With Alou, Mets get even older, but maybe better, too

Five things to know | Miller's report

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Prune juice and Golden Girls reruns all around! The New York Mets are looking to take that final step to the World Series, and the joke around here is that they might need a walker to take it. Or a cane, at least.

At whatever age, Moises Alou can swing the bat. (Getty Images)

One looming question is, can new left fielder Moises Alou, at 40 and coming off of the fewest games he has played in a season since 1995, help them take that final step?

Count Mets manager Willie Randolph as a "yes."

"He's a solid individual, man, and he's one of the best clutch hitters in the game," Randolph says. "He'll bring leadership. We just have to make sure he stays healthy."

Count one veteran NL executive among the skeptics.

"He can't play the outfield anymore," the executive says. "With him in right field and Barry Bonds in left last year, the Giants needed Houdini in center."

Carlos Beltran is far closer to Houdini than anyone who played center for the Giants last season, but still -- you get the point.

Playing the outfield last season, Alou tore ligaments in his right ankle during a game in Philadelphia in May that cost him a month.

Then, picking up luggage in Seattle, he aggravated a disc in his back. That cost him three weeks.

He still batted .301 -- his lifetime average -- with 22 homers and 74 RBI. He's one of only 19 players in major league history to amass a .300 lifetime batting average, 350 or more doubles, 300 or more homers and 1,110 or more RBI. Fourteen of those players, by the way, are in the Hall of Fame.

But he was on the field for only 98 games last season, his fewest since playing 93 in '95.

And did we mention that he's not getting any younger?

On the flip side, maybe being surrounded by all of these graybeards will serve as his own personal Fountain of Youth. Heck, Julio Franco is expected to be on the opening day roster, and he's 49 (or so he claims).

Poll Was Moises Alou a smart signing for the Mets? 34% No   66% Yes   Total Votes: 3533

Five everyday players will be 34 or older -- and two of those, first baseman Carlos Delgado and catcher Paul LoDuca, will turn 35 during the season. Ace Tom Glavine will be 41 in two weeks. Closer Billy Wagner will be 36 in July.

This clubhouse must make Alou feel as if he's still 20, right?

"Naw," says Alou, who will turn 41 on July 3, chuckling. "I still feel like I'm 40. I feel it every morning when I wake up. I feel like a 40-year-old man with six surgeries should feel in the morning."

When he speaks about his health -- he's feeling great this spring -- Alou reaches over and knocks on the faux wood locker for emphasis.

"I hope I can play over 130, 140 games," he says. "I would love to. As a matter of fact, before I signed, during negotiations, I heard that they were going to give me a few days off. I told my agent, 'Tell Omar (Minaya, Mets general manager) that I want to play every day.

"But I am going to need my days off once in a while. I'm not 24."

Randolph says he isn't putting a number on how many games Alou will play. He does say that if Alou is hot at the plate, don't expect to see him given a day off.

And hot, Alou can get -- still. On the day he messed his ankle up in Philadelphia, he was leading the NL with a .378 batting average. Even with the injuries, he still averaged an RBI every 4.7 at-bats, and he finished '06 with a .320 average with runners in scoring position.

Whatever happens defensively, Alou will hit. He'll hit when he's 60, if he still wants to.

"My batting average against opponents is going to go down 50 points because I don't have to face him anymore," says Glavine, who also has a vested interest in the defensive support he'll receive because he starts the season just 10 wins away from 300.

"He's a great hitter. Maybe he won't be a league leader in RBI, but I guarantee he'll be up there in clutch RBI."

Atlanta manager Bobby Cox, who now adds Alou to his list of potential problems in the NL East, agrees.

"It doesn't matter how old he is, what his age is, he's an outstanding hitter -- period," Cox says. "Clutch hitter, too. If he's coming up and you're holding a one-run lead in the ninth, that concerns you a little bit."

Interesting thing is, in the midst of his injury-wracked '06, Alou says he very seriously considered retiring. Especially when the ankle got him while he was leading the NL in hitting and ranked in the top three in RBI.

"I said, 'Come on, man, why do these things happen to me?'" he says. "And I was in the last year of my contract. I was really sick and tired of it at the time. Then I came back and hurt my back, and I told my dad, 'This is going to be it.'"

But from Sept. 1 through season's end, Alou batted .330 with a .355 on-base percentage and a .727 slugging percentage. That's when he decided that if someone called over the winter, he'd listen.

But he knew it would be someplace other than San Francisco. He could read between the lines that the Giants weren't going to bring back his father, Felipe, as manager. And the West Coast was simply too far from his home in the Dominican Republic.

"That three-hour difference, whenever I woke up, the kids were already in school, and after a game they were already asleep," he says of sons Moises Felipe, 15; Percio Antonio, 11; and Kirby Thomas, 9. "Plus, it takes the whole day to travel from there, and my wife (Austria) has a bad back and the airplane ride doesn't help it."

So he put his Bay Area house up for sale before the season was done. Four teams talked seriously with him over the winter. There were some better offers, but Alou zeroed in on a one-year offer from the Mets -- with a club option for 2008.

Is it a good idea? For Alou? For the Mets?

We're about to find out, but two things.

Given the guy's track record in clutch RBI situations, it always is a mistake to underestimate him -- and he thinks these Mets are World Series-caliber.

And, he isn't fooling around with any half-hearted attempts to play. The .301 lifetime batting average?

"Very important," he says. "It's something I take pride in, and something I want to keep above .300.

"Seriously, I don't need the money any more. I'm doing it because I feel like I can do good at it. I'm risking something I take pride in and want to have for the rest of my life, but I'm confident I can keep it."

Now, somebody make sure this team gets enough roughage this summer.