Ex-Dodger Brock Seeks Renewal in Milwaukee : He Appears to Have the Right Attitude and He’s Playing in the Right (Small) Park

In a corner of the desert where the brilliant sunsets are celebrated in the knowledge that the sun will be up again tomorrow, shining as brightly as ever, Greg Brock prepares to rise again, too, if only a fraction as majestically.

The one-time heir apparent to Steve Garvey, branded a failure by the Dodgers, wants only to escape the glare of Hollywood lights.

Or any spotlight, for that matter.

“All I want is to blend in,” he said of his new start with the Milwaukee Brewers.

That, of course, is a luxury he was never afforded by the Dodgers.

He started off as “the organization’s best left-handed power-hitting prospect since Duke Snider,” so highly thought of that the Dodgers barely put up a fight when Garvey fled to San Diego.

But after struggling early, a two-month slump in the middle of the season taking the luster off some otherwise decent rookie numbers, he was eventually reduced to being a platoon player and belittled in an arbitration hearing--and from the stands--as unable to hit left-handed pitching.

Finally, after giving him four seasons to live up to the Garvey legacy, the Dodgers decided that potential has its limitations and called him expendable.

Some fans called him worse.

But all the Brewers are calling him is their regular first baseman, a designation that seems more suited to his quiet personality.

“If you told Steve Sax he couldn’t do something, he probably would be motivated by that,” said Brock’s wife, Denny. “But Greg’s not like that. That doesn’t pump him up.”

The trade last December that sent pitcher Tim Leary to the Dodgers and Brock to the American League has revived her husband’s self-esteem, Denny said.

“What I’ve noticed since he was traded is how confident he is in himself,” she said. “It’s not a cockiness or an arrogance or anything. I know this probably sounds funny, but he likes himself again. He feels good about playing again.”

Brock allows that his situation in Los Angeles was getting “too negative” and that it was great to find that there was somebody out there who wanted him.

He bears no ill will toward the Dodgers, he said. “But it feels good to get out and start over--and not have those feelings linger.”

Those feelings stemmed from the Dodgers’ telling Brock that he couldn’t hit left-handers.

Brock said he heard it so much that he got to believing it himself.

“It gets so instilled in your mind that it throws you off,” he said. “Your mind tells your body that you can’t do it.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt I’d rather see a right-hander out there than a left-hander, but when I was coming up in the minor leagues, I hit left-handers. And my first couple of years in the big leagues, I hit them with about the same success as I hit right-handers.

“I got into platooning and things just didn’t go my way, but I don’t have any doubt that I can hit left-handers. I just need to see them every day.”

The Brewers say he will.

“He’ll hit left-handers enough to be helpful,” General Manager Harry Dalton said. “He’s our first baseman, for sure. I think he’ll prosper in Milwaukee.”

In the Brewers’ first exhibition game this spring, against the San Francisco Giants, Brock came to bat in the sixth inning after three consecutive Brewers had singled.

Giant Manager Roger Craig promptly brought in left-hander Ray Fontenot, only to have Brock foil the strategy by lining a run-scoring single into right field.

Observed someone in the press box a couple of days later: “That probably rated headlines in L.A.”

Jim Murray once wrote that replacing Garvey was “nothing St. Michael the archangel couldn’t handle. All (one) had to be was a combination of Frank Merriwell, Captain Marvel, the First Marines and the Boy Scouts of America.”

Brock said he realizes now what Murray was talking about.

“No matter what you’d do in that situation, it wasn’t going to be enough,” he said.

“Maybe when I first got there, I didn’t know, or wasn’t realistic, or didn’t really know exactly what went with it.

“You’re trying to get to the major leagues when you’re in the minors--and it doesn’t matter who you replace, or how you come into the majors. You just want your chance.”

Garvey told Tom Friend of The Times: “Nobody really understood except me what he was going through. I knew the pressures that were on him and the demands. It wasn’t fair. No human being should have to go through that. It’s tough enough winning the job and playing the position without having to fill the shoes of somebody who had the career that I had there.”

The shadow of Garvey followed Brock everywhere, even nudging him toward his wife.

