Editor's note: This is the second installation of a four-part series chronicling the life of former W.F. West standout Brock Peterson after Chronicle reporter Zach Martin recently traveled to Virginia Beach for an interview. Read the previous installment here.
Picture the following scenario.
Standing in line at a baseball complex in Florida. Watching other 2002 draft picks take some batting practice. Gaze at the ball soaring in the outfield, heck some of them clearing the yard.
Maybe a jaw drop occurs. Still, some self-belief returns to the noggin.
After all, they were picked in the same draft. Some older, some younger; some went first round, some in the mid-teens. In the 49th round? There’s a chance.
Yet a team believed in them to be selected and signed just as much.
Now it is time to showcase the right-handed power in the wooden stick-like figure that many praised as a high school standout. Step into the batter’s box and the first hacks as a professional are nearing its beginning.
And how did it go?
“Here I am struggling to make contact and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, this is not what I was expecting,’” Brock Peterson said. “It was 96 degrees everyday, in the humidity. The adjustments they had me make were not working. I honestly didn’t want to go back. My expectations changed in a quick manner.”
By coincidence or just pure luck and the baseball Gods willpower, that first round of BP ended up being the microcosm of Brock’s entire professional baseball career. It was never smooth sailing, had one or two bumps, but the final destination was reached.
In 2013, the St. Louis Cardinals made the former W.F. West High School star the 20,469th player to play in the majors when he was called up from Triple-A Memphis.
“It made it all worth it, honestly,” Brock said. “It made me felt I could be proud of my career forever.”
It took over a decade from his phone call with the Minnesota Twins to have his own locker at Busch Stadium. And it was far from easy.
The first step in Brock’s minor league career took him to Elizabethton, Tennessee for rookie ball. At the time, even though he flew, he did have his mom Cathy’s car in Florida. The initial thought was he could drive the car to Elizabethton.
Au contraire, mon frère
So Cathy and Brock’s sister Marissa booked a one-way flight to the Sunshine State, got the car and drove to Tennessee to see Brock’s first-ever professional game.
“My daughter did it looking at a map, she was 15-years old,” Cathy recalled. “We were there before the first pitch. We did it that day; my daughter made only one mistake.”
In 61 games, Brock roped nine home runs, 31 runs batted in and hit .290 at the plate. His first year of pro ball was complete.
Brock spent the next year at Low-A in the Quad-Cities, formerly known as The Swing. During his time in Davenport and Fort Myers, the High-A affiliate of the Twins, Brock was durable. He played over 100 games the next three seasons.
“My second half of the seasons were always better than the first,” Brock said. “I started to feel stronger.”
In the day of no live streaming, Norm – Brock’s dad – and Cathy would listen to games on the radio. They’d go to a couple here and there, too.
And with Brock making little to no money, they’d help him out if he was in desperate need.
“We got your back,” Norm said. “He didn’t live extravagantly at all.”
“We trusted the process,” Cathy added.
Spend enough time in locker rooms and there will be bonds formed. Even some friends from his childhood days ended up being in the same clubhouse.
Kyle Aselton was also drafted by the Twins organization and was able to be around Brock in numerous stops in the minors. They played together at Double-A New Britain in 2008.
“It was awesome,” Aselton stated. “Someone I can talk with and ease myself into the organization. A lot of great memories. One sticks out: Playing the cardinals and I started, pitched pretty well, 0-0 in the fifth. Brock came up in the dugout and said ‘He was gonna get me some runs’ then he hit a 2-run hammer and I got the win.”
Kyle Phillips was another teammate in the Twins farm system that Brock grew a close connection with.
For Brock and Aselton, it was something special they were able to share.
“I know it is very rare coming from a small town in Washington State,” Aselton siad. “We didn’t play with anybody that had any similar story. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Denard Span, the Twins first-round pick that same draft class, was seemingly with Brock each step of the way. Trevor Plouffe also was a pup during the time frame.
