Lou Brock

Larcenous Lou Brock was born on June 18, 1939 in El Dorado, Arkansas. He grew up on a cotton plantation in Collinston, Louisiana where he tirelessly worked for most of his childhood. As a child, Brock was regarded as a quiet and introverted boy, a child that no one would have predicted would become a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. In fact, Brock did not even begin playing baseball until the age of 13 after he was inspired by a class paper he wrote on baseball legends Jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio. After a while, he began to fall in love with the classic American pastime and he accomplished many amazing feats both on and off the field.

Brock attended Union High School in Mer Rouge, Louisiana after completing elementary school. There he met his future wife Katie. Lou was on the basketball team and math and chemistry competition squads where he represented his school in various state competitions. Union High School is also where Brock joined his first baseball team, playing as their left handed pitcher. Eventually he earned an academic scholarship to Southern University and he and Katie moved to Baton Rogue, Louisiana to enrich their minds and lives.

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Jim Crow was king . . . and I heard a game in which Jackie Robinson was playing, and I felt pride in being alive. The baseball held was my fantasy of what life offered.”

“Competition is what keeps me playing the psychological warfare of matching skill against skill and wit against wit.”

“I thought I wasn’t ready…When they kept me with the Cubs in 1962, I asked myself why they kept me. What am I doing here? I realize I had the wrong attitude…It was both a blessing and a curse. I was learning with the best—but I was competing with the best. I didn’t think I belonged. I let it hold me back.”

“When I was a kid, I used to imagine animals running under my bed. I told my dad, and he solved the problem quickly. He cut the legs off the bed.”

“You can’t be afraid to make errors! You can’t be afraid to be naked before the crowd, because no one can ever master the game of baseball, or conquer it. You can only challenge it.”

“If you’re successful in what you do over a period of time, you’ll start approaching records, but that’s not what you’re playing for. You’re playing to challenge and be challenged.”

“If you’re successful in what you do over a period of time, you’ll start approaching records, but that’s not what you’re playing for. You’re playing to challenge and be challenged.”

“I don’t think about goals and records. Competition is what keeps me playing…”

“I was probably as big a fan of the event as anyone else there. After all, I’d never seen anybody get three thousand hits either.”
— Lou on his 3,000th hit

”Baserunning arrogance is just like pitching arrogance or hitting arrogance. You are a force, and you have to instill that you are a force to the opposition. You have to have utter confidence.”

“Your bat is your life. It’s your weapon. You don’t want to go into battle with anything that feels less than perfect.”

“Everybody in the park knows he’s going to run and he makes it anyway.”
— Larry Bowa on Lou