Sunday, August 15, 2021

Alou Brothers

How's this for a story?
 
Your name is Felipe and you're the oldest of three very talented baseball-playing brothers in the Dominican Republic. In 1955, just barely out of your teenage years, you play outfield for a national team that takes the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Mexico City. Your talent is recognized, and later that year you're signed by the San Francisco Giants.

A couple of year later, as you're preparing for the big show, the Giants notice your next-oldest brother Matty and sign him as an amateur free agent. Then, in 1958, just a few months after your big-league debut, the Giants notice your youngest brother Jesus, and sign him as an amateur free agent, too. What a time for the family!

A couple of years pass, and Matty joins the Giants in 1960. Then in 1963, when young brother Jesus becomes a late-season addition to the roster, all three are finally with the big club. And soon something remarkable happens.
 
On September 15th, you start the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the outfield. You reach base a couple of times and score two runs, and by the time the 7th inning rolls around, your team is ahead 8-3. Manager Alvin Dark decides to give your fellow outfielder Willie McCovey some rest, and swaps him out with your brother Jesus.
 
Then, in the bottom of the 8th inning, Dark decides to give your other fellow outfielder—a guy named Willie Mays—a little rest too, and swaps in your other brother, Matty.
 
As pitcher Billy O'Dell takes his warm-up tosses before the first batter of the inning steps up to the plate, you look to your left and to your right. It's an all-Alou outfield!
 
Never before had three brothers done this on a major league field. What a day.
 
Here are all three guys just a few years later.

1968 Topps #55 Felipe Alou, #270 Matty Alou, and #452 Jesus Alou
 
 
By this point, although having been split up, they'd all had quite a bit of success with their respective teams.
 
In 1966, for example, Matty led the league with a .342 batting average, while Felipe finished second at .327.
 
Both Felipe and Matty were all-stars on more than one occasion. Matty won the World Championship in 1972, and Jesus did the same in 1973 and 1974.
 
Here are some numbers for the Alous.

CAREER TOTALS

CAREER TOTALS

 

FELIPE

(17 seasons)

MATTY
(15 seasons)

JESUS

(15 seasons)

GAMES PLAYED

2082

1667

1380

AT-BATS

7339

5789

4345

RUNS

985

780

448

HITS

2101

1777

1216

DOUBLES

359

236

170

TRIPLES

49

50

26

HOME RUNS

206

31

32

RBI

852

427

377

STOLEN BASES

107

156

31

WALKS

423

311

138

STRIKEOUTS

706

377

267

BATTING AVERAGE

.286

.307

.280

OBP

.328

.345

.305

SLG

.433

.381

.353

 

 

BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON
(Career highs in bold; asterisk = led major leagues)

 

FELIPE

(1966, ATL)

MATTY
(1969, PITT)

JESUS

(1965, SF)

GAMES PLAYED

154

162

143

AT-BATS

666*

698*

543

RUNS

122*

105

76

HITS

218*

231*

162

DOUBLES

32

41*

19

TRIPLES

6

6

4

HOME RUNS

31

1

9

RBI

74

48

52

STOLEN BASES

5

22

9

WALKS

24

42

13

STRIKEOUTS

51

35

40

BATTING AVERAGE

.327

.331

.298

OBP

.361

.369

.317

SLG

.533

.411

.398

 


Felipe also had a terrific managing career, most notably with the Expos throughout the 1990s. Keeping the family theme going, he managed his son Moises (quite a talented player himself) for quite a few of those years, and also took home the Manager of the Year award in 1994.
 
So here's to the Alou brothers. Three great careers, and some special memories in San Francisco. 

Thanks for reading, as always.

14 comments:

  1. Such a cool moment in baseball history. Shame the Giants didn't keep them together for a few more seasons, but I guess when you have Mays out in center it would get a little crowded.

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    Replies
    1. Right? Kind of hard to supplant that guy ;-)

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  2. Replies
    1. I thought the same thing while putting this post together. Impressive skills, for sure.

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  3. And Felipe's other son, Luis Rojas, is the manager of the Mets. (All of the family is actually named Rojas--in Spanish, the full name has the mother's maiden name after the surname which comes from the father. Felipe Rojas Alou was mistakenly dubbed "Felipe Alou" by the Giants, and most of the family went along with it.)

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  4. They look nice lined up like that, like a family snapshot. I think I have all three only for '71-'74, the card photos don't match up as good as '68.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed, Night Owl! Score one for the burlap set.

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  5. Never seen the '68 Jesus Alou before. That one looks like the Polo Grounds, must have been taken at a Mets game 1962-1964.

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    Replies
    1. Good detective work, Bo! Topps was known to occasionally use an image of a player from a previous year on their current year's cards, so that would explain the gap.

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  6. Another piece of trivia is that one of them (Matty) extended his playing days by spending 3 seasons in Japan with the Lions from 1974 to 1976. He was a bit past his prime but he managed to lead the league in doubles in 1975. Some of his coolest baseball cards are Japanese ones from those years.

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    Replies
    1. I had no idea! Thanks for that extra info, Sean. I'll have to look up Matty's Japanese baseball cards.

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  7. Fun post! I've never seen all of their stats lined up before, so thanks for that!

    ReplyDelete