MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 18, 1997

Moises Alou

MOISES ALOU: It was awesome, it felt pretty good. My first World Series and to do something like that in a World Series against a great pitcher like Orel, I don't think I've ever hit a homerun off of him. He was with the Dodgers and he made some tough pitches to me and I just happened to drive one. The ball, I didn't think was going to stay fair, and I kind of inside out a little bit, and it felt real good. There's no better feeling than this.

MOISES ALOU: He's a guy that can get you in a lot of 0-for's. I don't remember -- I remember hitting the ball hard off of him a couple of times, but I don't remember getting that many hits. I know I didn't get a homerun off him before. His ball is moving a lot. A lot more than when he was with the Dodgers. And I knew this guy really pitches a lot better when he's in postseason play. His record shows it. He did tonight. He pitched well tonight, we just took advantage of a couple of mistakes.

MOISES ALOU: I think every game, whether it's the first or second or third, is very important in the Series. This is the two best teams playing against each other. And it was big, to win the first one at home, we felt confident, we had Livan on the mound, he kept us in the game. We hit the ball well. Tomorrow we've got Kevin Brown, he's another guy we feel real good about, whenever he's on the mound. And I know he's going to pitch a good game for us tomorrow.

MOISES ALOU: I had no choice. Montreal never offered me a contract when I became a free agent. It wasn't that hard because I was prepared for it. I knew that moment was coming. It took maybe a little longer because I thought I was going to leave before, but he knew it was coming, I knew it was coming, the world knew it was coming, because that's Montreal's politics. I miss him because he really helped me a lot. My ex-teammates, the coaching staff really helped me a lot over there. But I'm very happy here. I made the right choice to come here. And like I said before, like I say all the time, I came here to be on a winning team, and everything is turning the way that I expected it to.

MOISES ALOU: My father left today -- no, yesterday to the Dominican Republic, so he probably watched the game there, if the power didn't go off (laughter.) But I'm sure he's very happy to see me here. I remembered when we clinched in Montreal that the next day, there was a very nice article about him saying he wanted to see me in the World Series. And here I am. I'm proud I performed good, because I think he's very proud of me today.

MOISES ALOU: I still feel that we had a very good chance of going to the World Series in '94. We had the best record in baseball. It wasn't guaranteed that we were going to go to the World Series, but I really felt and the rest of my ex-teammates felt that we were going to make it there. And unfortunately the strike came and things didn't work out for us. But I'm very glad to have another chance here in Miami.

MOISES ALOU: It's for treatment. I need to ice it all the time. The wrist hasn't bothered me after the second game in Atlanta, after I got that shot of Cortisone here in Miami, it took only 24 hours for me to be back to a hundred percent. It never hurt. I couldn't blame my struggle during the postseason against Atlanta because of my wrist, because I felt good, I just didn't swing the bat good.

MOISES ALOU: I didn't know about my dad. I knew my dad had some power. But I know my uncles never were basehit hitters, so I kind of knew they didn't get a homerun. It feels good maybe to be the first Alou to get a World Series homerun.

MOISES ALOU: I named him Kirby because Mr. Kirby Puckett was one of my idols in baseball. And unfortunately the way he left the game, I wanted to name my child after him, because of that there's a lot of good Alou baseball players. But no one had the luck to make it to the Big Leagues. And I'm happy that I made it and I'm happy that I'm playing the way that all the Alous should play the baseball game.

MOISES ALOU: It was big. It really felt good. It really gave me a lot of confidence, but I never doubted myself, even though I didn't hit the ball well in the postseason I still drove five or six runs. Now I got 8 or 9 with only two hits. I don't care how many hits I get, as long as we win. And we've been winning, but I'm here to drive guys in. And I've been doing a good job about driving guys in.

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