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Lou Brock Steals the Spotlight in 1974

On July 21, 1974, Sports Illustrated captured Lou Brock in his element: flying around the basepaths. The cover headline said it all — Brock was a “Thief at Work.”

That summer, the St. Louis speedster wasn’t just chasing another stolen-base crown. He was eyeing Maury Wills’ single-season record of 104 steals, set in 1962. By September, Brock had swiped 94 bags, well ahead of his closest rival, Davey Lopes of the Dodgers.

On September 10, with the Phillies in town, history arrived. Brock led off the seventh inning with a single, then broke for second. Phillies catcher Bob Boone’s throw bounced into the dirt. Safe! St. Louis erupted as Brock claimed his 105th stolen base, passing Wills. Play stopped for ten minutes as fans cheered and a ceremony honored his achievement.

Brock was 35 years old that season, but his legs carried him to a staggering 118 stolen bases by year’s end — a record that stood until Rickey Henderson shattered it in 1982.

Though the Cardinals fell just short of a division title, Brock’s brilliance earned him second place in the MVP race and cemented his legacy as one of baseball’s greatest baserunners. He retired in 1979 with 938 career steals, a mark that made him the all-time leader until Henderson’s arrival.

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985 on his first ballot, Lou Brock remains a symbol of daring speed, relentless determination, and the electric thrill of a stolen base. Fans in St. Louis — and across the game — still remember the summer of ’74 as the season Brock ran himself into baseball history.

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TRIVIA

Which Hall of Famer, who is also an ordained minister, delivered the invocation at the 2006 Hall of Fame induction ceremony?

Hint:     He was the first player to come to bat in a major league game in Canada.

Hint:     He broke the career stolen base record that had stood for more than seventy years.

Hint:     He graciously relinquished that crown in 1991.

Hint:     In the modern era, he is the only player older than thirty to steal 100 bases in a season.

Hint:     He is the second Hall of Famer to pass away this week whose nickname was “The  Franchise.

Hint:     He is the only player to hit a double, triple and home run in a single World Series game.

Hint:     He made his major league debut in the same game as future Rookie of the Year Ken Hubbs. In that game, he got his first major league hit off of Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.

Hint:     His statue likeness sits outside a university athletic complex named for him.

Hint:     He is the only player to collect seven stolen bases in a single World Series, accomplishing the feat in consecutive years.

Hint:     He was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year in his final season.

Hint:     He was the first Cardinal to hit for the cycle at Busch Stadium.

Hint:     He, Hank Aaron and Joe Adcock are the only major leaguers to hit home runs to dead center in the Polo Grounds.

September 10, 1915 -- Rogers Hornsby, brought up a week earlier from Class D Denison (Western Association), makes his major league debut for the Cardinals. With the Cards trailing the Reds, 7 - 0, after six innings, Hornsby plays SS and goes hitless in two appearances against Cincinnati rookie King Lear, who wins, 7 - 1.

September 10, 1921 -- Walter Johnson, pitching in his 594th game strikes out Shano Collins of the Boston Red Sox in the 4th inning. The strikeout is the 2804th of his career surpass Cy Young's major league mark of 2,803 career strikeouts. The Senators will win the game 5-3 improving Johnsons record to 13-13.

In 1927, the 'Big Train' will finish his 21-year tenure with the Senators with 3,509 punch outs, a record which will last for 62 seasons when it is broken by Nolan Ryan in 1983.

Newspaper accounts have this as happening on September 5, 1921. However using baseball-reference I calculated that he needed 112 strikeouts to pass 2,803 entering the 1921 Season and after the game on September 5 he had 109. Thus I have updated this information accordingly

September 10, 1950, In New York's 8-1 victory over the Senators Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hits three 400-foot home runs against the Washington Senators. DiMaggio becomes the first major leaguer to hit three home runs in the 39-year history of the ballpark. It is the third time that Joltin' Joe has hit a trio of round-trippers in a game, but he has never accomplished the feat at Yankee Stadium.

September 10, 1961 -- At Yankee Stadium the New york Yankees sweep the Indians, 7 - 6 and 9 - 3, their 12th win in a row at home, and the Indians' 20th loss in a row at Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle hits home run number 53 in the nitecap, while Roger Maris, homerless, stays at 56. The official scorecard credits Mantle with two runs scored: it will be discovered in 1995 that one of the runs should go to Bill Skowron. In Game two - Clete Boyer homered off Cleveland's Jim Perry in Yankee Stadium in the sixth inning of the second game of a Sunday afternoon doubleheader. The ball hit in the far left hand corner of the lower level of the grandstand and bounced back onto the playing field. Home plate umpire Joe Linsalata signalled it a homer and immediately Jimmy Piersall ran out of the visitor's bullpen in left field. Piersall contended that the ball was in play and two umpires agreed with him (Frank Umont at third and Charlie Berry at second). Boyer, already in his home run trot, was tagged out at third base, receiving credit for a double and two runs batted in. The game was protested by the Yankees . [Bring back the voices, sounds, and stories of your youth and listen to this classic — become a member now.]

September 10, 1964 -- With his office being responsible for all of the costs for teams not making it into the postseason, Baseball commissioner Ford Frick authorizes the Phillies, Yankees, White Sox, and Orioles to print tickets for the World Series. Due to a historic late-season collapse by Philadelphia, the surging Cardinals win the National League pennant on the last day of the season, and will play the Bronx Bombers in the Fall Classic.

