The Last W?

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lou Brock was accounted by many to be one of the nicer folks one could meet in professional baseball, despite his habit of making opposing catchers look bad with embarrassing regularity.

Not only did his former team post a win on the day he passed away, they did it over the team that idiotically traded him away for two aging pitchers and one light-hitting outfielder -- the Chicago Cubs. With the Cards, Brock went on to help win two World Series -- one of them the very same year he was traded away. He was a six-time All Star who won the National League stolen base title eight times. He held the record for stolen bases from his retirement in 1979 -- a year he won the Comeback Player of the Year award at 40 -- until Rickey Henderson broke it in 1991.

Brock probably started out as a nice guy but might have had his qualities honed by the man who scouted him for the Cubs, Buck O'Neil. In his own biography, I Was Right on Time, O'Neil notes the lopsidedness of the trade and says people ask him if he was mad or sad that the Cubs traded away a player he worked hard to get who went on to such great heights. O'Neil said he didn't feel either, he was just "happy for Lou."

When Henderson broke the base-stealing record he was carrying a card with a short speech he and Brock had worked on, since the two had become friends as it became clearer that the record would fall. In the excitement of the moment, he forgot his speech and gave the typically Hendersonesque statement that he was now the greatest of all time (Nolan Ryan pitched his unearthly seventh no-hitter that same day, so Henderson's ego was a bit premature). When he saw Brock later he apologized, saying he had been caught up in the emotion of the moment and forgot he had the speech. Whether that was true or not, Brock decided to act like it was and accepted the apology.

So while Brock might have rejoiced with you if you cheered on his former team in their win today, he might have suggested taking it easy on the chortling that might accompany the one last time the Cards put one over on the Cubs because of Lou Brock.

He might have found it more interesting that he passed just a few days after the great pitcher Tom Seaver, whom he faced more than any other pitcher in his career. Because Brock was the batter Seaver faced more than any other hitter in his career and his .250 average was better than a lot of top players could post. Upon his arrival, Brock might have found Tom Terrific waiting for him with an extended bat and a big grin: "Let's go again, Lou."

Edited 9/8/20 to spell Rickey Henderson's first name properly.