page_title: Lou Brock
section_title: Chicago Cubs
hierarchical_section_title: Lou Brock / Baseball career / Chicago Cubs
caption_attribution_description: English: Professional baseball player Lou Brock
context_page_description: Louis Clark Brock is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent the majority of big league career as a left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014. He is currently a special instructor coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.
  Brock was best known for breaking Ty Cobb's all-time major league stolen base record in 1977. He was an All-Star for six seasons and a National League stolen base leader for eight seasons. Brock led the NL in doubles and triples in 1968. He also led the NL in singles in 1972, and was the runner-up for the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1974.
context_section_description: Brock made his major league debut with the Cubs on September 10, 1961, at the age of 22. In his rookie season of 1962, Brock became one of four players to hit a home run into the center-field bleachers at the old Polo Grounds in New York since its 1923 reconstruction. His blast came against Al Jackson in the first game of a June 17 doubleheader against the New York Mets and was one of two that would clear the wall in consecutive days, with Hank Aaron's coming the very next day. Joe Adcock was the first to hit a ball over that wall, in 1953. Babe Ruth reached the old bleachers (a comparable distance) before the reconstruction. Brock was not known as a power hitter, but he did display significant power from time to time.
  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.
caption: Brock in 1964 as a member of the Chicago Cubs.
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