Mets new skipper Luis Rojas comes from a family of baseball royalty as the son of former All-Star player and manager of the year Felipe Alou and as the brother to former Met and big-league outfielder Moises Alou.
On Thursday, I spoke to Peter Kerasotis, who co-authored Felipe Alou’s book: Alou: My Baseball Journey with foreword and afterword dialogue by Pedro Martinez and Bruce Bochy.
Kerasotis discussed the adversity Alou went through as the first born-and-raised Dominican to make it to MLB as a player, first to play in the World Series, as well as manage a ball club.
Orioles legendary voice Gary Thorne even described it as the Latino version of what Jackie Robinson endured as the first African American player to break through in professional baseball.
“This book outlines what he went through due to his ethnicity in the minors and majors with managers, teammates, and fans,” said Thorne.
“This is the first time we really had an insight of the adversities in baseball that Latinos went through and are still going through to this day,” Thorne said.
“Felipe grew up in a 15×15 shack. His story and his role as a patriarch of sorts over a dynamic baseball family is incredible. I was telling him yesterday that he didn’t get a chance to manage until he was 57 because of being black and Latino. But just as he did as a player, he paved the way also as a manager,” said Kerasotis.
As an outfielder, Alou was a three-time All-Star in the outfield playing in the majors from 1958-1974. He led the league in hits playing for the Atlanta Braves in 1966 and 1968.
In 1963, Alou and his brothers Jesus and Matty became the first trio of brothers to play in the outfield together for the San Francisco Giants.
Alou managed the Montreal Expos from 1992-2001 and the San Francisco Giants from 2003-2006. He earned the Manager of the Year award in 1994 as his Expos team had the best record in baseball at 74-40 before the season was abruptly cut short due to the strike.
“Now his son gets a chance to manage at 38. That wouldn’t have happened had Felipe not opened that door a generation,” said Kerasotis.
“Felipe has been telling me for years to keep an eye on Luis. He’s been very high on him. And that’s not just a proud father talking. That’s not the way Felipe is. He wasn’t telling me that because it was his son. He was talking from the perspective of a man in his 80s who knows what he’s talking about when it comes to baseball and managing.”
“He is ready. Luis is not well known in certain areas, but he has been around, and he is known among baseball people,” said Alou in a statement to Kerasotis.
“He is not new to this game. He grew up in this game. He comes from a baseball family. He has a tremendous personality and confidence, and he is bilingual. We have pictures of him sleeping on the bench at West Palm Beach Expos games when I managed in the Florida State League,” said Alou.
“He has managed in the Mets’ minor-league system and managed winter ball, and he has always won. People may not realize it, but winter ball is a pressure cooker. He paid his dues.”
Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
In eight seasons of managing in the Mets minor league system from 2011-18, Rojas went 555-475 with a .539 winning percentage.
“I have no question about his knowledge of the game. I know he is prepared. In addition to the analytics, I believe a man has to manage the team, he has to manage men, he has to manage the game in front of him. Luis can do that.”
“He also knows the Mets’ organization well, and he knows the players well. Many of those guys played for him in the minor leagues. They know Luis and Luis knows them,” said Alou.
Of course, Rojas managed the St. Lucie Mets in 2015 and 2016 and the Binghamton Rumble Ponies from 2017 through 2018. These teams contained the majority of his current big league roster including Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Steven Matz, Robert Gsellman, and Luis Guillorme.
Rojas’s familiarity with these players and his success as a minor league manager within the organization certainly played a significant role in his promotion to lead this Mets team, however had it not been for his father paving the way for Latino players and managers, the newest Met skipper may have never gotten his chance.
Alou finished his career with a 42.2 bWAR, 2,101 hits, 206 home runs, 852 RBI, and a slash line of .286/.328/.433. As a manager, he had a record of 1,033-1,021, which is good for a .503 winning percentage. He was inducted into the Caribbean Hall of Fame in 2016.
