#490 Matty Alou - Pittsburgh Pirates

Mateo Rojas Alou
Pittsburgh Pirates
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'9"  Weight:  160
Born:  December 22, 1938, Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic
Signed:  Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams:  San Francisco Giants 1960-65; Pittsburgh Pirates 1966-70; St. Louis Cardinals 1971-72; Oakland Athletics 1972; New York Yankees 1973; St. Louis Cardinals 1973; San Diego Padres 1974

World Series Appearances:  San Francisco Giants 1962; Oakland Athletics 1972
Died:  November 3, 2011, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (age 72)

The middle brother among the three Alou brothers, Matty Alou enjoyed a 15-year big league career, playing primarily with the Giants and Pirates.  Alou came up with the Giants in 1960 and on September 15, 1963, the three Alou brothers played in the Giants' outfield for the first time together with Felipe (#300) in center, Jesus (#22) in right and Matty in left.  Matty Alou was traded to the Pirates following the 1965 season, and he'd enjoy his best years in Pittsburgh.  He won the league's batting title in 1966 with a .342 mark, beating out his brother Felipe who batted .327 for the Braves.  As the starting center fielder for the Pirates, Alou batted over .330 in four consecutive seasons between 1966 and 1969, making the National League All-Star team in both 1968 and 1969.  In the latter season, he led the league in hits (231) and doubles (41).

Alou wrapped up his major league career as a reserve and pinch-hitter in the early 1970s, winning a World Series ring with the Athletics in 1972.  After beginning the 1974 season with the Padres, Alou moved to Japan where he'd play two and a half seasons with the Taiheiyo Club Lions.  For his major league career, Alou appeared in 1,667 games, collecting 1,777 hits while batting .307.  He clubbed 236 doubles, 31 home runs and 427 RBIs.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / Card #428
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times.  I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.

Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders.  I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500.  This card was the 136th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost a little less than $2.

The Card / Pirates Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

This is Alou's second appearance in the set, as he appeared way back in the first series on a 1968 Batting Leaders (#2) card.  The write-up on the back highlights his batting title crown in 1966, and the cartoon mentions his brief pitching career.  On August 26, 1965, in the first game of a double header against the Pirates, Alou tossed two scoreless innings in an 8-0 victory by the Giants.  He allowed three hits and a walk, while striking out three Pirates batters, including future teammate Willie Stargell (#545) twice!

Accuracy Index:  Alou's card scores a +5.

Inserts:  Alou is included as one of the 48 decals in the Topps Decals insert set.

1969 Season
1968 was perhaps Alou's best season and he followed that up in 1969 with another All-Star worthy showing.  In 162 games as the Pirates' regular center fielder, he batted .331 with a league-leading 41 doubles and 48 RBIs.  He led the league in plate appearances (746), at-bats (698) and hits (231), and was still overshadowed on the Pirates offensively by Roberto Clemente (#50) and Stargell.  His 698 at-bats set a single-season record, since surpassed.  Alou played center field for all nine innings of the All-Star Game, collecting a pair of hits and a walk.

1961 Topps #327

1965 Topps #318

1967 Topps #10

1972 Topps #395

1974 Topps #430

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1961 Topps #327
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14):  1961-74
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #41
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  118 in the Beckett online database as of 11/30/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#489 Clete Boyer - Atlanta Braves / #491 Twins Rookie Stars

#2 1968 N.L. Batting Leaders - Pete Rose / Matty Alou / Felipe Alou

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1969 Topps set.  League leader cards can be found at the beginning of each Topps set issued in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969.

Building the Set / Card #27
September 15, 2022 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards)

This card was part of a larger stress-induced purchase from Kit Young Cards in mid-September.  The stress was all work related, and while some people choose to relieve stress through less productive means, I opted to purchase several vintage baseball cards.  The centerpiece of the haul was the 1965 Topps Yaz card, which dropped the number of cards needed for that complete set down to five.  Joining Yaz were Diamond Stars cards of Joe Stripp and Lloyd Waner, along with this League Leaders card.  I've long been a fan of purchasing cards from Kit Young, and I took advantage of a mid-fall sale to add to three different set builds.  The League Leaders card was the least expensive of the quartet at a little less than $8.

September 2022 was a blur.  I travelled for work the better part of two weeks, school started, the boys' fall sports schedules (cross country and baseball) were non-stop and there was little to no time to rest or to enjoy baseball card purchases.  Taking a mental health day in early October, I was happy to have the time to catch my breath and truly appreciate the new baseball cards that helped get me through that month.  I composed posts for the Yaz and Diamond Stars cards then, and the it only took me until early January to finally compose a post for this League Leaders card.

The Card / Reds Team Set / Pirates Team Set / Braves Team Set

1968 was the first of three years in which Pete Rose (#120) won the National League batting title, as he'd repeat in 1969 and win a third time in his MVP year of 1973.  His .335 average was enough to top the .332 average of the Pirates' Matty Alou (#490).  On September 27th, Rose's average sat at .330, but he'd go 6 for 8 in the final two games of the season to bump him into the top spot, including a 5 for 5 performance on September 28th.  Matty Alou had been at .329 on September 27th, and he'd go 4 for 4 on September 28th to raise him to .334, but then 0 for 4 on September 29th.  Matty Alou had previously won the batting title in 1966 with a .342 mark.

Older brother Felipe Alou (#300) rounds out the top trio with a .317 average, and younger brother Jesus Alou (#22) makes an appearance on the back of the card with his .263 average for the year.

#1 1968 A.L. Batting Leaders / #3 1968 A.L. RBI Leaders