NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

September 29, 2003

Felipe Alou

FELIPE ALOU: Well, not anymore that I'm used to it now. I think it helps us win by 15 games. I guess if they pitched to him, maybe we could have won it by 30, but we're used to it. I understand the playoff teams and the one's we were contending during the regular season. I had a problem with some teams that were way out, and they either walked him intentionally. I know everybody wants to win a game, but there was some times when the score was kind of wide either way, he still didn't get a pitch to hit. I notice a lot of people come to see the guy at least have a shot at taking one swing.

FELIPE ALOU: So Jack has been here already (laughter)? Beat me already. Yeah, I believe so. I know Joe Torre was my teammate too, and he's been a big winner for a while. He gives older managers some hope. I don't really care how old we are. We all have hopes of doing something. I'm very, very glad that Jack did what he did for the club that was kind of wondering at that time, and he pulled it together. I'm very happy for him. So it's going to be a mix maybe for the next few years, old guys and young guys.

FELIPE ALOU: I always said, guys of my age, when I was signed by the Giants, I thought I was going to be with the Giants the rest of my life. Then the three brothers, you know, all together playing the same outfield. When I was traded, it was really painful for me. When I had a shot at coming back, that kind of healed some of that feeling, being given a shot of ending it here. This is a city that I know as well as Santo Domingo, where I was born. I know San Francisco very well. I guess when I came back, I just felt I came back home. Even last year, with the Detroit Tigers, we stayed on this side of the bay. I had nothing to do with it, but we stayed on this side.

FELIPE ALOU: It's one of the few things that has escape my memory (laughter). I remember when I met him. It was in some triple A ball. I don't remember the exact team he was playing for, because -- it was the American Association. He was playing for a team, except I was sent down during the first month of that season, and Jack was a player. We ran into each other many, many times. I'm talking about 1957 first time I saw him. Many moons ago (laughter).

FELIPE ALOU: I don't know who those people who are saying that. Yeah, they are a really tough team to play. I said it before, they won the wildcard. They took her away from Philadelphia. They outplayed them. They won some games against the Braves. They were really tough within the whole division. Like I said, we took five out of six from the Marlins, but no one win came easy. All of them were really tough games. They were in every game till the last swing. They have everything you need to win ballgames at any time of the year, including the playoffs. In our case, we always thought that we would have to face them. About a month ago, myself, I thought they were the team, and anybody who is to play the Marlins, you might as well be ready to play them because they are going to play aggressive ball.

FELIPE ALOU: Well, his ability to pitch. I know he had a little bit of tenderness in spring training, elbow-wise. Pitch with it. Then early in the season, he lost his mother. He pitched through that effectively. Then another elbow problem, and he still pitched and was very successful. He's very healthy right now. I believe the key tomorrow is to go ahead and throw early strikes. But he also have to not get into too high a pitch count. High pitch count against a team like that, some base runners on, too, you. You always want your ace to go out and give you seven or eight innings. This is what we are looking for. But a lot of strikes early is what we're looking for.

FELIPE ALOU: It's one of the things I don't remember right away (laughter). I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about the team, the Marlins, I like very much the team, the players, the coaching staff, the manager, the Marlins.

FELIPE ALOU: Well, when I first was signed, and I started hearing questions about my age, it just kind of loses me because I didn't see anybody questioning the intelligence, the intellect, whatever, of any of the old guys that are managing. To me the key in this is to show your players right away, and I believe Jack did it in Florida, to show the guys right away that you are in charge and that you are wide awake and that you know what you're doing. It doesn't take players more than a couple of days to find out if you are the right guy to manage them. It's that simple. It's very simple. I don't care if you're 80 or 30 or 20 or 45, the players right away know this guy is the right guy or not. To me it's not a matter of age. If your mind is clear and you can walk to the mound to make a pitching change, I believe you can manage. I don't know, there might be some sort of investigation now among old managers to see if their mind is still there, if senility has hit yet. The Giants didn't check on me. They just called me. They went to Florida. They didn't have a test for me to check my brain out or what. I don't believe they did it with Jack McKeon.

FELIPE ALOU: It is impossible to compare them because I have a different view of players now that I manage and I'm older than I did when I was a teammate with Willie, and Willie Mac, and Cepeda, Hank Aaron, people like that. I played with all of those guys. I have to say this first, you know, that obviously Bonds is the best player I ever met, no question about it. But what amazes me the most is that this guy does not get very many hittable pitches. He does not get many balls to hit out. He still hits 35, 50, 73 one year, 40 plus this year. So it's almost like he can't miss. Every time he gets a pitch, he has to hit it out, which is difficult for anybody. I didn't see any of those guys that I just mentioned do that. I didn't see any of those guys do that. This is a guy that sometime one week goes by and he might see two or three hittable pitchers, and he's still moving on Willie Mays and Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, without getting a pitch to hit.

FELIPE ALOU: It really doesn't make any difference whether he plays or not. The guy who plays instead of Lowell, he's a pretty good player, too. Cabrera, he's a guy that as far as that concerned, we throw him fast balls in, sliders out, fast balls down, he hits everything we throw at him. Lowell more experience, maybe a better defensive player. They're loaded with talent, that team. Maybe Lowell is really not that sharp right now. The other guy was really swinging the bat the last time we saw him.