August 13, 1958: Lou Brock Reaches 3,000

On August 13, 1979, with a fourth inning single off of Cubs starter Dennis Lamp, Lou Brock became just the 14th player in the history of Major League Baseball to record 3,000 hits in his career. Coincidentally the Cardinals were playing the team who traded Brock to St. Louis in 1964. Lou started the day sitting at 2,998 hits and more than 40,000 souls packed the stands at Busch in anticipation of the history making moment. It had been 21 years since the fans in St. Louis seen Stan Musial reach the 3,000 plateau and electricity was in the air. After getting out of a bases loaded jam in the first, the Cardinals led of their half of the inning with a single off the bat of Garry Templeton. The 40 year old Brock came to the dish and fouled the first pitch he saw down the first base line, after watching a pitch sail outside for a ball, he pounced on the third pitch and lined it into center for hit #2,999. Keith Hernandez grounded into a twin killing that scored Templeton but eliminated himself and Brock. The first ended with the Cardinal leading the Baby Bears 1-0 and with Brock one hit away from joining an exclusive club. The score was the same when Brock came to the plate to lead off the fourth, he quickly found himself in an 0 and 2 hole before taking a ball wide. Lamp evened the count with a ball that nearly took Brock's head off, the fans in the stands let the Cubs pitcher know that they were not pleased as the boos and jeers rang out. Brock responded with a shot up the middle that went off the pitchers hand and shot toward the third base line. The third baseman Steve Ontiveros had no chance to make a play and Lou Brock had just become the newest member of the 3,000 hit club. By the time the inning came to an end the Cardinals held a 2-0 lead. The Cubs tied it up with two runs in the seventh, then Garry Templeton hit a game winning sac fly in the bottom of the ninth to give the Redbirds a 3-2 victory on the day that a true St. Louis legend reached a historic milestone.

You can watch the hit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsOBrkf9TBQ

Here's the box score: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN197908130.shtml