Alou still rules by TERRY HAIG As the Expos stumble towards the finish of their dreadful season, we will hear more and more about how the team's manager, Felipe Alou, has lost his ability to manage and motivate, how he has become too old for the job, how he has become prickly and self-centred, how he is interested only his own survival and reputation. Bunk! Full disclosure here: I like Alou. I admire him. Most of all, I respect him. None of these factors have caused scales to sprout suddenly upon my eyes. Yes, Alou can be prickly, especially when he feels someone is not working up to his full capacity, be it a ballplayer, a writer or the guy fixing his car. Alou holds professionalism dear. He lives by a code based on respect--for one's profession, for one's self, for others. He does not, however, suffer fools gladly, a characteristic which rankles many who come into daily contact with him. Alou is an anachronism--a rigorous, old-school headmaster. His need to impart lessons about baseball and life tends to make him sound, at times, preachy and sanctimonious. But he is seldom wrong--and for the great part, dead on--when assessing people or situations. Moreover, he is driven by a passion for fairness and a visceral loathing for what he perceives to be injustice. He continues to proudly hold himself as a man of the left, remaining well aware of the political and financial forces at work in global politics. Most important, his principles are not for sale: he once refused a cushy job as the Dominican Republic's minister of sport because his political superiors did not want Dominican teams playing teams from Castro's Cuba. (Alou remains a great admirer of Castro, though he takes a more realistic view of Castro's limited baseball abilities than Fidel might.) Had his athleticism not taken him elsewhere, Alou would have been a doctor. He was pre-med at the University of Santo Domingo when the San Francisco Giants signed and shipped him--a teenager with no knowledge of English--to the U.S. Deep South in the 1950s. (You want dues, there's dues.) After 17 years in the majors as a player, he managed in the Expos' farm system for 12 more, getting passed over a number of times for promotion for reasons that virtually everyone now agrees had more to do with the colour of his skin than for the excellent job he was doing training tyros for the rigours of their craft. Nine years ago he replaced Tom Runnells as Expos manager. Everything went swimmingly until the players' strike of 1994 and the subsequent fire sale of stars the following spring. Since then, Alou, who was named NL manager of the year in 1994, has been forced to make do with ham-and-egg journeymen and inexperienced kids brought to the majors before their time. This year, he has managed a team with two legitimate offensive threats and--because of injuries--a pitching staff composed of inexperienced kids who would have been better left in the minors. Alou made things work until early June when the Expos reached a season high of eight games over .500. Then the wheels came off and many are pointing to Alou as the culprit. The criticism of his strategic moves has widened, but if the job of a good manager is to get the right people in the right places at the right time, then Alou continues to do his job well. He is the same manager he was in '93 and '94 when the team was winning with better players, though he has been worn down by all the broken promises and continuous dismemberment of his teams. He must now make an effort to summon the energy to do what once came naturally. Alou needs this job like he needs another hole in his head. Were he to quit, no shortage of teams would line up to pay handsomely for his services. Two years ago, he could have left for Los Angeles. He stayed, knowing full well that if he left, any chance of building a downtown park would leave with him. Amateur Freudians postulate that Alou stayed because he was afraid to face the heat of the Los Angeles media. Nonsense. After dealing with the U.S. South in the '50s, facing a media horde might more resemble the challenges of a walk on a St. Tropez beach. The cynical postulate that Alou was putting a money grab on the Expos by staying. More nonsense. Alou is about a lot of things, but money isn't one of them. Alou is not perfect by any means. Nobody is more aware of this than the man himself, going forth as he does with an abiding Christian faith. He remains all too human, subject--like the rest of us--to fits of rage at what he views as the world's growing crassness. It was Alou, after all, who had the best seat in the house when something beautiful and exhilarating was destroyed by greed. Of all the things that have gone wrong with the Expos, Felipe Alou is not one of them. Of this, I am certain. : Comments? terryhaig@hotmail.com