Published November 4th, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

The death of Matty Alou this week is a sad event for Giantsfans, even those of us who were too young to see him play with his brothers in the Giants’ outfield.

Their slice of history is as important to the team’s early days in San Francisco as Willie Mays’ basket catch and Juan Marichal’s leg kick. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the fact  the three brothers played together in the outfield one day is only one of two incredible pieces of trivia about the Alous.

The other fact is the single most interesting and amazing sports trivia item I’ve ever come across, and that’s saying a lot. I hosted a sports trivia radio show for three years. My nickname in high school was “Fun Facts” Cannon. I know my trivia, and what I’m about to drop on you will astound you.

The three Alou brothers each had their own special moment in the sun, and the fact that they all did the exact same historic single thing is mind-boggling.

Felipe, Matty and Jesus Alou were each the first batter to ever come to the plate in a brand new stadium. Two of these events happened just one month apart!

On April 12, 1966, the Atlanta Braves opened Fulton County Stadium with a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The leadoff hitter for the Pirates that day was Matty Alou.

One month later, the St. Louis Cardinals unveiled Busch Stadium, and the visitors were the Braves. Batting first, Felipe Alou.

In 1969, the expansion San Diego Padres had their first game in San Diego Stadium. The Houston Astros were their first opponent, and Jesus Alou led off the game. He also had the first hit, the first stolen base, and scored the first run ever in that ballpark.

Let’s stop and think about that for a second. What has to happen for someone to have the distinction of being the first batter in a new stadium? Your team has to be the visiting team in that first game, and you have to be in the starting lineup, and you have to lead off. To make the feat even more unusual, when Felipe did it against the Cards, it wasn’t even Opening Day, and it wasn’t the Cardinals’ home opener! It was just the date they had the stadium ready to go.

How many baseball stadiums were built during the career of the three Alous? Felipe was the oldest, and he played from 1958 to 1974. Matty played from 1960 to 1974, and Jesus played from 1963 to 1979.

So there was a 21-year span in which there was an Alou playing Major League baseball, and during that timeframe there were 17 new ballparks opened.  Seven of those were in the American League, however, and the Alous were almost exclusively NL players.  One of the National League ballparks opened during that span was Candlestick Park, and since Felipe was the only one of the brothers in the big leagues at that time and he was playing for the home team, we have to eliminate that one as well.

That leaves us with nine ballparks opened in the National League while there was an Alou around, and they were the very first batter in a third of them. How weird is that?

The problem with this kind of trivia is that you can’t form it into a question. Believe me, I’ve tried over the years, so I could get the word out about it, but there’s no way to do it. You just have to find someone who loves baseball enough to realize how amazing it is, and I hope I’ve found that audience here.

One more interesting note about the Alou brothers: While I mentioned that they played almost exclusively for National League teams (8 of the 12 existing teams, in fact) they did spend a little time in the senior circuit as well.

They didn’t play together, but they all played for the Oakland Athletics late in their careers, Felipe in 1970, Matty in 1972 and Jesus in 1973 and 1974. Matty and Jesus won their only World Series rings with the A’s; Felipe came close with the Giants in 1962 but never won a World Series.

Three brothers, all played for the Giants, all played for the A’s, in the area where the only other trio of major league brothers, the Dimaggios, were born and raised. That’s some good baseball stuff right there!

Adiós, Mateo. You will not be forgotten by Giants fans.