bases eight times within a nine-year span between 1966 and 1974 (former teammate Bobby Tolan led the league in steals in 1970).
Brock began the 1967 season by hitting five home runs in the first four games of the season, becoming the first player to do so (Barry Bonds tied this record in 2002). He was hitting for a .328 average by mid-June to earn the role as the starting left fielder for the National League in the 1967 All-Star Game. After suffering through a mid-season slump, he recovered to finish the season with a career-high 206 hits and a .299 batting average while leading the league in stolen bases and runs scored as the Cardinals won the National League pennant by ten and a half games. Brock became the first player in MLB history to steal 50 bases and hit 20 home runs in the same season. In the 1967 World Series, Brock hit for a .414 average, scored eight runs, and set a World Series record with seven stolen bases as the Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
The Cardinals won the National League pennant for a second consecutive year in 1968 as Brock once again led the league in stolen bases as well as in doubles and triples. In the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, Brock had three stolen bases in Game 3 and contributed a double, triple, home run, and four runs batted in during Game 4 to help the Cardinals build a three-games to one advantage over the Tigers. The Cardinals appeared to be on the verge of winning a second consecutive World Series, going into the fifth inning of Game 5 with a 3–2 lead. Although Brock's base running abilities had proven to be a factor in the previous four games, his carelessness may have cost the Cardinals a run. After Brock had hit a double, he tried to score standing up on Julián Javier's single to left, but Willie Horton threw him out with a strong throw to home plate. Detroit rallied for three runs in the seventh inning as Mickey Lolich shut out the Cardinals for the final eight innings to win the game for the Tigers. In Game 7, Brock had another crucial miscue when he was Pickoff base by Lolich, extinguishing a possible Cardinals rally. The Tigers rallied from being down three games to one behind the excellent pitching of Mickey Lolich to win the series. Brock once again stole seven bases and was the leading hitter in the series, posting a .464 batting average with six runs and five runs batted in.
Beginning in 1969, Brock produced six consecutive seasons with 190 hits or better. He was named NL Player of the Month for the first of three times in his career in May 1971 with a .405 batting average and 8 stolen bases. In August 1973, he broke a record set by Ty Cobb when he stole his 50th base of the season, marking the ninth time he had stolen 50 or more bases in a season. Brock won his second NL Player of the Month Award in August 1974, marking one of only four times the award was given to a player who slugged below .500.
In 1972, Brock improved on Maury Wills' method by, instead of trying to maximize lead off distance, focusing on starting with a little momentum. "Brock pioneered the rolling start," states a later Sports Illustrated article, which also maintains that base-stealing tends to be overrated as a factor in team success. So What's All The Fuss? Rickey Henderson may be the Man of the Hour but, argues the Author, Base Stealing has Never Really Amounted to Very Much, Sports Illustrated, Bill James, September 6, 1982. This article gives a historical overview of base stealing primarily of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
In a game against the San Diego Padres on August 29, 1977, at San Diego Stadium, Brock broke Ty Cobb's career record of 892 stolen bases and became the all-time major league stolen base leader. Cobb's record had been one of the most durable in baseball and, like Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs, had been considered unbreakable by some observers. Brock held this record until May 31, 1991, when it was broken by Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics, who would go on to steal a total of 1,406 bases.
Brock remained best known for base-stealing and starting Cardinals rallies. He was said to have disliked Wills' method of base-stealing, instead shortening his leads and going hard. He was also an early student of game films. In 1964, Brock acquired a movie camera and filmed opposing pitchers from the dugout to study their windups and pickoff moves to detect weaknesses he could exploit.
On August 13, 1979, in a game against the team that traded him, the Chicago Cubs, Brock became the fourteenth Major League Baseball player to garner 3,000 hits. About one month later, Carl Yastrzemski reached the same plateau and was promptly invited to the White House by Massachusetts native and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. Brock was reported to have felt slighted that he hadn't received a similar invitation. Brock originally said that he wouldn't go to the White House even if he was invited. However, after consideration, he decided that forgiveness was the best course and accepted a belated invitation to meet with the President. Brock retired at the end of the season, having posted a .304 batting average in his last season at the age of 40. At the end of the season, he was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year — the first player to be so named in his final Major League season.
Brock held the single-season stolen base record with 118 until it was broken by Rickey Henderson with 130 in 1982. He also held the major league record for a career with 938 until it was also broken by Henderson in 1991. He led the National League in stolen bases for a record eight times and also had a record 12 consecutive seasons with 50 or more stolen bases. Brock is still the National League's leader in career stolen bases.
Brock's .391 World Series batting average is the highest for anyone who played over 20 series games. His 14 stolen bases in World Series play are also a series record. Brock's 13 hits in the 1968 World Series tied a single-series record previously made by Bobby Richardson in 1964 against his Cardinals' team, and was in turn later tied in 1986 by Marty Barrett.
In October 1979, Brock was named the National League's Comeback Player of the Year. In December 1979, he was named as the recipient of the Hutch Award, given to the player who best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire of Fred Hutchinson. On September 9, 1979, the St. Louis Cardinals retired Brock's jersey number 20, an honor that had been bestowed upon only three other players; Stan Musial, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Gibson. In 1983, he was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Brock was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year of eligibility. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. Brock was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in May 1994 and, in 1995 he was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was 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. In 2014, Brock and 21 other former players and personnel were inducted into the new St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum.
After retiring from baseball, Brock prospered as a businessman, especially as a florist in the St. Louis area. He briefly worked as a color analyst for Monday Night Baseball on ABC in 1980, and for Chicago White Sox telecasts the following year. Brock regularly appeared at Cardinals games. When he stepped onto the field he was always greeted by a loud, low-pitched cheer of "Loooouuuuuuuuuuuu". He also lent his name to a unique rainhat, shaped like a miniature umbrella, meant to be worn at games during showers in lieu of retreating to the concourse. The product was called the "Umbrella hat".
During the 1980s and 1990s, Brock was a spring training baserunning instructor with various MLB clubs, including the 1982 Cardinals, 1987 Minnesota Twins, 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers and 1993 Montreal Expos. The first three of those four teams won the World Series. "Expos Have Brock, History Behind Them; Montreal Getting Help From Baserunning Expert," News & Record (Greensboro, NC), Friday, March 19, 1993. Retrieved September 7, 2020
Brock announced on April 13, 2017, that he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow's . On July 28, 2017, Brock and his wife said they had received word from Mercy Hospital's doctors that, according to their blood tests, the cancerous cells were gone. Brock said the cancer had been declining for some time. "We got reports that it was 25% gone, then 50%, then 75% gone," he said. "The doctors were absolute. Cancer is not there."
Brock died on September 6, 2020, at the age of 81.
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