Greg Brock left his mark during the 2 seasons he played in the Duke City

Legend has it that Gregory Allen Brock once hit a baseball so hard it knocked out a piece of the scoreboard at the old Sports Stadium.

The story is that it came in the bottom of the ninth inning and it won a game for the Albuquerque Dukes.

Brock doesn’t remember the details – after all it occurred 30 years ago – but he does remember laughing and telling his teammates that it wasn’t the first time he’d seen someone damage the Albuquerque scoreboard.

	Saturday Inductions for Greg Brock, Sid Bream, Kevin Kennedy and the late Carlos Salazar into the Albuquerque Baseball Hall of Fame will take place prior to the 7:05 p.m. Isotopes home game vs. Iowa.See BROCK on PAGE D2Greg Brock played first base for the Albuquerque Dukes in 1982 – when he hit .310, with 44 homers and 138 RBIs – and in 1984. He will be inducted into the Albuquerque Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday.Greg Brock

Years earlier, as a ballplayer at the University of Wyoming, he saw a UNM Lobo hit a shot like that off a Cowboys pitcher.

Since his college days, Greg Brock has made a habit of returning regularly to the ball field at the corner of University Boulevard and Avenida César Chávez.

His next visit will be Saturday when he will be inducted into the Albuquerque Baseball Hall of Fame.

Brock, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1979, played 159 games over two seasons with the Dukes.

But it’s his 1982 season that ranks among the greatest any Albuquerque pro baseball player has ever had.

“It was a year that was very important in my career,” Brock says.

Brock rolled into town in ’82 with great anticipation, having hit 32 homers the year before at Double-A San Antonio and 29 the year before that at Single-A Lodi.

He didn’t disappoint. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound left-handed hitting first baseman slammed 44 homers, drove in 138 runs, hit 21 doubles, eight triples, scored 118 runs, had 318 total bases and hit .310 – all in 135 games.

Many of those shots landed in the lava rocks beyond the Albuquerque outfield wall. Some made it to the drive-in area beyond the lava.

“I remember the cars would pull up and watch the games,” Brock says. “That’s the way I would have watched the games if I could have.”

But it’s not the home runs he remembers. It’s not the gaudy numbers that stand out from those days and nights three decades ago.

He mostly remembers the players he lined up with and the fans who cheered them.

“I enjoyed Albuquerque,” Brock says. “Obviously everybody’s goal is to get to the big leagues. But some of my fondest memories are from what happened in the minors.

“The biggest thing is you get really close to the fans. You’d be talking to a fan at the ballpark one day, then have a barbecue in their backyard the next. Albuquerque is a great baseball town.”

He has stayed in contact with some of his teammates from that 1982 PCL championship team – guys such as Sid Bream, Kevin Kennedy (both of whom are also being inducted Saturday), Mike Marshall and Steve Shirley.

Brock missed the PCL playoffs that year because he got a September call from the Dodgers.

“I remember flying out that day and getting to pinch hit that night,” Brock says. “They were in the pennant race, and it was pretty electrifying.”

Brock never duplicated his minor league numbers in the majors, but he carved out a 10-year career with the Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers in which he managed 110 homers, 462 RBIs and a .248 batting average. In 1983, he was seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting (won by Darryl Strawberry).

“I’ve never had any qualms or disappointments about it,” Brock says of his major league career. “Maybe it could’ve turned out better; it could’ve turned out worse. I gave it my best shot.

“I know there was a lot of hype coming out of Albuquerque, and maybe some didn’t think I accomplished as much as I could have. But I gave it 100 percent while I was there. I have no regrets.”

Brock went on to coach high school baseball (his son, Danny, was among his players) in Loveland, Colo., where he still lives. At 55, Brock says he’s “pretty much retired now.”

But in his coaching days, he took some of his teams to tournaments in New Mexico and made detours to attend games at the Sports Stadium and eventually Isotopes Park. His daughter went to Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, and that meant more trips through Albuquerque. He hunted elk in the Gila Wilderness and, again, passed through town.

But 30 years ago, he did more than pass through. And there was no better show in Albuquerque than Greg Brock hitting baseballs into the lava, into the scoreboard, into the summer.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal