A
good way to rile up Cub fans is to bring up the trade of Lou Brock to St. Louis
for Ernie Broglio. The sharper ones—all two
or three of them—used to come back with, “Yeah, but you gave us Sammy Sosa for
George Bell,” which is true, though the steroids’ scandal long ago robbed that
deal of its sting. Which brings us back
to Brock. He could’ve played for the White
Sox.
Brock
tried out for both teams in 1960, in that time before the annual draft, which
started in 1965. And why didn’t one of
the greatest and fastest players ever sign with the South Side? He thought the Cubs gave him a better shot at
reaching the majors. Oh, what could have
been, Lou Brock leading off for Al Lopez and Eddie Stanky. Brock would have been enough for us to steal
the pennant in ’67.
I bring this up
because the Cardinals this week announced that Brock, now 76-years old, had his
left leg amputated below the knee due to a diabetes-related infection. Life isn’t fair sometimes, inside baseball or
out.
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