Jesús Alou, a two-time World Series champion and a big-league veteran of portions of 15 seasons, died on Friday, according to ESPN’s Enrique Rojas. Alou would have celebrated his 81st birthday on March 24. Rojas added that Alou had suffered two “cardiovascular accidents” in recent years, however that he was once no longer identified to be coping with a “serious illness.”
Alou, for his occupation, hit .280/.305/.353 (86 OPS+) with 32 house runs and 31 steals in 1,380 contests. His contributions have been price an estimated 0.8 Wins Above Replacement, consistent with Baseball Reference’s calculations.
Jesús was once, of path, the youngest of the Alou brothers, along Felipe and the past due Matty. The Alou circle of relatives tree has since produced a number of different notable big-league avid gamers, together with Moises, José Sosa, Luis Rojas, and Mel Rojas. Jesús, Felipe, and Matty made historical past on Sept. 15, 1963 once they seemed (however didn’t get started) in the similar outfield for the San Francisco Giants.
In addition to Alou’s time with the Giants, he would play with the Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, and New York Mets. It was once with the Athletics that he gained two World Series, in 1973 and ’74. Alou was once additionally in brief a member of the Montreal Expos group. The Expos took him as phase of the 1968 growth draft, most effective to business him to the Astros months later in a deal that fetched Montreal’s Rusty Staub, amongst others. Alou had maximum lately labored with the Boston Red Sox, who launched the next remark honoring his existence:
Alou’s time with the Astros took place to coincide with that of pitcher-slash-author Jim Bouton. As SABR noted in Alou’s biography, Bouton wrote the next about Alou in his 2d e 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.”