September 10 1967, the four team race for the pennant. 4 teams are within 1.5 games of first place. Minnesota holds the slim half game lead. Boston Red sox in second and Detroit and Chicago tied for 3rd.

In the first game of a doubleheader, White Sox Joe Horlen no-hits the Tigers, 6 - 0. Cisco Carlos, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Bob Locker combine to shut out Detroit in the second game.

Minnesota edges the Orioles, 4 – 2, at Baltimore.

Boston beats New York 9-1 - [Listen to the complete broadcast — join our members-only archive today.]

September 10, 1968 -- Don Wilson, who struck out 18 Reds on July 14, fans 16 Reds today while pitching the Astros to a 3 - 2 win in game 1. The Reds win the nitecap, 4 - 3.

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September 10, 1980 -- Montreal Expos Rookie Bill Gullickson whiffs 18 batters, the most strikeouts ever recorded by a rookie in a major league game. The Expos right-hander throws a complete-game four-hitter, beating Chicago Cubs at Olympic Stadium, 4-2.

“I'm actually more excited about getting the win than I am the strikeouts. It was an important victory for us,” said the rookie right-hander, who came within one of the major league strikeout mark for nine innings last night when he fanned 18 Chicago Cubs to pace the Montreal Expos to a 4-2 victory.

“I had good control of the fastball, both inside and out, and I was staying ahead of the hitters,” said Gullickson, who has struck out 68 batters in his last 65 innings.

Expos’ catcher Gary Car­ter said the performance put Gullickson ‘‘up there with the Koufaxes and the Drysdales and any other strikeout pitcher ... He’s just a rookie. Look how many years he has ahead of him.” The Previous Expo record for Rookies was 14 held by Bill Stoneman who did it twice in 1971.

September 10, 1980 The Dodgers call up a young lefty from their Double-A San Antonio farm club. Fernando Valenzuela.

He appears in 10 games and allows a total of none runs. He will go onto historic fame in 1981 leading the Dodgers to a World Series title.

September 10, 1985, the California Angels acquire future Hall of Famer Don Sutton from the Oakland A’s for two players to be named later, Bob Sharpnack (minors) (September 25, 1985) and Jerome Nelson (minors) (September 25, 1985). The 40-year-old right-hander will win two games for California down the stretch, but the Angels will fall one game short in the American League’s Western Division

September 10, 1997 -- At San Francisco, Pac Bell Park in a 7-6 extra inning loss to the San Francisco Giants, St Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire becomes only the second player in major league history to hit 50 home runs in consecutive seasons. Babe Ruth accomplished the feat twice, in the 1920-21 and 1927-28 seasons.

McGwire joined Ruth as the only players in major league his­tory with consecutive 50-homer seasons by hitting a 446-foot shot Wednesday in his St. Louis Cardi­nals’ 7-6, 10-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants.

“Any time you can have your name associated with Babe Ruth, it’s a pretty awesome thing to think about,” McGwire said. “I’m blown away. I think I’m sort of in awe of myself. I’ve surpassed any­thing I ever expected to do in the game of baseball.”

McGwire led off the third inning with a drive down the left-field line off Shawn Estes. It was McGwire’s 16th homer in 34 games since joining the Cardinals in a July 31 trade from the Oak­land Athletics.

McGwire had spent his entire career in Oakland before the trade to St. Louis, where he rejoined longtime Athletics manager and current Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa.

September 10, 1999 -- The Red Sox trip the Yankees, 3 - 1, as Pedro Martinez hurls an impressive one-hitter for his 21st victory of the year. Martinez strikes out 17 batters, the most Yankees ever fanned in a single game. DH Chili Davis' 2nd-inning home run is New York's only safety. Chuck Knoblauch, leading off the game, gives the Yankees their only other baserunner; he is caught stealing, so Martinez faces just one over the minimum.

The Red Sox right-hander extends his own record to 40 consecutive innings with at least one strikeout per frame.

“New York is a special place,” he said. “My people come over (and) there’s a lot of pride to see me. I would like to do it for them, but New York is just one place, one more field to play on and one more team to try to beat."

Aside from hitting the first bat­ter he faced. Chuck Knoblauch, and serving up a 422-foot oppo­site-field home run to Chili Davis — the only hit he gave up all night — Martinez was flawless, overshadowing everything that happened at the Stadium. That in­cludes ex-Yankee Mike Stanley going 4-for-5 with a two-run shot in the sixth that gave the game back to Martinez at 2-1.

Martinez (21-4) took care after that, going on to retire 22 straight after Davis’ homer. It left most in the Red Sox clubhouse al­most too stunned for words.

“That’s the greatest game I’ve ever seen pitched anywhere, and I’ve been in baseball 26 years,” said Boston pitching coach Joe Kerrigan, who’s been with Mar­tinez more than six years, includ­ing four in Montreal. “It seems like every two weeks somebody asks me if that was the best I’ve ever seen him pitch and I say yes. Two weeks later, somebody else asks the same question and I say yes again."

Red Sox manager Jimy Will­iams was similarly awestruck.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy pitch like that in one game, especially against a lineup like that," he said. “I mean, that was a special game." Williams relieved the moment, shook his head and asked, “How many did he strike out?” When told, he shook his head again and said, “They’ve got those kinds of hitters over there, and to pitch like that. I’ve never seen a guy pitch like that."

Even Martinez, who won for the fifth time in his last six out­ings, was amazed as he thought about it.

“It doesn’t get any more spe­cial," he said. "This is as good as it gets."

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