Beyond the Arc: Cross Country Race & Baseball Trad

In basketball once you start shooting from beyond the three point arc, things can get wild. In this series, I am going to share some stories that may seem a little wild too. 

“Beyond the Arc” is a series that looks at the unusual from the past. Stories from our history, both locally and nationally. Some are from the sports world and others just from the world. Some are stories I have read about and others are legends passed down to me. 

A Cross Country Race Gone Wrong

Art Fish described how in much of the 1950’s and 1960’s, Galesburg HS cross country races were held the same night as football games. If two schools were playing football on a Friday night, the two schools ran a cross country meet too.

The cross country race was set up to start during the Soph football game, but timed the race would finish between the Soph and Varsity football games while the teams were warming up for the varsity football game. It was a way to have the runners finish in front of a large crowd. 

Art Fish described one night that the cross country race didn’t work out the way it was planned. Estimating the speed of the best runners, the coaches and administrators expected the runners to be finishing, but they did not arrive. A few minutes, then more minutes went by with no runners. 

Finally after about a 7-8 minute delay, the runners finally came in. Unlike in most meets, the runners were not spread out. Usually you would expect 2-3 runners battling for first, then a gap with 2-3 more runners and so forth. According to Art, as the runners were approaching, there were about ten all fighting for first and right behind them the rest of crowd. 

As they got closer, they realized some of the runner’s jerseys were ripped and bloody. 

Art Fish

It turned out that the cross country course was designed to start at the Lombard Football Field and then finish there. The route coming back to Lombard went over a little used set of railroad tracks. That night a train had gone done the tracks- it was a slow and a long train. 

According to the runners, when they got stopped, the initial conversations between the runners of the two teams was civil. The leading runners even began to negotiate how to stagger the runners when they started up again after the train left- according to how they arrived. 

As other runners arrived, the negotiations fell apart. Words had become heated and then some fists began to fly. When the train left, it was an all out race for the finish. 

It should be noted that decades later on a different course, a similar thing happened in a railroad days race. There were not fists flying but when the train left, it was everyone for themselves. 

A Baseball Trade Gone Wrong

Depending on your fan allegiances, June 15, 1964 marks the date of either the best or the worst trade in Major League History. The Cubs traded 25 year old outfielder, Lou Brock to the Cardinals for 28 year old pitcher, Ernie Broglio. 

You have probably heard about the trade, but here are the details. 

Ernie Broglio over the previous four years had records of 21-9 (2.74 ERA), 9-12, 12-9, and 18-8 (2.99 ERA). In today’s stats, Ernie had a WAR of 7.1 and 3.3 in his two best years. At the time of the trade, he was 3-5. 

Lou Brock in his previous two years had WAR’s of 1.0 and 2.6. He had batted .263 (16 SB) and .258 (24 SB). At the time of the trade, he was batting .251 with a WAR of 0.2. 

Obviously, the rest of the story is what is important. Broglio played only 2 more seasons before retiring. In the two plus seasons with the Cubs, he went 7-19 with an ERA hovering around 6.00. 

Lou Brock in the second half of the ‘64 season with the Cards, he batted .348 and stole 33 bases. The Cardinals won the World Series that year. 

Brock went onto play 15 seasons with the Cards with a lifetime .293 batting average, 3,023 hits, and 938 stolen bases.