Major League Baseball legend Lou Brock was born in El Dorado, Arkansas but when he was two years old, his family of sharecroppers moved to Collinston, Louisiana, where he remained through high school.
Curiously, Brock did not begin to play competitive baseball until 11th grade and when he initially enrolled at Southern University in Baton Rouge, it was for his academic promise; he was provided a job tending the school grounds and academic work-study assistance that required his maintaining a high B average. When his first semester grades slipped to a C+ Brock, fearing a loss of his financial aid, decided to try out for the Southern Jaguars baseball team.
After several days of shagging fly balls on the Southern University practice fields from players that he felt were far more athletic, Brock was given an opportunity to hit for the coaches—and proceeded to launch multiple home run shots across the fence! Reminiscing on this period, Brock stated in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview that, “I sat there scared to death…the players paraded in front of me with muscles. They looked like athletes. I wasn’t sure I belonged on the field with them…”
Brock at Southern University circa 1959
Brock surely belonged and his apprehensions soon proved unfounded; upon securing a baseball scholarship, he only hit .189 his first year but after that, Brock developed into one of the most feared players in the collegiate ranks—never batting below .500!
In 1959, Brock led Southern University to the NAIA National Championship in baseball—the first HBCU to do so—after which he was selected to play outfield for the United States in the Pan Am games.
Two years later, Brock signed a professional contract with the Chicago Cubs and immediately garnered recognition for his hitting and ability to steal bases. Early in 1964, Brock was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where over the next 19 years he would secure his Hall of Fame status by breaking Ty Cobb’s stolen base record.
In 1979, upon becoming a member of the exclusive 3,000 hit club with a hit against his old Chicago Cubs squad, Brock felt slighted when Carl Yastrzemski, the Boston Red Sox star who reached the same milestone a week later, was invited by then House Speaker Tip O’Neill to a White House celebration with President Jimmy Carter first. The slight irked Brock to the point that when the Carter administration finally invited him, he mulled declining the invitation. Brock later relented and the White House issued a press release praising his career and his all but certain future entry into the Hall of Fame, which he was elected to during his first year of eligibility in 1985.
After retiring from MLB, Brock flourished as a businessman, a media baseball analyst for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox, and in the 90’s, as a base running instructor for several MLB teams. Brock died on September 6, 2020 at the age of 81.
Lest we forget!
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“Real Politics in Real Time”
Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
"Real Politics in Real Time"
Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
