MURPHY PARK — At the urban baseball field that now bears his name, Cardinals’ Hall of Famer Lou Brock told the gathered kids this morning that he was once like them. He was once “introverted”, sitting there on the other side of the fence, shy and hesistant.

He watched others do until he decided do something, too.

“Once I was sitting behind a fence,” Brock said. “I was 7 years old. I was in ninth grade once. Then I jumped the fence to play baseball. … I see the kid sitting behind the fence like I was and I see myself. Often all it takes to get something started is a spark and hopefully this field is that spark.”

Brock and several other Cardinal luminaries — like general manager Walt Jocketty and president Mark Lamping – gathered in the shadow of St. Stanislaus on Tuesday morning to christen the newest Cardinals Care youth baseball field. Lou Brock Field is in the middle of the Murphy Park area of St. Louis, not too far from the corner of Cass Avenue and Jefferson Avenue. It is teh 13th of the fields built for the Redbirds Rookie program, joining Stan Musial Field (in Jennings), Jack Buck Field (University City), Mark McGwire  Ballpark (Forest Park) and Jim Edmonds Field (Forest Park).

All have opened since 2000.

Marlene Hodges, who organized the Redbird Rookies teams for Murphy Park and  advocated the area for  the new ballpark, said the predominently African-American neighborhood has 3,000 residents and several hundred kids are involved in the  Cardinal Care youth baseball league. The kids range in age from 4 1/2 to 13, and some of the older  kids spent  the morning playing a ballgame on their new field. Lou Brock Field  will  not only host Redbird Rookie games, but it will not be  locked — as per policy — and  it will be  open to the whole neighborhood.

“No baseball was  being played because there was really nowhere to play it,” Hodges said. “This was empty land. Now they can play it at any time; it’s here for them.”

The current major-league baseball season opened with the stark number that fewer African-Americans are playing in the majors than in the past 15 years, and possibly much longer. The latest study  by the University of Central Florida says 8.4 percent of the big-league players are African-American, the lowest percentage since  1991, the first  year data was collected. It is a precipitous drop from the 1970s  – and it’s not isolated to the major leagues. African-American participation in the game is  dwindling at all levels.

This past weekend the Pittsburgh Pirates hosted their annual African-American Heritage Weekend and pitcher  Shane Youman spoke  about his plans to invigorate interest in baseball in the African-American community of his hometown, New Iberia, La. Other ballplayers are talking about similar endeavors and  basbeall’s RBI Program is gaining renewed attention  because of the reports earlier this season about the  low percentage of  African-America players and because of the expanding coverage of Hank Aaron’s drive to 755.

When asked, Brock said he saw the new ballpark — and its cousins around town (an Ozzie Smith Field, for example,  is in the works) — as part of an ongoing initiative to expose African-American kids to baseball.

“We need a feeder program,” Brock said.

He then outlined how he’d like to see all of the teams at the Redbird Rookies play through a season “that would culminate in a game at Busch Stadium.” “How would that be?” he asked. The Redbird Rookie program has something like that: It’s summer reading program’s gives players the chance to read their way toward playing a game at Busch. On average, each player on any team has to win 16 books in a summer to reach “home” and have a chance to win a lottery drawing to play at Busch. If players read 12 books they get to “third base” and have a chance for a Cardinals player — Aaron Miles or Preston Wilson this year — to visit their practice.

A young girl who plays center field for the Murphy Park team said she has learned “not to run away from the ball and run to the ball” because of the program.

Cardinals Care provides that ball for her to catch and the glove she uses to catch it.

Brock sees the field and the program as providing more than equipment.

It’s opportunity. It’s an alternative, he said.

“Baseball is a bridge in this community,” he told the crowd that gathered at the field Tuesday morning. “A bridge to help you cross the road into the world, into opportunities beyond your world. Like it did for me. … Look at the guy next to you and ask, Are you next? Are you the one this field was put together for?”

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