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Seaver v. Brock (split from Man v. Wookie)

Edgy MD Jun 19 2013 09:46 AM

Greg posts a version of the Brock/Coke story in the Wookie thread that may well be definitive. But it seems key elements differ in different tellings. Despite my claim below, though, I can't really find one that explicitly backs up my "Get your own Coke," account, but I'm sure I heard that version somewhere. But the old brain is going. (If you don't know the story, Brock saw him in the Anaheim Stadium clubhouse, mistook him for the clubhouse kid and asked him to fetch him a soda...which Tom did.) The way I've read it is that Seaver said, "Get your own Coke, I'm on the team." A few weeks later Lou Brock would mistake him for something other than a big league ballplayer. Tom had been chosen to the National League All-Star [team], a singular honor for a rookie, especially a pitcher. When he walked into the N.L. clubhouse he passed Brock, who was pulling off a shoe. Brock glanced up, saw the youthful face, and mistook an All-Star pitcher for a clubhouse boy. "Hey, kid, get me a can of soda, would you?" Seaver didn't say a word. He walked straight to a box, opened it, took out a can of soda, popped the lid, brought back the can and handed it to Brock. Someone laughed and a moment later Brock discovered his error. "Oh, hey, look, Seaver, I'm sorry." "No, that's all right," Seaver said, more embarrassed now than when he'd been asked to fetch the soda pop. (Actually, he explained later to a friendly reporter, he'd been very much awed walking into this clubhouse filled with players he'd watched from the seats atop Dodger Stadium only a year earlier.) --John Devaney, Tom Seaver: An Intimate Portrait, 1974 I do like the alternate version, however. "Stick it, Brock. You can't outrun Grote and you can suck this through a straw." Some other variations: http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2012/07/11/tom-seaver-regales-buffalo-faithful-with-baseball-stories/ Seaver had the press corp in stitches has he shared a story of his first encounter with Lou Brock. Seaver was a rookie and with his boyish looks was easily mistaken for one of the clubhouse attendants. As he passed by, Brock called out, “hey kid, get me a Coke.” Seaver replied, “I can’t tell you what I told him there’s an adjective I used you guys can’t print.” (Hey Tom, Artvoice is an alternative newspaper we’d be glad to print the adjective.) Continuing, Seaver said, “For 20 years I played in the big leagues, and every time I saw Lou Brock, he said ‘hey kid, get me a Coke.’ You talk about the beginning of earning your stripes of believing that you can perform at that level, and also the relationships that you begin to put the ground work of the people you play with and against. That phrase is one of our shared special memories that we have and we still chuckle about it. He doesn’t even say hello! ‘Hey kid , get me a Coke’ and I know who it is.” http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/tag/aaa-all-star-game/ -Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and his “Hey kid get me a Coke” yarn. At the All Star luncheon he said it was Lou Brock, then later at the game he shared the story again with the press and said it was Willie Mays. We’re thinking this is all one tall tale. (Edgy: This may be the Lyme Disease at work. http://redroom.com/member/steven-robert-travers/blog/excerpt-from-the-1969-miracle-mets-the-improbable-story-of-the-wor Excerpt from THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: The Improbable Story of the World's Greatest Underdog Team Seaver earned a spot on the National League roster for the All-Star Game, played near his college stomping grounds, at Anaheim Stadium. This meant more embarrassed mistaken identity. Cardinal superstar Lou Brock thought he was the clubhouse boy and asked him to fetch a Coke. Seaver dutifully did that, but Brock had to apologize when he was informed who he was.

G-Fafif Jun 19 2013 09:57 AM Re: Seaver v. Brock (split from Man v. Wookie) Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 19 2013 10:34 AM

Since the Devaney book was sourced from clips collected in the half-dozen years prior to his writing it, I trust the contemporaneous element to his story versus stuff that was processed over the decades -- with the caveat that the original anecdote might very well have been cleaned up for baseball fans' consumption circa 1967. Other period books I have mention Brock's apology and that it was an "embarrassing" incident (with Brock still marveling over his youthfulness but don't speak to the resolution). It's not out of the question that Tom has contracted Old Ballplayers' Selective Recollection Disorder, telling the stories he wishes they had unfolded. It's not uncommon to the profession.

Edgy MD Jun 19 2013 10:03 AM Re: Seaver v. Brock (split from Man v. Wookie)

Certainly not. I just need to find out if the "get your own" account is something I made up or something that's actually out there, and if it is, from what time does it date from.

G-Fafif Jun 19 2013 10:13 AM Re: Seaver v. Brock (split from Man v. Wookie)

Browsing Google News Archives (goodbye productivity), I find a 1982 story, from when Tom was traded back, in which he recalls, "Lou Brock comes over and says to me, 'Get me a 7-Up,'" in a nod to how strange it is that he was the veteran now; and a 1992 story by Vic Ziegel on the eve of his HOF election in which, when asked for some of his favorite memories, Tom recounts how "Brock took a quick look at the apple-cheeked kid and said, 'Go get me a Coke.' 'I swear to God,' Seaver says, 'he thought I was the clubhouse kid.'" Plus from Brock's perspective (the free segment of an article from a Cardinals Country paper, four years ago): Brock said he got to ballpark in Anaheim early (9:30 am for 3 pm start) to make it ... Brock said. "He went and got it and said `By the way, I'm Tom Seaver. ...