1-5-87 While in Michigan, I learned that my boyhood baseball hero, Matty Alou, is a Detroit Tiger batting coach. What a pleasant surprise! I’ve wondered, off and on, what he did for a living after leaving baseball in the mid-seventies. Now I know, and it’s with my favorite baseball team. I still don’t know at what level he coaches, but I doubt that it’s at the major-league level. Detroit has other coaches. Maybe I’ll write to him in the next few days. It would be nice just to get a letter from Matty. If only he knew how much I idolized him years ago. [Mateo Rojas Alou is now 68 years old. He is still alive, according to Baseball-Reference.com.]