Posted on 09/06/2020 8:28:55 PM PDT by lurk
Don Mattingly and Tony Gwynn may have been the last of that dying breed of baseball stars.
RIP.
If 1964 was exciting for Cardinal fans.
The Cardinals were struggling at midseason but went on a tear in the second half to get themselves into a tight pennant race with Cincinnati and Philadelphia. And the Cards prevailed by a single game if I recall correctly over the Reds and Phillies.
And then the Cardinals won a thrilling seven-game World Series over the Yankees.
R.I.P., Lou
I saw Lou play in person many times. I still remember his arm bump when he was at bat, and saw some his stolen bases. RIP.
It sure was! Bob Gibson was running out of gas —he was a reliever in the 7th game after having two starts. He had heart, let me tell you! Was a thrill a minute.
And saw two brothers battle each other —Clete and Ken Boyer.....
Ahhh.....they don’t make them exciting like that any more! Maybe in my old age, I’ve become more cynical :-)
RIP Lou. Just over a year ago pitcher Ernie Broglio passed away. He was part of a cadre of players who were traded from St Louis to Chicago for Lou Brock and a couple of other players. One of the most lopsided trades in major league baseball history.
When I was a kid, baseball was my sport, and Lou Brock was my “Sports Hero”.
I lived in Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan for a few years as a kid. Incredibly interesting as a dependent. My favorite story was when I was eight years old. I didn’t have an ID card yet, so I couldn’t go off base by myself. But there was an old battleship, the Mikasa (a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War Battle of Tsushima) set up in concrete as as memorial. It was right on the water’s edge on the northern(I think) edge of the base.
Right where the fence came up, you could lift the fence and crawl under it, which is what I would do. Then, I would wander around off base, looking at all the strange things...plastic food...pachinco ball parlors...and the smell. It was the mixed smell of human waste, fish and car exhaust. Everything to me was completely alien, as if I had been dropped off on another planet.
To get back on the base, I would just walk in. The Marines guarding the gate would never ask you, because you were a kid and if you got off base, then you must have a card.
One afternoon (around 5:30 PM) when I was going back on base, they stopped me. They took me inside the guard shack and sat me in a metal chair. There were five of them, wearing the blue trousers with the red stripe, khaki shirt on top and the white cover. As I sat in the chair, they hovered menacingly around me, arms crossed. “How do we know you aren’t a spy”? they asked me. I said I wasn’t, and one of them said “Okay...who won the 1967 World Series?” My favorite player happened to be Lou Brock at the time, so I knew it was the Cardinals. It is funny to look back on now.
I wasn’t a spy, and I didn’t think at all that they thought so either...but they were awfully serious, and I thought they might simply be messing with me while waiting for the Shore Patrol and the Master at Arms to come down and pick me up...just having some fun. Now, I realize they fully knew who I was, because my dad was the head of security on the base at the time...:)
Sigh. Me too.
Sweet Lou...
+1
I played a lot of baseball as a kid and when I was at bat I patterned my warm up swing after Lou Brock and Willie Stargell. Two of my childhood Heroes.
You rock, dude.
Great Story!
One of my biggest heroes, the other main one being Bob Gibson.
Remember following the Cards growing up in South Alabama. After sunset the blow torch iof a radio station that carried them redirected their signal to the southeast.
Good stuff.
The best part of that year was what they did to the Phillies.
My father in law was a life long fan of Lou Brock and the Cardinals! He had red cardinal pictures and objects everywhere. Oh how he loved and enjoyed Lou! RIP to both of them.
I totally agree with you on both comments!
Gibson winning games 1, 4 and 7. And then did the same in ‘67.
KMOX.
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