1989 Topps #662 Lou Brock (Turn Back the Clock)

1989 Topps:

1. #662 Lou Brock (Turn Back the Clock)
2. #599 Tom Candiotti
3. #735 Roger McDowell
4. #111 Cincinnati Reds (Team Leaders)
5. #258 Checklist 133-264 (Checklist)
6. #543 Damon Berryhill (Topps All-Star Rookie)
7. #546 Mark Williamson
8. #98 Larry Sheets
9. #224 Tony LaRussa (Manager)
10. #503 Al Newman
11. #253 Jose Alvarez
12. #518 Bruce Ruffin
13. #684 Dave Johnson (Manager)
14. #268 Keith Miller (Rookie)
15. #251 John Dopson

TEN YEARS AGO

1979 — Three brother combinations achieved notoriety on the mound in 1979… When Braves’ Phil Niekro and Astros’ Joe Niekro tied for NL lead with 21 Wins, it marked the first time two brothers reached 20 Victories in the same league in the same season… Astros’ Ken Forsch authored the campaign’s only No-Hitter by victimizing the Braves, April 7.  He thus shared distinction with 188 pitchers before him including his brother, Cardinal’s Bob Forsch, who spun No-Hitter vs. Phillies, April 16, 1978.  However, they were the only brother combination ever to have achieved feat… A baseball first occurred at Toronto, May 31, when Tigers’ Pat Underwood made his major league debut with his brother, Blue Jays’ Tom Underwood, pitching for the opposition… The most outstanding individual achievement of 1979 occurred as Cardinals’ Lou Brock set a major league record with his 938th Stolen Base, September 23.  The Theft gave him one more than Hall-of-Famer Billy Hamilton whose career spanned 1888-1901.  Lou recorded 2 Stolen Bases in a game 135 times, 3 Stolen Bases in a game 19 times and 4 Stolen Bases in a game 3 times (August 29, 1969, September 6, 1971 and September 1, 1974).

Not sure what was the point of Topps writing all that prose about the Niekros and the Forsches before mentioning Lou Brock near the bottom.

I looked at Brock’s career stats and found it interesting that he only batted .257 while playing for the Cubs at the beginning of his career 1961-1964.  He also only stole 1 base for every 3.5 games played with the Cubs.  However, his career took off when he was traded to the Cardinals, where he would spend the rest of his career 1964-1979.

With the Cardinals, Lou Brock batted .297 and stole a base once every 2.7 games on average.  In case you’re wondering, Rickey Henderson batted .279 during his career, but stole a base on average every 2.2 games.