Seemingly, Brock always found a way to be surrounded by eventual big leaguers. At this point, already one step away from The Show four years into his pro career, he thought it wouldn’t be long before he was called up.
“I heard some things that maybe it was going to happen, but then I hurt my shoulder and had to miss three weeks,” Brock said. “I pretty much knew probably wasn’t going to get called up as a DH. I played OK.”
August of 2008 was when Brock was called up to Triple-A Rochester and he was there for 11 games towards the end of the regular season.
Despite just an appearance, it was enough for him to start the 2009 season in Rochester. What followed was something that, to this day, Brock questions.
He was healthy, he swung the ball well and hit over .300 for the first time in his career, he hit 10 home runs, continuing his streak of five straight double figure bombs in a campaign.
But he was consistently hitting eighth in the lineup and only played 99 games.
“For whatever reason, I do not know,” Brock said. “My teammates would constantly ask me why I wasn’t in the lineup. It was the strangest situation ever.”
Stan Cliburn was the manager of Rochester during 2009. He did not return any messages or phone calls from The Chronicle for this story.
From the coaches that knew Brock, this was – in their mind – a blip on the radar.
“You can’t play 13 years of pro ball without being mentally tough and he had that quality about him,” former W.F. West head coach Tom Zuber said.
Still, it was one of the most challenging times of Brock’s career.
“You’re out there trying to compete and figure things out,” Brock said.
Even after a 2010 season that featured his second-most home runs and playing over 120 games, the love and passion Brock had for baseball was starting to dwindle.
He ended up playing in the Dominican Republic in the winter of 2010, a stretch of time he called “really, really fun.” For the first time in his career, Brock was a free agent.
He stated he had an offer with the Pittsburgh Pirates due to his manager in the Dominican Republic was also the Triple-A skipper. A knee injury that winter resulted in a pulled offer.
“Which was a bummer,” Brock said. “My knee was messed up for six months before a chiropractor fixed it. It was instantly better.”
Believe it or not, Brock was living in Virginia Beach in 2009. This was when he met Colin Roberson, a minor leaguer himself who is a native of Virginia Beach.
Roberson was with the Marlins organization for a handful of years.
“We knew who each other was,” Roberson said. “You see each other for a four-game set, you kind of know who is who. He always had a knack to be able to take somebody yard. He always had natural power. Wasn’t imposing, but just a big strong dude.”
They trained together and Roberson was chatting with Brock about playing independent ball in the Atlantic League.
Brock was against it from the jump.
“I didn’t want to play independent ball,” Brock said. “I had this stigma that it was going to be pretty terrible.”
From constant bugging from his new friend to the people in Bridgeport, Brock eventually was en route to Connecticut to play for the Bluefish.
“There are a lot of independent ball leagues that aren’t the same caliber. It is between Double-A and Triple-A, so there’s a wealth of knowledge,” Roberson said. “You’re around guys that have five years in the big leagues, 10 years in the big leagues. Even had coaches that were in the big leagues. It was different.”
Looking back, Brock realizes just how much that league meant to him.
“It 100 percent saved my career,” he candidly stated.
Something happened in Bridgeport that either unlocked or re-invigorated Brock. Manager Willie Upshaw, who spent a long time with the Toronto Blue Jays, was giving him a new way to look at hitting.
For years while playing in affiliated ball, he was told to do things a certain way – an eerie similar feeling – and it was not working during stretches.
“Felt like I learned about the game I had been missing the previous nine years,” Brock said. “We spent 45 minutes to an hour in a cage in Long Island. He was doing things that were the complete opposite of what I had been taught.”
A batting average of .272 his first year, then raising it 21 points his second year added to the power and all of a sudden, the pieces were starting to come together.
“You saw some minor adjustments with his stance and starting point, and got into a really good hitting position,” former Bridgeport teammate Paul Oseguera said. “You can tell this guy showed up and knew what it takes and put in good work on the baseball field. He took a sense of pride (in) being a complete baseball player for the team.”
