alou opens doors for others

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c/o MLB.com

04/30/2004 4:09 PM ET

Alou opens doors for others

By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com

 

 

Felipe Alou led the Giants won 100 games and the NL West title in 2003. (Morry Gash/AP)

 

 

 

San Francisco manager Felipe Alou could not stand managers in his day.

Managers were tyrants, he said, making him keep his hair short, keeping him from growing a mustache, and more or less making his life miserable.

 

All Alou wanted to do when his playing career was over was to go back to the Dominican Republic and enjoy the good life with a rod and reel.

 

A mustache and sideburns would have been groovy, too.

 

"I'm in San Francisco during the 1960s in the neighborhood with hippies with long hair and beards and mustaches, and I walk around dressed like I'm in the military," Alou, 68, said. "We were basically alienated from society because we were players and could not follow the styles of the time. We didn't like that."

 

But Alou's assimilation into a freer lifestyle, and a full-time fishing gig, would have to wait. In 1976, two seasons after retiring, he made the switch from player to coach. He eventually turned himself into the winningest Latino manager in Major League history and the pride of the Dominican Republic.

 

"To be a Latino manager, the first thing you have to prove is that you have the mental capacity," Alou said. "Americans don't have to prove that because the world knows how strong the United States is and how good the education is for people here if they want it.

 

"But we come from countries that are not quite as developed as this country. A majority of the Latin players who are in the league now did not go to university. They did not have the chance. We had to play ball to make a life for ourselves and we started early.

 

'I never thought I would be a manager'

Born in Haina, Dominican Republic, in 1935, Alou broke into the Majors at 23 as an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants in 1958. For his career, he hit .286 with 2,101 hits, 206 home runs and 852 RBIs in 2,082 games during 17 seasons with the Giants, Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Oakland, New York Yankees and the Brewers. He was known primarily as one of the famous Alou brothers with Matty and Jesus.

 

In 1976, he helped out with Montreal's Spring Training in his first venture into coaching and made his managerial debut at Class A West Palm Beach in 1977.

 

"I never thought I would be a manager," he said. "We didn't like them as players."

 

Things changed.

 

Alou spent 25 years coaching with the Expos organization and in 1994, his third season as skipper of the Expos, he won the National League Manager of the Year award. After 10 seasons at the helm in Montreal, he served as bench coach for the Detroit Tigers in 2002. He rejoined the Giants for the 2003 season, replacing Dusty Baker, who had left for the Cubs.

 

"Everybody in baseball recognizes what he's done in the game and he's widely respected in all circles through the game," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said when he hired Alou in 2002. "It's thrilling because he is a Giant at heart. ... I don't know if it's a dream job for Felipe, but as far as a general manager, to be able to hire someone of his pedigree, it's very exciting for the organization."

 

 

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"Felipe Alou opened the doors for us. He is a great person and he showed we could manage at this level. We as managers and as Latinos have a lot of respect for Felipe Alou because of what he has done in this game and the man he is."

-- Tony Pena

 

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After a successful season in 2003, Alou was given a contract extension through 2005. He says his baseball life great, but it's not quite perfect. He has an unusual relationship with the media -- he believes he is adored by Latin media and criticized unfairly in the United States, and that bothers him at times.

 

"In my case, the only problem I ever had was sometimes with the American press," he said. "If I do a bad thing or if we are playing bad, print I am doing bad and we are playing bad. But if we are doing well and if we have a great season, I think they have to be honest and accept we had a great year. Last year, we had a great season and it seems like the manager did not have a good season.

 

"I have never seen anything like that in my career. I know I replaced a very popular manager and a very good manager in Dusty Baker. But I don't know how many managers have come into a situation and won 100 games in his first year. And a Latino manager? Never."

 

Despite his strong feelings on the subject, Alou says he does not worry about the press and feels no added pressure to win. He is, however, sensitive to questions about his age and health. Neither have anything to do with baseball, he says, and the questions particularly anger him because he is healthy.

 

"When they hired me, I still have the articles that say the game has passed me by," he said. "I read where I was sick and people wondered if I could do the job. I think if I had been an American, none of that stuff would have been made public and nobody would have made such a big deal about me.

 

"There is a man who is five years older than me and he's managing in Florida. He had a great team and he won the World Series and I am very happy for him. But I never read about how he might not be physically able to do it or that the game passed him by. There was no undermining with Jack [McKeon]. We go to the playoffs, we win 100 games, we do well, and all anybody focuses on is the small things and the negative. That's not honest."

 

Alou's legacy

When Alou became manager of the Expos in 1992, he became part of a short but storied history of Latino managers born outside the United States.

 

Miguel Angel "Mike" Gonzalez, who managed St. Louis in 1938, is considered the first Latino manager. He was followed by fellow Cuban-born managers Preston Gomez (Padres, Astros, Cubs), Cookie Rojas (California), Tony Perez (Cincinnati) and current Toronto manager Carlos Tosca, who was hired in 2002. Fellow Dominican Luis Pujols, who is now Alou's bench coach in San Francisco, managed Detroit in 2002.

 

"It's a big responsibility to be a Latino manager because there are not many of us," Alou said. "We can't have any problems with the language, or with the fans, or with the players or the front office because we are scrutinized. People are watching to see if we as Latino managers are for real. Every manager is judged and people wonder if he is for real, but I think more for us because we represent a race that has not always had the opportunity in the past."

 

If Alou is the reigning grandfather of Latino managers, Kansas City manager Tony Pena and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen are his children. Pena, like Alou, is from the Dominican Republic and Guillen is the first Venezuelan manager in Major League history.

 

"Felipe Alou opened the doors for us," Pena said. "He is a great person and he showed we could manage at this level. We as managers and as Latinos have a lot of respect for Felipe Alou because of what he has done in this game and the man he is."

 

Likewise, Guillen looks up to Alou, but not simply because he is Latino.

 

"Don't think Felipe Alou or Tony Pena or Ozzie Guillen is a manager because we are Latino or speak Spanish," Guillen said. "We have a job because we know what we are doing."

 

With almost 50 years of professional baseball experience behind him, it is obvious Alou knows what he is doing. His advice to future Latino managers is simple.

 

"Take care of yourself and do not get in trouble," he said. "Have the aspiration to win and try to be a manager in baseball or in other sports. Baseball is important, but we need Latino managers in other sports, too."

 

Jesse Sanchez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

[SorianoFanHFW]

"To be a Latino manager, the first thing you have to prove is that you have the mental capacity," Alou said. "Americans don't have to prove that because the world knows how strong the United States is and how good the education is for people here if they want it.

 

"But we come from countries that are not quite as developed as this country. A majority of the Latin players who are in the league now did not go to university. They did not have the chance. We had to play ball to make a life for ourselves and we started early.

 

'I never thought I would be a manager'

 

It is a shame that racism makes people think that if you are latin, you are too dumb to manage a team. I think that is depressing.

 

...now Joe Torre...HE'S too dumb to manage a team.