2023 Dead Pool

Jesus Alou, 80

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Otis Taylor. Who I just got learned got attacked by Jack Del Rio during the 1987 lock out. Appears Maga Jack has always been a piece of crap.

NO! One of my all-time favorite Astros.

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One of mine too. His ABs were a spectacle.

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He would drop the bat rather than swing at a pitch he shouldn’t.

Jesus Alou was an original. A dangerous pinch hitter who’d watch a straight down the middle fastball for a strike and then lace an in the dirt screwball into the gap.

We were supposed to be at the game on June 10, 1969 when he collided with Hector Torres. It seems like Al Oliver hit the shallow fly ball that ended up as a inside the park home run. I was 9 years old then and was unfamiliar with the phrase: “…was swallowing his own tongue.” It sounded terrible and scared the hell out of me. At the time, the Pirates trainer Tony Bartirome (sp?) assisted by Jim Ewell was credited with saving his life. We had seen two Astros wins the weekend before over the Cardinals. We had to head back to Commerce for a case my dad was working on at the time. Back then, I was glad I wasn’t there.

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Sorry to be long winded but here’s a cool Jesus Alou story: I had a friend ( Old radio guy like me) in Cocoa, Florida back in 93 during the time the one year the Marlins played spring training hames at the old Cocoa stadium. This guy’s son was about my age. When his son was in the hospital back about 1970, my friend was at the ballpark working and was telling someone about his son. Jesus Alou was standing nearby and volunteered to see him in the hospital. He rode over with my friend and his son was thrilled. As luck would have it, almost 25 years later we were sitting behind Jesus at a Marlins spring game against the Astros. (I think he was in the Marlins scouting dept) My friend started talking to Jesus and recounted the story. “Jay” Alou had a big smile on his face and without a doubt remembered it. He remembered a couple of details about the day and where the hospital was. He was really surprised the son was now (In 1993) 35 years old. A fine gentlemen.

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Saddened, certainly, but at 95 shocked?

I remember he wouldn’t allow heaters on the Vikings’ sideline. He thought it made his players soft.

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NGL, I had no idea he was still alive.

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Traute Lafrenz, the last surviving member of the “White Rose” movement in Germany has died at age 103.

She and her comrades were Germans who fought an underground war against the Nazis. She saw the Nazis behead her friends but never gave in. She was freed by the U.S. Army just a couple of days before her own scheduled execution.

The White Rose personified courage at the highest level. RIP to an actual hero.

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I remember that so well. Scary moment.

Frozen flesh does soften when heated so he was on to something.

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The first guy to bring a blow-dryer to an Astros locker room.

One of my Astro’s Buddies.

ETA. Looking at his history, I might have imagined it, as he was only around for part of one year.

Kensaburo Oe, one of two Japanese Nobel Laureates for Literature. Read his collection of novellas “Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness” my freshman year at AU. One of the most challenging but deeply complex pieces of fiction I’ve ever read.

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Dick Fosbury

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It’s hard to think of an athlete who changed his sport more than Fosbury. RIP

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In baseball, Candy Cummings, credited with inventing the curveball, may be the closest.