The St. Louis Cardinals called someone in Bridgeport in 2012 and wanted to sign Brock to a two-year contract. He would report right away to Memphis and just like that, he was back in affiliated baseball.
Two years was the key factor in the contract.
“When I knew it was real, I was on cloud nine,” Brock said. “I knew that I had more than a couple of weeks to prove myself. It allowed me to relax a little bit.”
When the 2013 season commenced, it ended up being special from the start.
Brock hit in the middle of the lineup, a career-high in home runs (25) and RBIs (86) and was a part of a Redbirds club that won 69 games.
Kolten Wong, a former top prospect in the Cardinals system, would hit in front of Brock in the lineup.
“He is one of those guys, when you’re coming up as a young guy, you want to gravitate to,” Wong said. “You get respect from guys whether they played in the big leagues or not.”
In mid-July, Brock – who was just named and played in the Triple-A all-star game – was told he would be heading to the big leagues. The twist? He couldn’t tell anybody.
The Cardinals had to make a corresponding move to put a player on the disabled list (now injured list) and nothing was set in stone completely.
“I knew that nothing was official until I signed the paperwork,” Brock said. “I didn’t want to get too excited.”
When it was all official, everyone in Brock’s life was over the moon.
“It was pretty surreal, a relief,” Norm said.
“Just his dedication to himself, wanting to prove he could do it,” Cathy added.
On July 20 in 2013, Brock made his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres as a pinch-hitter. He recorded his first RBI as a big leaguer.
Brock made his first start out in left field a day later and facing the Philadelphia Phillies on July 24, he notched his first career major league hit.
“It was almost like he reverted back to 2018 playing summer legion,” Aselton said. “I could tell it was just a matter of time. I was so jacked for him, all our friends were. It was pretty awesome.”
“I had to find a sports bar that carried those games,” childhood friend Sawyer Smith added. “The easiest way to sum it up is you’re proud of somebody. You’ve seen what they’ve done. I know what those sacrifices mean. Not a lot of people get that reward all the way to that level and ever let anything stop him.
“He earned it.”
Brock ended up playing 23 games in St. Louis and recorded two hits plus drove in two runs. All the hard work had paid off in a giant way.
“To get called up on a team (in first place), it is even more meaningful,” Brock said. “They think you can help them win. This means more.”
His two years in St. Louis came to a close and despite some optimism the Cardinals would bring him back into the fold, they didn’t.
Instead, the Washington Nationals signed Brock to a minor league deal. He spent 70-plus games in Syracuse before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers near the MLB trade deadline.
“The Nationals treated me like I had 10 years of big league experience from day one,” Brock said. “I was pretty ecstatic (to be traded).”
No stretch of baseball was Brock hotter than in Albuquerque, LA’s Triple-A team. In just 40 games, he hit .387 with nine homers and 36 RBIs. His slugging percentage was the highest ever at .671 and his OPS reached over 1.000 for the first time ever.
He was on his way to be called up.
Then, one pitch later, it came to a screeching halt.
“I got hit by a pitch and broke my thumb in the second inning,” Brock said. “I was sitting in the locker room in my street clothes drinking a beer, pretty dejected. Assistant general manager walked in and he was like ‘What happened?’ and I told him.
“He said ‘That’s too bad. You were going to the big leagues on Friday.’ It was the most unlucky I felt.”
His final days of baseball were spent in the Mexican league, back with the Twins organization, then the New York Mets. When he was in NY, he was sent to Double-A.
The writing was on the wall and after the 2015 season, at age 31, Brock Peterson was officially retired.
“At that point, I was kind of over it,” he said. “By the end of that year, I had mentally checked out. I was done.”
He was still living in Virginia Beach, went to school and got a degree in finance. He was around Roberson and others in the area that helped him navigate a post-baseball world.
More than five years after retirement, Brock’s life and world would turn upside down.
