RIP: lifetime .307 hitter Matty Alou.

RIP: lifetime .307 hitter Matty Alou.

He had no power, but he was a single-hitting machine. In his eight full seasons (500 AB or more) from 1966-73, mostly with the Pirates, Matty never hit below .295. He won a batting championship in one of those years, and amassed 231 hits in another.

Perhaps the most famous item in his bio is that in 1963 he and his two brothers, Felipe and Jesus, were all with the Giants and on September 15th of that year, they covered the entire outfield, with Felipe in center, Matty in left, Jesus in right.

It was an artificial record. Felipe was obviously not the Giants' regular centerfielder (they had this guy named Mays), Matty was obviously not the leftfielder (a certain Mr McCovey filled that slot), and Jesus barely played at all (24 at-bats that year).

Felipe started in right that day, and the other two were late-inning substitutes in a 13-5 blowout.

But the record is still pretty cool, even if manager Al Dark had to force it a bit.