Here is something I posted on my Facebook page in memory of Jesus Alou.
Jesus Alou, a player I remember well from the San Francisco Giants teams of the 1960's died yesterday at the age of 80. He was the youngest of three brothers from the Dominican Republic to play major league baseball. They all started their careers with the San Francisco Giants, one of the first MLB teams to scout and sign players from Latin America. Per the Society of American Baseball Research(SABR), Jesus was just the 13'th player from the Dominican Republic to play major league baseball but only the third from his family. At one point during his rookie season in 1963, he and his brothers, Felipe and Mateo(Matty) became the only trio of brothers to play in the same outfield at the same time in MLB history.
By the time I started listening to games on the radio in 1966, Felipe had been traded to the Milwaukee Braves where he performed at an All-Star level and Matty was with the Pirates where the manager, Harry "The Hat" Walker, got him to change his hitting approach which produced a string of National League batting championships(highest batting average). Jesus was still with the Giants who thought he had the physical tools to be the best of the three. The name sounded exotic to a 10 year old kid living up in the mountains of Napa County listening to Russ Hodges pronounce it on the radio broadcast, HaySOOSaloo! It sounded like one word.
Alas, Jesus would never achieve the stardom of his older brothers. He had tremendous eye-hand coordination and could hit almost any pitch but that was his big limitation. He swung at everything and almost never took a walk. Swinging at bad pitches limited his ability to drive them for home runs so by today's metrics which value on-base percentage and slugging percentage over batting average, he was a terrible hitter. He also was eventually traded and ended up winning a couple of World Series Championships across the bay as a part time player with the Oakland A's.
RIP Jesus Alou
Recalling the Old Days hits a sweet spot w/ me these days. I remember the day Jesus Alou went 6 for 6 at the plate. Very cool. I grew up on a ranch and asked for a transistor radio in 1962 (10 yrs old) b/c our local am station carried the Giants. Nearly every day I was out raking hay w/ the radio pressed to my ear listening to Russ & Lon.
ReplyDeleteAlso had my radio on the day Mays hit 4 HR's. My dad and I took an afternoon off and went trout fishing at a little lake that day.
And of course, got busted in grade school with my transistor radio on low volume inside my flip-top desk during the Giants-Yankees world series.
Growing up with the Giants was awesome.
RIP Jesus Alou. And thank you Alou brothers for being SF Giants.
a main source of my enjoyment following the Giants now. Thank you, Bob Marcacci Sr.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I also remember Alou's frequent boneheaded baserunning. I remember a game where he was caught stealing 3 times in the same game, against the Reds and some guy named Johnny Bench. But Alou certainly was a big part of the Giants of my youth.
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