Steal of the century: Cubs send Lou Brock to Cardinals for Ernie Broglio 50 years ago

As the Cubs celebrate 100 years of Wrigley Field, another significant anniversary has arrived for the team.

On June 15, 1964, with the Cubs enjoying an off day, second baseman Joey Amalfitano heard a knock on the door of his apartment.

Old pal Ernie Broglio was there with a suitcase and a smile, which baffled Amalfitano because his former minor- league roommate pitched for the Cardinals, who were not supposed to be in town.

"I said, 'What in the world are you doing here?' Ernie said, 'I just got traded to the Cubs for Lou Brock,' " Amalfitano recalled. "It was a huge surprise. I couldn't believe it."

Fifty years later, the shock has worn off in Chicago, but some people still struggle to believe the Cubs traded a future Hall of Famer for a veteran pitcher who won only seven games for the Cubs in three injury-plagued seasons.

Considered one of the worst baseball deals ever, Brock-for-Broglio shares a chapter in Cubs lore with tortured tales of the Billy Goat and Bartman. The standard by which all bad trades are measured remains a touchy topic for diehards, but not for the man whose name still can make a Cubs fan cringe.

"It's always nice to talk about that trade," Broglio, 78, said with a chuckle from his home in San Jose, California. "I don't mind. At least they remember who I am."

Broglio never will forget the day he got the news that the Cardinals traded him, reliever Bobby Shantz and outfielder Doug Clemens to the Cubs for Brock, reliever Jack Spring and minor-leaguer Paul Toth. In Houston to play the Colt .45s, Cardinals manager Johnny Keane informed the 28-year-old -- who won 21 games in 1960 -- that he was changing teams.

Coming off an 18-8 season in 1963, Broglio never envisioned leaving St. Louis, especially to join the Cubs. He hated day games.

"I was a little bit upset because I wanted to finish my career with the Cardinals," Broglio said. His frustration paled in comparison with the reaction of Cardinals fans, who didn't immediately view Brock as the catalyst to a run that culminated with the 1964 World Series title.

"They wanted to run our GM Bing Devine out of town at first,'' said Mike Shannon, a Cardinals star from 1962-70 and the team's longtime broadcaster. "But as players, we knew the possibility of Lou."

Brock, a promising 25-year-old speedster who would finish his career with 3,023 hits and as the all-time leader in stolen bases (before being passed by Rickey Henderson in 1991), had fallen out of favor with Cubs head coach Bob Kennedy.

(In the early to mid-1960s, the Cubs experimented with a rotating managing system called the "College of Coaches." The Cubs employed a regular coaching staff, with one coach "managing" the team for weeks at a time before another coach would take a turn. The "College" was implemented that way exclusively for the 1961-62 seasons. By the 1963 season, the Cubs settled on Kennedy to act as manager but insisted on using the title "head coach" through 1965. By 1966, the Cubs dismissed all traces of the "College" for good by hiring Leo Durocher as the team's "manager.")

Years later, critics speculated that the Cubs traded Brock to adhere to an unwritten rule in the early 1960s that limited the number of blacks on baseball rosters to four. But the Tribune reported the day after the deal that Kennedy had become "irritated by . . . Brock's erratic outfield play and unsound baserunning."

Broglio, the righthander with the great curveball who went 70-55 with the Cardinals, posted a 7-19 record with the Cubs until an injury forced his retirement in 1966.

If Broglio doesn't embrace the infamy, he accepts it good-naturedly. He enjoyed going to St. Louis last winter for a gathering of former Cardinals celebrating the '64 championship that he contributed to directly (winning three games) and indirectly (being traded for Brock).

Laughing, Broglio recalled a 1987 Old-Timers' Day game at Wrigley Field in which he and Brock were teammates and the crowd booed his introduction.