The former Denny Lee Ellis, at the time a television reporter for WPTT in Pittsburgh, came out to Three Rivers Stadium one day in 1983 to do a story on the Dodgers’ rookie first baseman.

“Like everybody else, I asked him about Steve Garvey,” she said.

Brock told her that, when he was going to school at the University of Wyoming, Garvey had been his favorite player and that he had always wanted to be a Dodger.

That desire faded in time.

Two years ago, Brock told another interviewer: “I realize a lot of people were against me, pulling for me to fail.”

And then, before last season, Brock said he was told during his arbitration hearing that the Dodgers weren’t even sure if he’d retain his position in 1986. That was after they had won the title in the National League West in 1985 with Brock at first base for 129 games.

Not long afterward, Brock asked the Dodgers to trade him.

“The arbitration was, without question, one of the most devastating experiences I’ve ever seen a player go through,” said Brock’s agent, Tony Antanassio. “That hurt him a lot.”

But Brock said the other day: “I know how arbitration works--they do everything they can to get your salary down and you do everything you can to get your salary up.

“I lost, but I understand why things are done. It isn’t even a bad memory.”

And now, except to say that “there were times I should have been playing when I wasn’t,” Brock said he was not treated unfairly by the Dodgers or the fans.

“I’ve got a lot of good memories,” he said. “It wasn’t all hard times. We won two (division) championships and we had a lot of good times there.”

But wasn’t he under a lot of pressure?

“I don’t think anybody put it on me,” he said. “I think it was just the way I approach the game. I wanted to succeed so badly and I wanted to do so well that maybe things bothered me that shouldn’t have been bothering me.”

Said his wife: “Greg’s a nice guy. He doesn’t say anything bad about anybody.”

The Dodgers are careful, too, not to step on any toes.

“I don’t want to get into what a player can or cannot do,” Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said. “That wouldn’t be fair.

“Instead of saying, ‘What was wrong with Greg Brock’ why not say, ‘The Dodgers just couldn’t pass on a pitcher the stature of Tim Leary.’ ”

Well, because nobody ever called Leary the next Don Drysdale and the Dodgers--specifically, scouting director Ben Wade-- had called Brock “the best left-handed power-hitting prospect in the organization since Duke Snider.”

“I didn’t say that,” Campanis said. “It was being said, but these things are brought up in publicity circles and so forth.

“Obviously, in four seasons, he didn’t meet up to that.”

Brock, 29, did have two pretty good seasons, hitting 20 home runs and driving in 66 runs in 1983, then almost duplicating those numbers in 1985, when he had 21 homers and 66 RBIs. The Dodgers won the division titles both seasons.

Last year, platooning, he hit .234 with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs in 115 games. Against left-handers, though, he was 6 for 59 with 1 run batted in.

His four-year totals included 71 home runs and 219 RBIs, an average of almost 18 homers and 55 RBIs a season, but only a .233 batting average. And only 1 hit in 23 postseason at-bats.

“He’s got power but he didn’t hit enough to justify playing first base,” Campanis said. “First base is a position in which you have to hit.”

OK, so he wasn’t another Duke Snider.

And he’s no Steve Garvey, either.

What is he?

Said Cleveland Indian Manager Pat Corrales, who was managing the Philadelphia Phillies when Brock broke in with the Dodgers: “To me, he’s very dangerous in a little ballpark. And that park in Milwaukee is a band box.

“A lot of balls he hit that were outs in Dodger Stadium are going to be home runs in Milwaukee.”

Brock doesn’t believe that he failed with the Dodgers.

“In my mind, I did the best I could do,” he said. “My average wasn’t as high as they wanted it, but it wasn’t as high as I wanted it. But considering the amount of at-bats I’ve had, I’m happy with the home runs and the RBIs. I think my career has been good.”

Brock pointed to his home run and RBI-per-at-bat ratios. He hit a home run every 21.2 at-bats and drove in a run every 6.9 at-bats with the Dodgers. Given a chance to play every day, he said he could ring up bigger numbers in Milwaukee.

“Right now, my confidence is high,” he said. “They’ve made me feel very comfortable and welcome. I think if I stay healthy, I’m going to have a real good year.”