Cardinals Fans Will Never Forget Brock For Broglio In‘64

In 1964, the Cardinals were still searching to replace Stan Musial, who had retired after the 1963 season. What’s more, hovering around .500 and sitting 6 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the National League race on June 14, the team was in need of a spark.

Thus, they traded right-handed pitcher Ernie Broglio, a 21-game winner in ‘60 and 18-game winner in ‘63, to the Chicago Cubs for young outfielder Lou Brock. While Brock was considered a promising talent in Chicago, he had struggled to find his footing with the Cubs, who envisioned him as more of a power hitter than a base-stealing catalyst. Brock batted a disappointing .258 in 1963 and was hitting .251 with two home runs at the time of the deal.

Of course, the rest is well documented. Brock came to St. Louis, batted .348 the remainder of the season and helped the Cardinals capture the ‘64 pennant and the World Series. He then became baseball’s premier base thief, an integral piece of World Series teams in ‘67 and ‘68 and, eventually, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here is a story I wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch back in 1989, re-visiting the famous trade.