I worked my way through undergraduate school (and got much of my journalism education) by being a sportswriter for a pretty good smaller-city newspaper, The Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph.
Mostly I covered high school sports. But in October of 1967 I got the chance to cover a single World Series game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. The game was pretty much over after the first inning, the Cards taking a a 4-0 lead, winning 6-0 and advancing to a 3-1 edge in the best-of-seven series. (The Cards eventually won the Series title in a decisive seventh game.)
I wrote a story about the game and then a “sidebar” that resulted from my post-game visit to the Cardinals locker room populated by the likes of Bob Gibson, Roger Maris, Curt Flood, Orlando Cepeda, Mike Shannon and, of course, Lou Brock.
Brock died this week at the age of 81.
I’m not particularly proud of my writing style from 53 years ago, but I think my “sidebar” angle wasn’t all bad. Here’s the “meat” from the “Brock Hard To Follow” article in the Oct. 9, 1967 Pantagraph. It picks up with Flood talking about Brock’s legendary base stealing::
“We don’t really try to run up the score,” he said. “But here in the Series you take every base you can get. There’s no room for error. We’ve only got seven chances to beat these guys, and we can’t win without Brock stealing.
“You can really keep the pressure on a team with Lou on base,” continued Flood, who follows Brock in the Cardinals’ batting order. “When he steals second it lessens the threat of my hitting into a double play. And when a pitcher sees how easily Lou stole second, he knows he can take off for third. It harasses the heck out of ’em.”
Even when Brock doesn’t go, it can also cause troubles. In Sunday’s first inning, for instance, Brock faked a steal to second. That pulled Red Sox shortstop Rico Petrocelli out of position. Then Flood rapped a base hit to short left with Brock going to third.
Flood, who placed fourth in the National League Batting race with a .335 average, said it is not easy following Brock in the batting order.
“First of all you have to give Lou a pitch or two. Right away you’re in the hole,” he said. “And some of these pitchers throw over to first base five or six times trying to catch him. Then I’ve got to give Lou time to get up and dust himself off. This can really break a guy’s concentration.”
But there are advantages to following Brock, too. “After throwing over to first so many times,” Flood said, “a pitcher will come back with a bad pitch.
“When Brock is on base,” he continued, “there isn’t a pitcher in the National League that will throw me a breaking ball. They’ll always throw that good hard stuff at me.”
Does Brock let Flood know when he plans to steal?
“He signals me only when he plans not to steal,” said Flood. “He’s going all the time. Today when I came up to the on-deck circle he told me, ‘I’m going under any circumstances.'” Brock did steal second in the sixth inning.
“Brock has improved 90 percent over his play in the ’64 Series,” Flood said. “He’s made himself into an outfielder.”
When asked what he would do if he were pitching with Brock on first base, Sunday’s winning pitcher Bob Gibson replied, “Nothing. I just wouldn’t bother him. You just know he’s gonna go. I was faced with the same problem in Maury Wills. I figure I had a chance at him at the plate. Now I’ve got another batter to worry about.”
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