[LansdowneSt]

This is a proud man. Proud of his career as a player, proud of his career as a manager, and fiercely proud of his Dominican heritage.

He’s 82, but hardly seems it. He looks just as he did in 2006 when he last managed the San Francisco Giants. He’s still the same weight — about 195 pounds — that he was when he broke into baseball at 23 with San Francisco in 1958, the first player to come directly from the Dominican Republic to the Major Leagues.

It’s not surprising that his new book, “Alou: My Baseball Journey,” is just as much a life journey as it is about baseball. “This is almost a baseball book, almost,” Alou told Boomskie on Baseball this spring. Alou had four marriages and a son who died as a teenager in a swimming pool accident. He played with his two brothers – Matty and Jesus – in the same outfield with the Giants and managed his son Moises in both Montreal and San Francisco.

He still blames himself for failing to bunt his brother, Matty, over to second base in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1962 World Series. The Yankees beat the Giants, 1-0. Matty was stranded on third and Willie Mays on second when Willie McCovey lined out to Bobby Richardson to end the Series.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Alou was managing the Montreal Expos in 1994 when a players’ strike on Aug. 12 ended the season, causing the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series. The Expos had a 74-40 record and were poised to win it all. “I truly believe only an outside force, or a managerial mistake, could stop that 1994 team from winning the World Series,” he wrote.

The work stoppage did it, ultimately costing Alou his job and Montreal the franchise. By the time the strike ended on April 2 prior to the following season, the Expos had sent the core of the team packing: Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Ken Hill, Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, John Wetteland, Cliff Floyd, Jeff Frassero, Alou's nephew Mel Rojas, and his son Moises, just to name a few. By 2005, the Expos had moved to Washington to become the Nationals. They still haven’t won a National League pennant.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. - forbes.com

Pictured in said Montreal garb.