All Those Alous, but This Home Run Was a Family First

After the murders of his father-in-law and brother-in-law in a 1995 armed robbery at their Brooklyn family store, Moises Alou missed six Montreal Expo baseball games to attend their funerals. A little more than a month later, Alou’s wife, Austria, gave birth to a son. They named him Percio, after her slain father.

Another baby Alou was born 10 days ago. A doctor induced labor, so the child could arrive on the Florida Marlin outfielder’s day off, between Games 2 and 3 of a series with the Atlanta Braves. Moises helped with the delivery. He wept as he held Kirby--named after a favorite player of his, Kirby Puckett--and said, “I have never been so happy in my life.”

Moises meant every word.

To hit a home run in Game 1 of your first World Series, however, is a thrill of another kind. So when Alou gushed after Saturday night’s game, “There’s no better feeling,” he was talking baseball, not babies. Because few families in the game play together and pray together, the way these Alous do.

They are to baseball what the Barrymores are to acting. Felipe Alou was a major leaguer 31 years ago, when Moises became his son. The kid’s uncles, Matty and Jesus, were also in the majors. All of the Alous were outfielders. All of the Alous were outstanding. Together, the three brothers from the Dominican Republic came to bat in the World Series 82 times.

None of them, though, hit a home run.

“It feels good to be the first Alou to do that,” said Moises, whose three-run homer off Orel Hershiser was the difference in Florida’s 7-4 victory over Cleveland.

There were 67,245 fans in the stands when the Marlins made the stadium shake in the fourth inning. With two men on base, Hershiser grooved a two-strike pitch to Alou, who hooked one toward the left-field corner. It struck the foul pole, a yellow one with an Office Depot advertisement on it, designed to resemble a gigantic No. 2 pencil.

“ALOOOOOOO-U!” flashed on a matrix scoreboard, as Moises rounded the bases.

Just like that, a 1-1 score became 4-1. In the first World Series game to be played in Florida, this was the first home run.

Moises’ father wasn’t among the 67,245. Felipe had returned to the Dominican, the day before.

“He probably saw it on TV,” Moises said. “Unless the power went out.”

Uncle Jesus was also watching. He is director of Dominican operations for the Marlins.

Two of the outfielder’s sons, Moises Felipe, 5, and Percio, 2, were naturally pretty happy.

And since the ball smacked back off the pole onto the field, it was easy to retrieve and save. Moises could have it for his baby boy.

He and his wife had feared for Kirby Alou, back when she was pregnant. Ultrasound tests had determined that the baby might not be 100% sound. A decision was necessary whether to terminate birth, before there could be no turning back. Moises and Austria could not do such a thing. They prayed. One night in bed, Moises even had a vision that the baby would be OK. He believed.

Family ties matter.

Yet after the 1996 season, when the Montreal team was unable to pay Alou the wages he could earn elsewhere, Moises had to move on. The hardest part was saying goodbye to the Expo manager . . . his father, Felipe.

Felipe made it simple.

He told his son, “Go, go where they show you the money.”

On the last day of last season, Moises was the last batter in Atlanta, before its stadium would be torn down. Uncle Matty had been the first batter there, 30 years before. And for the Braves, the leadoff batter that day was Felipe.

On opening night of this season, Moises homered in his first Marlin at-bat.

And on opening night of the World Series, he delivered again.

“He’s a threat any time, obviously,” said his manager, Jim Leyland.

At 31, Alou seems in his prime. He has had a variety of injuries, including a sore wrist that kept him out of part of the Atlanta series. He sat out all of 1991 because of a torn rotator cuff. He fractured an ankle in 1993 when his spikes caught in some artificial turf. He sat out 60 days of the 1995 season because of more rotator-cuff surgery.

But he seems to be 100% now.

Better yet, so does his baby.

“I named him Kirby, because Mr. Kirby Puckett was one of my idols in baseball,” Moises said. “There are a lot of good Alou baseball players, but no one had [just] luck to make it to the big leagues. I am happy that I am playing the way that all the Alous should play baseball.”

Some day, perhaps the son of Moises will honor his father, the same way.