Ernest Gilbert Broglio (; August 27, 1935 – July 16, 2019) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

and Chicago Cubs of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

from 1959 to 1966. After attending high school and junior college in his native California, Broglio signed with the independent Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. He was acquired by the New York Giants in 1956. After two seasons in the Giants’ minor league system—when he won 17 games each year—Broglio was traded to the

in October 1958. Although he led the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

in wins with 21 for the 1960 Cardinals and won 18 for the 1963 Redbirds, Broglio is best remembered as the "other player" in the ultimately lopsided trade that sent future Baseball Hall of Fame

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

Lou Brock from the Chicago Cubs to the Cardinals on June 15, 1964. His career in the majors came to an end during the 1966 season. He died on July 16, 2019 from cancer.

Early life

Broglio was the second child born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, to his parents Anna and Joseph Broglio. After ten years, in 1945, his family moved to

El Cerrito, California El Cerrito ( Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 census. El Cerrito was founded by refugee ...

. With his dad working seven days a week, carrying out two jobs, Ernie was self-motivated to play baseball and played on the varsity high school teams for baseball and basketball as an eighth grader. At the age of 17, Ernie graduated from El Cerrito High School and was signed by the PCL Oaks.

Baseball career

Minor Leagues

In 1953, at the age of 17, Broglio held an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) of 6.89 in 11 games with 2 wins and 4 losses in his first year on the Oakland Oaks roster. He improved throughout his years in the minor leagues to have a 2.51 ERA in 1957 with the Dallas Eagles. In his minor league career, Broglio was part of many trades between organizations, playing for the Oakland Oaks, Modesto Reds, Stockton Ports, Dallas Eagles, and Phoenix Giants. On October 8, 1958, he was involved in a transaction involving five players from the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. In the Cardinal organization, Broglio went on an exhibition tour that led to his promotion into the major leagues.

St. Louis Cardinals

On April 11, 1959, Broglio made his major league debut for the St. Louis Cardinals, at the age of 23. After four appearances, he had a 9.00 ERA with an 0–2 record, and did not get his first win until his match-up against Philadelphia on June 16 which brought his record to 1–5. Broglio ended his first season with a record of 7–12 with an ERA of 4.72 over 181.1 innings pitched and 35 appearances. Not projected to be a part of the Cardinals' starting rotation in the 1960 season, Broglio made his first appearance in relief on the second game of the season pitching six innings against the Giants. After this performance, he alternated between relief innings and starts that brought him to a 9–4 record with a 2.86 ERA, and got him into the starting rotation for the next eighteen appearances. The final half of the season resulted in a 2.74 ERA and a 21–9 record. Broglio led the league along with Warren Spahn in wins, and his win percentage (.700) was second to teammate Lindy McDaniel's (.750). He also had the second best ERA in the league, and was ranked third in the Cy Young Award voting for the season. In addition, Broglio received the National League Sophomore of the Year Award that season. This award is not well known; MLB discontinued the award in 1962 due to the lack of interest. The award was given to the player who performed the best during their second full season, avoiding what some baseball fans would call the sophomore "jinx" or sophomore slump for hitters. Broglio had arm problems over the remaining years of his career with the Cardinals which contributed to the general management's decision to involve Broglio in a five-player trade with the Chicago Cubs that resulted in the Cardinals obtaining Lou Brock.

Chicago Cubs

When Broglio was traded to the Cubs for Brock, it was seen as a heist for the Cubs. Broglio had won 18 games the year before and was considered a top-flight starting pitcher. Brock—one of the fastest men in the game with surprising power as a hitter—had been a disappointment in Chicago. But Brock would

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

.348 for the rest of the 1964 season, leading the Cardinals to a

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. He then would play another 15 years, appear in two more

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

(1967–68), and set the career stolen base record (938, since broken by

Rickey Henderson Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson (born December 25, 1958) is an American retired professional baseball left fielder who played his 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four separate tenures with hi ...

). The Cardinals organization knew that Broglio's arm would not last much longer, having had twenty cortisone shots in his shoulder in the 1961 season. Broglio's performance with the Cubs was what led a majority of baseball fans to view the transaction between the Cardinals and Cubs to be a lopsided trade. He had a record of 1–6 his first year with the Cubs in 1965 and a 2–6 record in 1966 which made the organization send him down to the minor leagues. ESPN ranked this to be the number one, worst mid season trade in baseball history.

Career statistics

In an eight-year career, Broglio made 259 appearances, accumulating 849

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

in 1337.1 innings pitched, and he ended his career with a 3.74

. Broglio's final record in the major leagues accounted for 77 wins and 74 losses.

References

External links

Ernie Broglio
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Ernie Broglio
at Baseball Almanac {{DEFAULTSORT:Broglio, Ernie 1935 births 2019 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Canada Baseball players from Berkeley, California Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Chicago Cubs players Dallas Eagles players Deaths from cancer in California Johnstown Johnnies players Major League Baseball pitchers Modesto Reds players National League wins champions Oakland Oaks (baseball) players People from El Cerrito, California Phoenix Giants players St. Louis Cardinals players Stockton Ports players Tacoma Cubs players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players American people of Italian descent