Top 10 moments of Felipe Alou's career

MLB.com is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting stories that pay tribute to some of the most significant and talented players from Latin America in the game's history.

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There are few men who have lived as rich a baseball life as Felipe Alou?.

As a player and manager, Alou broke barriers that paved the way for countless Latin Americans to reach the Majors, forever altering the demographics of the sport.

A three-time All-Star, Alou batted .286 with 2,101 hits and 206 home runs over his 17-year career with the Giants, Braves, A’s, Yankees, Expos and Brewers. He later became the first Dominican-born manager in Major League history, winning 1,033 games over his 14 seasons at the helm of the Expos and Giants.

Along the way, Alou emerged as a vocal advocate for Latin American players, making him a revered figure in his native Dominican Republic and beyond.

Here’s a look back at the top 10 moments of Alou’s groundbreaking career.

1) A pioneering debut
June 8, 1958

Alou was a trailblazer for Latin American players, as he cleared the way for waves of international talent to begin flooding into the Majors after signing with the Giants for $200 in 1955. He debuted in San Francisco three years later, becoming only the second Dominican-born player to reach the Majors after Ozzie Virgil. Alou was the first Dominican to go straight from his homeland to the big leagues, as Virgil attended high school in the Bronx before signing with the New York Giants.

Alou started in right field and batted leadoff in his Major League debut at Seals Stadium, singling and doubling off Cincinnati’s Brooks Lawrence in his first two at-bats. Three days later, Alou belted his first Major League home run off Vern Law of the Pirates.

2) Highs and lows
1962

Alou struggled to establish himself as a big-league regular early in his career, as he found himself on a stacked Giants roster that included Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, José Pagán and Leon Wagner. He finally won the starting job in right field in 1962, delivering his first All-Star campaign by batting .316 with 25 home runs and 98 RBIs. More importantly, San Francisco won 103 games and defeated the rival Dodgers in a best-of-three tiebreaker series to capture the National League pennant.

The Giants advanced to the World Series, but they fell to the Yankees in a classic seven-game affair. Alou is still haunted by his final at-bat of the series, as he failed to get a sacrifice bunt down with a runner on first base and the Giants trailing, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7. Mays subsequently doubled to put runners on second and third with two outs, but McCovey ended up lining out to second baseman Bobby Richardson to end the game.

“Even though I hardly bunted all year, you have to be ready to bunt in the World Series -- and I wasn’t ready,” Alou wrote in his autobiography, Alou: My Baseball Journey. “It still pains me that I didn’t get that bunt down, and I consider it one of the lowest points of my professional career, something I’ll take to my grave because I failed in that situation.”

3) A family affair
Sept. 15, 1963

Felipe’s arrival marked only the beginning of the Alou legacy, as he was the first of three brothers to reach the Majors. In his final season in San Francisco, Felipe manned center field for the Giants and was flanked late in the game by his two younger brothers, Matty and Jesús, making them the only trio of brothers to appear in the same outfield.

4) Finding his voice
November 1963

Like many of his Black and Latino peers, Alou encountered racism when he arrived in the United States to play in the Minor Leagues in 1956. He began his professional career in Lake Charles, La., but he was denied the opportunity to continue playing in the segregated Evangeline League due to the color of his skin. He soon found himself on a three-day bus ride to a lower-level affiliate in Cocoa, Fla., where he was forced to subsist off peanuts and drink from "colored" water fountains.

The challenges for Alou and his minority teammates persisted even after they reached the Majors. Giants manager Alvin Dark forbade his players from speaking Spanish in the clubhouse, an edict that infuriated Alou, who later gave an interview to Sport magazine in which he outlined his concerns about the treatment of Latino players.

In the piece, “Latin-American Ballplayers Need a Bill of Rights,” Alou called for Latino players to have a representative in the Commissioner’s Office to help the league better understand their culture and their unique plight in the Majors. Alou’s willingness to speak out solidified his status as a leader among Latin American players, many of whom have likened his impact to that of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente.

5) Hotlanta
1966

Alou’s tenure with the Giants came to an end in December 1963, when he was traded to the Milwaukee Braves as part of a seven-player deal. In 1966, the franchise relocated to Atlanta, where Alou enjoyed the finest season of his career. He batted .327 with a career-high 31 home runs, leading the NL with 218 hits, 122 runs scored, and 355 total bases while earning his second All-Star nod. Alou finished runner-up in the race for the league batting title, losing out to his brother Matty, who hit .342 in his first season with the Pirates.

6) Breaking barriers in the dugout
May 22, 1992

Alou continued to break new ground after his playing career ended. In 1992, he was appointed the manager of the Expos, becoming the first Dominican-born skipper in Major League history. Alou’s hiring was long overdue, as he spent 12 years coaching in the Minors before he finally got his first opportunity to manage in the big leagues at 57.

“I was proud to be one of the first Dominicans to play in the big leagues, and I am proud to become the first manager,” Alou said following his long-awaited promotion.

7) A magical season cut short
1994

Alou was named the NL Manager of the Year after guiding the Expos to a Major League-best 74-40 record in 1994, but the season was ended in early August by a labor strike, costing Montreal a chance to make a run to the World Series.

“I truly believe only an outside force, or a managerial mistake, could stop that 1994 team from winning the World Series,” he wrote in his autobiography.

8) Back to San Francisco
Nov. 14, 2002

Alou spent a decade at the helm of Montreal before returning to the Giants to replace Dusty Baker, who left to manage the Cubs. At 67, Alou became the oldest manager to take over a club since the Mets coaxed a 71-year-old Casey Stengel out of retirement ahead of their inaugural season in 1962.

"I'm going back home to where I started and, hopefully, I'm going to end it right there," Alou said during his introductory press conference.

The Giants won 100 games and returned to the playoffs in Alou’s first season as manager, but they were upset by the Marlins in the 2003 NL Division Series. Alou picked up his 1,000th career managerial win on July 3, 2006, which would mark his final season as the Giants’ skipper.

9) Coming full circle
August 2016

Alou remained with the Giants organization as a special assistant after stepping away from his managerial duties, and in 2016, the club honored his legacy by announcing the opening of the Felipe Alou Baseball Academy in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. The state-of-the-art facility serves as the headquarters of the Giants’ Latin American operations and as the educational training and player development home for the team’s international prospects.

Alou occasionally visits the facility to check in on the next generation of Latin American players who are making their way through the Giants’ system.

“I think this is a very special new type of facility for sports,” Alou said in 2016. “I know a lot of kids who would like to wear the Giants uniform and be part of all of this.”

10) Baseball bloodlines

The Alou family is now synonymous with baseball, and their impact continues to be felt around the game. In addition to his two brothers, Alou’s son, Moisés, enjoyed a 17-year career in the Majors, playing for his father on the Expos and Giants. Another son, Luis Rojas, managed the Mets for two seasons and is now the third-base coach for the Yankees.

Felipe Rojas Alou Jr. also served as the Orioles’ longtime director of Dominican Republic operations and made his managerial debut with Low-A Delmarva in 2022, while Jose Alou works as an area scout for the Giants.

“There are a lot of Alous in the game still, and we’ve got to keep passing the baton to the next generation,” Jose said in 2020.