Lou Brock Arrived in St. Louis in 1964 and Sparked the Cardinals' Championship

At the end of play on June 10, 1964, the St. Louis Cardinals were in fifth place, four games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals had won 28 games while losing 26.

The next day, the Cardinals played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Don Drysdale shut them out, then Sandy Koufax shut them out, and although they managed to score a pair of runs off Joe Moeller, they were swept.

Help was needed if the Cardinals were to have any chance of contending. It arrived at the trading deadline, which was June 15.

In 1963, right-hander Ernie Broglio had been 18-8 with a 2.99 ERA, a 119 ERA+ and a 1.168 WHIP. Broglio was only 3-5 with a 3.50 ERA with the Cardinals in 1964, but the Chicago Cubs were interested.

The Cubs had a spray-hitting speedster named Lou Brock . He was batting only .251/.300/.340, but he might become an efficient base stealer and he covered a lot of ground in the outfield.

The Cardinals pulled the trigger. They sent Broglio, left-handed relief pitcher Bobby Shantz and outfielder Doug Clemens to the Cubs in exchange for Brock, left-handed relief pitcher Jack Spring and right-hander Paul Toth.

And some folks wonder why the last time the Cubs won the World Series was 1908.

Brock played like a house of fire the rest of the season. With the Cardinals, he batted .348/.387/.527.  He hit 12 home runs and stole 33 bases.

The Philadelphia Phillies seemed in charge of the pennant race. At the end of play on Sept. 23, they led the third-place Cards by five full games and the second-place Cincinnati Reds by three-and-a-half games. The Phils had nine games remaining. The Cards had 11 games left.

The Cardinals kept winning, the Phillies kept losing and the Reds almost kept pace with St. Louis.

On the last day of the season, all three teams had a chance to win or tie for the pennant. The Phillies helped the Cardinals by shutting out the Reds.  A Cardinals win against the lowly New York Mets would win the pennant.

Curt Simmons started for the Cardinals against Galen Cisco. The Mets got rid of Simmons in the fifth inning as they took a 3-2 lead.

A desperate Johnny Keane brought in Bob Gibson, who had pitched eight innings on Friday (it was now Sunday), to stem the tide.

Of course, he did, and the Cardinals won the pennant.

Brock, who batted second behind Curt Flood, had a single in the first inning. but it was in the pivotal fifth inning, with the Cards trailing 3-2, that Brock did what had to be done.

He led off with a walk, moved to second on a Bill White single and scored the tying run when Ken Boyer doubled. The inning ended with the Cardinals leading, 5-3.

But the Mets didn't quit. They scored off Gibson to cut the lead to a run. Brock went to work. He hit a one-out double and White followed with a home run that finished off the Mets.

Broglio (remember him?) went 4-7 with a 4.04 ERA for the Cubs. He retired two years later.