RIP Jesus Alou, 1942-2023

[G-Fafif]

Jesus Alou, dynamite righty pinch-hitting complement to Ed Kranepool in 1975 (14-for-40 in the role), has died a couple of weeks shy of his 81st birthday. Youngest of the three Alou brothers who manned the outfield together vs the Mets in 1963. Uncle of future Met Mouses Alou.

[metirish]

Rest in peace, I used to love hearing Ralph talk about the Alou brothers

[MFS62]

Youngest of the three Alou brothers who manned the outfield together vs the Mets in 1963.

I remember that game. The fans in the outfield started yelling, "Hey, Alou! Which Alou are YOU?"



RIP



Later

[Frayed Knot]

The man with the loosest neck in O.B. (Organized Baseball for you non-BALL FOUR readers).

[Edgy MD]

Along with Jesús Feliciano, one of only two Jesi in Mets' history.



Co-starred with his nephew in the Metmas carol "Always in Some Danger."



After a year in Mexico and a year out of baseball, came back at age 36 to hit .324 in his third tour of duty with Houston.



Uncle also of future Mets reliever Mel Rojas and future Mets manager Luis Rojas.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Tried to prank Topps when he posed for his lone Mets card - batting lefty instead of righty. Topps caught Alou's trick and flipped the negative for the actual card so that Alou would appear to be batting as he did in actual games -- righty. But the logos and uni wordmarks are reversed.

[G-Fafif]

News story…



https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/jesus-alou-two-time-world-series-champion-and-youngest-member-of-legendary-alou-brothers-dies-at-80/https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/jesus-alou-two-time-world-series-champion-and-youngest-member-of-legendary-alou-brothers-dies-at-80/

[G-Fafif]

A remembrance of how Jesus Alou became a Met http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2023/03/14/low-hums-and-jesus-alou/here.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Alou's time with the Astros happened to coincide with that of pitcher-slash-author Jim Bouton. As SABR noted in Alou's biography, Bouton wrote the following about Alou in his second book, I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally: "We called him J. or Jesus, never hay-soos. . . J. is one of the most delicate, sensitive, nicest men I have ever met. He'd walk a mile out of his way to drop a coin in some beggar's cup."

Nice.