First Latino Manager of the Year

By César Augusto Márquez

He’s 82 now. But don’t call these his twilight years. Felipe Aloú remains active, dividing his time between the Dominican Republic and West Palm Beach, Fla., while working on a book about his life. A book of memories — or libro de memorias, as they call it in Spanish. It’s bound to be an epic from a man who was a pioneer, both as a player during the integration era and later as a manager.

Today, MLB will bestow manager of the year awards in both leagues. It’s an honor Aloú won once, in 1994, when the players’ strike disrupted the season, ending it on Aug. 11. His Montreal Expos were racing toward destiny with the best record in baseball that season, sitting atop the National League East with a 74-40 record, but fate played a cruel hand as the labor impasse canceled the World Series for the first time since 1904.

Aloú got the managerial award, but never had the satisfaction of managing in the Fall Classic. There are certainly some tales to be told about that 1994 team, which featured five All-Stars and included his son Moisés Aloú and a young Pedro Martínez.

Author, player and skipper

Suffice to say that Aloú, who once authored an essay entitled “Latin American Players Need a Bill of Rights” for Sport magazine in 1963, has made and seen history.

“I’ve been a pioneer in my own way,” Aloú said in Spanish during an interview with La Vida Baseball in September.

Besides being the second Dominican to reach the major leagues, debuting June 8, 1958, with the San Francisco Giants, he was the first of three Latinos to be voted manager of the year. Tony Peña (Kansas City Royals, 2003) and Oswaldo “Ozzie” Guillén (Chicago White Sox, 2005) won the award a full decade after him, amplifying the fact that very few Latinos have had the opportunity to manage, let alone compete for the honor.

Aloú himself thought at one point that he would never get the chance to fulfill his managerial dreams. His apprenticeship in the minor leagues and winter ball began in 1977 and extended more than a decade until the Expos finally hired him for the 1992 season, the year he turned 57. He calls that period a “labor of love.”

“You also have to know, regardless at what level you’re playing or managing, that you are not only representing a team, but also your country.”— Felipe Aloú

Winter league pressure cooker

“I developed my manager’s personality in the minors,” Aloú said. “Everything is so different from the major leagues. The train trips, the bus trips, all that — and you learn to value your commitment to the game when you put on the uniform. You are there for the love of the game. And you also have to know, regardless at what level you’re playing or managing, that you are not only representing a team, but also your country.”

Aloú says the winter leagues more so than the minors honed his skills, teaching him about managing in pressure situations in which regional pride was at stake.

“I learned a lot in the Caribbean, where they play with passion,” Aloú said. “Managing the Leones de Caracas in Venezuela, the Criollos de Caguas in Puerto Rico, and Leones del Escogido in my own country was an education for me. In Venezuela, I got to manage both Caracas y Magallanes, the biggest rivalry in that country. That’s something few managers can say that they have done. In the Caribbean, they play with a lot of intensity.”

Aloú readily touts as his role models two old-school skippers not normally associated with Latinos — Dick Williams and Ralph Houk. Aloú played briefly for the no-nonsense Williams — who won two World Series with the Oakland A’s — when he started the 1971 season in Oakland, and later worked under him as a coach.

“I learned from him that the manager should understand that he’s the boss of the team in uniform,” Aloú said. “The owners and general managers are higher authorities, but on the field, once the game starts, the guy running the show is the manager. Because he will be the one making the decisions, the one who will take his team to victory, or who will assume blame if things don’t work out.”

Aloú then spent the rest of 1971 and the next two seasons with the New York Yankees under Houk, watching how a skipper prodded his players without embarrassing them.

“I learned not only how to manage a game, but also how to treat players and give them respect,” Aloú said.

Aloú was therefore tough and firm, while at the same time understanding and compassionate.

“Teams don’t look for that kind of manager today,” Óscar Prieto Párraga, former owner of the Leones de Caracas, said in Spanish in an interview with La Vida Baseball. “On the field, Felipe had a strong, almost gruff personality. But at the same time, he had a lot of bonhomie. He knew how to treat people. He knew when to smile, but when it was time to get serious, he didn’t fool around.”

Hitting his stride

Aloú won the Venezuelan winter league championship with the Leones in the 1977-78 and 1979-80 seasons, foretelling future success. Once he made it to the majors, Aloú ended up managing 14 seasons: 10 with the Expos and four with the Giants.

While he made the playoffs only once — in 2003 during his first season in San Francisco — Aloú achieved one of his primary goals — winning his 1,000th game on July 3, 2006, when the Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-6.

“Because I started late, I never thought that I would reach 1,000 wins,” Aloú said. “That day was among the most special ones in my career. It was a Monday night. My coaches didn’t say anything at all, showing up in my office with a big bottle of champagne. Because of all the hard work I put in during my career, it was an important day.”

Aloú retired with a 1,033-1,021 record. He reflects on his career with a large dose of gratitude, appreciative to the Expos for giving him his first chance and allowing him to manage his son. And to the Giants for hiring him, allowing him to finish his career where it began.

“It’s been a very nice career, full of special moments,” Aloú said.

Featured Image: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images Sport