Being a St. Louis Cardinals fan will never be the same now that Lou Brock is gone

I mentioned a few days ago that it might be a good time for the St. Louis Cardinals to bring legendary slugger Albert Pujols back into the fold before he retires to a purgatory of a 10-year personal services contract with the Los Angeles Angels for whom he played the worst seasons of his career.

Why? Because St. Louis legends Lou Brock and Bob Gibson, both in their eighties, have both been fighting cancer and the sad fact is they wouldn’t be with us forever. Sadly, the unavoidable became reality Sunday afternoon when Brock, a Cardinals’ great and the all-time leading base stealer in the National League and star of the 1964, 1967 and 1968 World Series passed away at 81.

I don’t know if being a Cardinals fan will ever be the same. As much as a trip around the warning track at Busch Stadium by the Budweiser Clydesdales was a prerequisite of every opening day or postseason game the Cardinals played, so was an outburst of “Looooooooooou!!!” from the fans when the Brock made his mandatory appearance. Unlike some former Cardinals stars, Brock remained in St. Louis as a fixture of the community after his playing days ended way back in 1979.

It’s fitting that the Cardinals are playing against the Chicago Cubs at the time of the Brock’s passing. One of the great pastimes of St. Louis baseball fans for the past 56 years has been recounting how the Cardinals traded sore-armed former ace Ernie Broglio to Chicago for the fledgling outfield who seemed to be little more than a poor-fielding .260 hitter. All Brock did was hit .333 the rest of the 1964 season with 30 stolen bases, leading St. Louis on a comeback unseen again — until the 2011 Cardinals came back from a double-digit deficit in the standings over the last few weeks of September. The sky was the limit after that for Brock who would swipe 938 bases in a career that ended with a first ballot election to the Hall of Fame.

One of my favorite bobbleheads in my collection is the one of Brock taking off his Cubs jersey like Superman in a phone booth to reveal a Cardinals uniform beneath. That’s really how it was for Brock: He was just a guy with the Cubs. But when Brock put on the Cardinals uniform, it was like he suddenly became a man among boys. My favorite Brock story was that Cubs Hall of Fame slugger Ernie Banks told Brock as he departed the Chicago clubhouse for the last time not to worry because he’d send the kid a ticket to watch the Cubs play in the World Series in October of 1964. Instead, it was Banks and the Cubs on the outside looking in as the Cardinals defeated the powerful New York Yankees of Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.

Brock was a truly revolutionary player. When he started setting stolen base records, the running game hadn’t been a major factor in baseball since the days of Ty Cobb. But it never went to his head. I have had the opportunity to shake hands with a number of legendary baseball players. None of them was kinder or more genuine than Brock who seemed willing to talk to fans all day long. It was a tremendous irony that Brock was such a nice guy that he followed Ricky Henderson around as the latter was on the verge of breaking his career stolen base record to congratulate him and have their photo taken together. When the moment came, Henderson stepped in front of Brock as if the Hall of Fame left fielder wasn’t even there and proclaimed himself to be the greatest base stealer of all time. Ahem.

While Brock was Sweet Lou off the field, he was a hard-nosed player on the field with a tremendous determination to win. Not a dirty player — but someone who was never willing to settle for less than the best effort of his teammates.

One of my favorite Brock stories was told by Tony La Russa who recounted at the Baseball Writers dinner a few years ago how the Cardinals got off to a slow start his first spring training at the helm of the team. In turn, Brock and Gibson came into the manager’s office and told La Russa he needed to get his act together and get the players performing because they wouldn’t tolerate less than 100 percent effort in St. Louis. La Russa turned to longtime coach and former manager Red Scheondienst who at that point was sort of a grandfatherly figure within the organization. He said “Red, you have to get these guys off my back for a while” and Schondienst replied “who do you think sent them in here?”

That was Brock: Whatever it took to win — with a smile on his face the whole time.

I assume that when the Cardinals come home Brock’s retired number 20 will be affixed to the team’s uniforms for the rest of the season. It’s just a shame that the honoring of one of the team’s all-time greats will happen in a season that has no fans in the stands. Brock was a fan favorite, so it’s a great shame that fans won’t be able to participate in honoring him. I suggest that, while the team should wear number 20 on its sleeves for the rest of this season — it should also wear Brock’s number on its uniforms in 2021 as well.

This story was originally published September 6, 2020 at 8:39 PM.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.