Brock for Broglio

"Brock for Broglio" is a baseball term used to signify a player trade, which in hindsight turns out to be very one-sided.

The term refers to a June 15, 1964 trade between Midwestern baseball rivals Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals sent Ernie Broglio (who had several successful seasons with the Cardinals) along with two other players (Bobby Shantz and Doug Clemens) for Lou Brock (a struggling center fielder that the Cubs had considered a disappointment) along with two other players (Jack Spring and Paul Toth).

The trade would be as one-sided, but not as anyone expected:

• After the trade, Broglio would go 4-7 with a 4.04 ERA while with the Cubs, and by 1966 was out of baseball. Unbeknownst to anyone, Broglio was starting to have arm problems; he never told anyone that he injured his elbow to the point of having his ulnar nerve reset in November 1965.
• Meanwhile, Brock would blossom, batting .348 for the Cardinals en route to their 1964 World Series win, and would play through 1979, becoming the all-time stolen bases leader (938; though surpassed by Rickey Henderson it remains the National League record), a member of the 3,000 hit club (3,023 total) and a 1985 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame.