Moises Rojas Alou is an all-star baseball player. Alou was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 3, 1966. He comes from a family in which baseball is a way of life. His father Felipe Alou, who is the San Francisco Giants manager, uncles Matty and Jesus, all had long and admired careers in the major leagues. Moises is married to wife Austria Alou. They have three sons: Perico, Kirby and Moises Jr.
Moises Alou was the second overall pick in the 1986 amateur draft, chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1990, he was traded to the Montreal Expos where he would later play under his father.
Alou suffered a severe ankle injury in 1992 that would rob him of his speed and force him to become strictly a corner outfielder. He recovered though, and by 1994 was one of the best hitters in baseball hitting .339. In 1994, he returned to get the game winning hit in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Prior to the 1997 season he signed as a free agent with the Florida Marlins, where he led the team with 23 home runs and 115 RBIs. The Marlins made the playoffs as a wildcard team where they won two series and advanced to the World Series. The Marlins ended up winning their first World Series in a nail bitting seventh game which ended on an Edgar Renteria base hit. Alou lead the team by hitting .321 with three home runs and nine RBIs in the World Series.
Before the 1998 season the Marlins traded Alou to the Houston Astros. In Houston, Alou played the best baseball of his career. He hit a career high 38 home runs and drove in 124 runs in 1998 before being side lined by a freak treadmill accident, and missing the entire 1999 season. Once recovered, Alou returned to the Astros lineup to hit .355 and .331 respectively while driving in at least 108 runs in each season. After the 2001 season, the Astros did not offer Alou a new contract so he in effect became a free agent. In December of 2001, he inked a 3-year, $27 million dollar contract with the Chicago Cubs.
In 2002, Alou once again ended up on the disabled list at the start of the season, and once healthy, he could never really get into a groove as he did in Houston. Alou finished up with a disappointing season in his own accounts when he hit only .275 and 15 home runs.
After the disappointing 2002 season, Alou hired a personal trainer and dedicated himself to return to his old form. In the 2003 season, Alou showed flashes of his old self when he batted over .300 for most of the season while driving in runs as he used to. But a late season slump caused Alou's average to drop to .280. He ended up with 22 home runs and 91 RBIs. However, during the post season, Alou showed no signs of a slump. He lead the team in average in their two series against the Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins. In the end, Moises would make history in the playoffs, but some he would would like to forget.
It was the 8th inning of Game 6 of the NLCS which the Cubs were leading and only had five outs to go to clinch a World Series birth for the first time since 1945, a fan named Steve Bartman reached out and snagged the ball out of the air-and practically Alou's glove. Alou violently gestured toward the fan, but to no avail. Because of the play, the Florida Marlins, Alou's former team, were allowed to tie the game and eventually take the lead and hold on to win. The Cubs eventually lost game 7 to the Marlins, who went on to beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.
The Cubs recently announced Alou would be back in the 2004 season.
Moises Alou has been an All-Star four times (1994, 1997, 1998, 2001). He has won a Silver Slugger Award twice (1994,1998). He won Comeback Player of the Year in 1994.
Alou has suffered many career threatening injuries throughout his career. They include the following: