rockin500
03-07-2003, 04:34 PM
MESA, Ariz. -- Say you're a big-league ballplayer. One season, you hit .312 with 38 homers. You finish third in the National League MVP voting. You feel pretty good about yourself.
Injuries interrupt things, but you come back and hit .355 with 30 homers. You follow that with a .331 season, 27 homers.
And then you sign with a new team, full of high hopes, expectations, and you struggle. In his first year with the Chicago Cubs, Moises Alou batted a disappointing .184 over his first 39 games.
That hurt. He finished with a .275 average and just 15 homers.
"He had a subpar year," said San Francisco Giants manager Felipe Alou of his son. "Everybody knows he's good. That's all I want him to remember."
Alou knows, too, and he's fighting back to regain that elite status of being one of the most feared hitters in baseball. All you have to do is listen at batting practice. Alou hits the ball hard. You can hear it.
"There's always a pride factor involved," Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker said of Alou, 36. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't have some pride. You wouldn't be a professional anything if you didn't have some pride.
"You're used to seeing yourself in the top 10 in a bunch of (offensive) categories and all of a sudden you have to look for your name, that's not very pleasant," Baker said. "Success spoils you. You tend to expect that. You have that one humble year to knock you down and that re-motivates you big time."
Alou is definitely motivated. His father helped with that.
"I said he needed to address last year because he was hurt," Felipe Alou said.
Which meant devoting more time to his off-season conditioning program. Moises Alou hired a trainer to help him gain more strength in his legs and started his baseball-related workouts a month earlier.
"When you get older, you need to work harder," said the outfielder, who reported to camp already peeling blisters off his hands because of all the hitting he had done.
It's much different than last season when Alou reported with a pulled rib cage, the beginning of a series of aches and pains.
"For me, I am a natural hitter," Alou said. "But the body's not the same. Last year I went to work out a week before Spring Training and on the second day I got hurt. I told myself it's time to take care of myself and start working harder."
Was there ever a day in 2002 that Alou played felt 100 percent healthy?
"There were a couple days," he said. "Yeah, then something would happen. I was probably never 100 percent but the highest percentage that I could get, I got to that level a few times."
Alou had high hopes in his first season with the Cubs. He was batting in the same lineup as countryman Sammy Sosa. Chicago had the potential for some powerful numbers with Sosa, Fred McGriff and Alou hitting 1-2-3.
"There were a lot of expectations for me and for the team," Alou said. "I was injured and there was nothing I could do. It was tough. Believe me, it was tough. I'd go to the ballpark and I felt miserable."
When the weather warmed up and his ailments were tolerable, Alou looked like the right-handed power-hitter the Cubs expected when they signed him in December 2001. He hit .318 in 110 games in August, .314 in September and then he crashed again, ending the year in a 0-for-19 funk.
His friends and family in the Dominican Republic supported him.
"Right before I left home, a lot of guys were saying, 'I know you're going to have a good year. You always have good years,' " Alou said. "In the Dominican, people know what kind of baseball player I am."
He didn't adjust well to the cold at the start of the season. And he was not 100 percent.
"In his defense," Baker said, "it's hard to start the year hurt. In baseball you don't have time to heal. You feel pressure to go back out there and earn your money, especially in your first year someplace. He probably shouldn't have been out there when he was."
The rib cage injury hampered him, then a calf injury forced him to be scratched from Opening Day, then his back hurt him. This spring, a fan gave Alou a small wooden cross to keep in his pocket to help ward off injuries.
"The fans say, 'You're going to be healthy this year,' " Alou said. "Even the fans know."
He has spent minimal time in the trainer's room so far. That's a good sign.
"He's working hard," Baker said. "He's working on his fielding, he's working on his throwing. This guy is really working hard. He came into camp ready, which I liked. I've got to monitor him to make sure I don't overplay him and keep him healthy to start the season but you don't want to underplay him so he doesn't have his endurance up and not be ready stroke-wise and timing wise."
Alou will be ready. He has too much pride to have another sub-par season.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/news/chc_news.jsp?ymd=20030307&content_id=212623&vkey=spt2003news&fext=.jsp
Injuries interrupt things, but you come back and hit .355 with 30 homers. You follow that with a .331 season, 27 homers.
And then you sign with a new team, full of high hopes, expectations, and you struggle. In his first year with the Chicago Cubs, Moises Alou batted a disappointing .184 over his first 39 games.
That hurt. He finished with a .275 average and just 15 homers.
"He had a subpar year," said San Francisco Giants manager Felipe Alou of his son. "Everybody knows he's good. That's all I want him to remember."
Alou knows, too, and he's fighting back to regain that elite status of being one of the most feared hitters in baseball. All you have to do is listen at batting practice. Alou hits the ball hard. You can hear it.
"There's always a pride factor involved," Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker said of Alou, 36. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't have some pride. You wouldn't be a professional anything if you didn't have some pride.
"You're used to seeing yourself in the top 10 in a bunch of (offensive) categories and all of a sudden you have to look for your name, that's not very pleasant," Baker said. "Success spoils you. You tend to expect that. You have that one humble year to knock you down and that re-motivates you big time."
Alou is definitely motivated. His father helped with that.
"I said he needed to address last year because he was hurt," Felipe Alou said.
Which meant devoting more time to his off-season conditioning program. Moises Alou hired a trainer to help him gain more strength in his legs and started his baseball-related workouts a month earlier.
"When you get older, you need to work harder," said the outfielder, who reported to camp already peeling blisters off his hands because of all the hitting he had done.
It's much different than last season when Alou reported with a pulled rib cage, the beginning of a series of aches and pains.
"For me, I am a natural hitter," Alou said. "But the body's not the same. Last year I went to work out a week before Spring Training and on the second day I got hurt. I told myself it's time to take care of myself and start working harder."
Was there ever a day in 2002 that Alou played felt 100 percent healthy?
"There were a couple days," he said. "Yeah, then something would happen. I was probably never 100 percent but the highest percentage that I could get, I got to that level a few times."
Alou had high hopes in his first season with the Cubs. He was batting in the same lineup as countryman Sammy Sosa. Chicago had the potential for some powerful numbers with Sosa, Fred McGriff and Alou hitting 1-2-3.
"There were a lot of expectations for me and for the team," Alou said. "I was injured and there was nothing I could do. It was tough. Believe me, it was tough. I'd go to the ballpark and I felt miserable."
When the weather warmed up and his ailments were tolerable, Alou looked like the right-handed power-hitter the Cubs expected when they signed him in December 2001. He hit .318 in 110 games in August, .314 in September and then he crashed again, ending the year in a 0-for-19 funk.
His friends and family in the Dominican Republic supported him.
"Right before I left home, a lot of guys were saying, 'I know you're going to have a good year. You always have good years,' " Alou said. "In the Dominican, people know what kind of baseball player I am."
He didn't adjust well to the cold at the start of the season. And he was not 100 percent.
"In his defense," Baker said, "it's hard to start the year hurt. In baseball you don't have time to heal. You feel pressure to go back out there and earn your money, especially in your first year someplace. He probably shouldn't have been out there when he was."
The rib cage injury hampered him, then a calf injury forced him to be scratched from Opening Day, then his back hurt him. This spring, a fan gave Alou a small wooden cross to keep in his pocket to help ward off injuries.
"The fans say, 'You're going to be healthy this year,' " Alou said. "Even the fans know."
He has spent minimal time in the trainer's room so far. That's a good sign.
"He's working hard," Baker said. "He's working on his fielding, he's working on his throwing. This guy is really working hard. He came into camp ready, which I liked. I've got to monitor him to make sure I don't overplay him and keep him healthy to start the season but you don't want to underplay him so he doesn't have his endurance up and not be ready stroke-wise and timing wise."
Alou will be ready. He has too much pride to have another sub-par season.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/news/chc_news.jsp?ymd=20030307&content_id=212623&vkey=spt2003news&fext=.jsp