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Felipe Alou

A New Career As Manager



In 1976, Alou's son Felipe Jr. drowned. This had a profound impact on Alou's outlook on his career and his life. As he told Blair in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "I have to say that it was after Felipe's death that I changed. Before that, I was like anyone else and took things for granted. I still thought like a major leaguer, because I was only a couple of years out of the game as a player, and was going to get back into it as a coach, or something. But you lose your first-born son, and you don't take anything for granted anymore. For there can be nothing worse than that. Nothing.… For a while I wanted to be left alone."



With Felipe Jr., gone, Alou is left with ten surviving children, the products of four marriages. The eldest is Maria Jimenez, in her early forties as the 1990s drew to a close. Alou's first wife was Maria, with whom he had daughter Maria, and sons Moises, and Jose. Next he married Beverley Martin, who hailed from Atlanta, and with whom he fathered Christia, Cheri, and Jennifer. His next wife was a Dominican named Elsa Brens, and with her, Alou had Felipe Jose and Luis Emilio. Alou's fourth marriage was to Canadian Lucie Gagnon in 1985. By 1998, the couple had two children, Valerie and Felipe Jr.

Alou became manager of the Montreal Expos in 1992. Alou's goals as manager was to develop younger, less well-paid players into outstanding ballplayers, since, throughout the 1990s, the Expos cut costs by trading higher-paid players to other teams. His strategy paid off; by 1994, the Expos had the best win-loss record in major league baseball, and Alou was named Manager of the Year. By the end of his tenure with the Expos, Alou had brought his team to victory more times than any other manager in the history of the team. This was especially remarkable considering that the Expos had the second-lowest payroll in the National League at the time of Alou's recognition as Manager of the Year, with only two players over the age of 30.

Chronology

1935 Born in Haina, Dominican Republic
1958 Becomes a major league baseball player with the San Francisco Giants
1962 Plays in the World Series with the Giants against the Yankees
1963 Plays for the Braves
1970 Plays for the Athletics
1971 Plays for the Yankees
1973 Plays for the Expos
1974 Plays for the Brewers
1974 Retires as a player, becomes a manager and coach in the minor leagues
1976 Son Felipe Jr. drowns
1992 Becomes the first Dominican major league manager, for the Montreal Expos
1994 Named National League Manager of the Year
2001 Leaves the Expos
2002 Signs with the Giants as manager

Related Biography: Baseball Players Matty and Jesus Alou

Felipe Alou's two younger brothers, Matty and Jesus both played major league baseball at the same time as Felipe. All three brothers played together on the same team briefly in 1963, when Jesus joined the Giants. During one memorable game, the three of them comprised the only outfield to be made up entirely of brothers.

Matty is the second-oldest of the Alou brothers, born in 1938. He began his major league career in 1960, two years after Felipe, when he joined Felipe's team, the Giants. He hit his stride in 1966, the year he moved from the Giants to the Pirates, that year leading the National League in batting, with an average of .342. In 1969, he led the league in hits and doubles. Jesus is the youngest of the brothers, born in 1942. He was called "Jay" by sportscasters who didn't want to seem blasphemous by using the name "Jesus.

Awards and Accomplishments

1962, 1966 Named to the All-Star team
1968
1992 Becomes baseball's first Dominican major league manager, for the Expos
1994 Named National League Manager of the Year

Additional topics

Famous Sports StarsBaseballFelipe Alou Biography - Son Of A Carpenter, A Player In The Major Leagues, A New Career As Manager