Felipe Alou was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario over the weekend. There will be no arguments.
Alou, a native of the Dominican Republic, managed the Montreal Expos from 1992 to 2001 and never won a pennant. The results matter not a whit.
What Alou brought to the city of Montreal, its baseball fans, to everyone he came into contact with can never be limited to results on an athletic field.
(But please, make no mistake. He was a brilliant baseball manager. Long-time managerial opponent Tony La Russa, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, once noted, “If all of us started with the same players, Felipe would finish 10 games ahead of the pack.”)
Unfortunately, Alou’s one chance to win a pennant with Montreal was sabotaged by a labour dispute in 1993 as Expos were running away with the National League East.
Alou then watched with disappointment as management dismantled a team that many believed could keep winning for years.
But Felipe Alou has never been about just wins, losses and pennants.
Felipe Alou is about integrity–on an off the baseball diamond. Integrity, and a marked distaste for social injustice.
He insists that everyone–players, the press, fans–perform at their very best at all times. It’s a gift very few human beings possess.
Richard Griffin, who is generally considered Canada’s foremost baseball writer, is a columnist for the Toronto Star.
He joined RCI by phone from his home in Toronto.
Listen
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.