My brother is a complete sports buff. He knows fun facts and stats for MLB, the NBA, NFL, and NHL and watches each sport with equal amounts of enthusiasm and fervor. Whether we’re catching a game at home on the couch or live at the stadium or arena my favorite part of Sports Night is getting my very own bleacher report from big bro. He spews out info a mile a minute, informing me on players’ strengths and weaknesses, predicting plays, even telling me about the hood from whence they came. I’ve always enjoyed his adrenaline ridden play-by-plays and in-depth look at the player, the game, and what it all really means. So, I asked if he could come on and give an MLB lesson in history. Below he breaks down how Dominicans struck gold with Los Hermanos Alou.

Yesterday, Albert Pujols was offered $225 million dollars for the next 9 years to play baseball, from the newly named Miami Marlins. Earlier this week, those same Miami Marlins also offered fellow Dominican Jose Reyes a long term deal purportedly worth $90 mllion dollars.

While the Dominican influence in major league baseball is no longer anyone’s best kept secret, the roots of this explosion unto America’s favorite pastime are still relatively obscure.

Mateo “Matty” Rojas Alou was born on December 22, 1938 in the small town of Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic in the province of San Cristobal.

Following his older brother Felipes lead, and ultimately paving the way for his younger brother Jesus, the Alou brothers became the first set of three siblings to play together in the same outfield and all bat in the same half-inning in the majors.

To grasp an occurrence of this nature, you might want to imagine winning the lottery, 3 consecutive times.

The Alou brothers were by most accounts unremarkable athletes, but their longevity in the game of baseball was nothing short of remarkable.

Matty, in particular, eventually carved a very respectable career for himself. He played 15 seasons in the big leagues, was a 2 time All-Star selection, won a batting title in 1966 and was a World Series Champion in 1972. Heck, he was even a New York Yankee for a bit period.

Regretfully, Matty was also the first Alou brother to pass away last week at the tender age of 72.

As history tells it, in the 1500′s Christopher Columbus found gold in the Haina River, the ship that carried these precious metals sank and never made it to Spain. 450 years later, in November 1955, a little known MLB baseball scout found gold in those same Haina grounds, in the form of the Alou brothers, and this time the export of these jewels was a success.

-Adolfo S. Vazquez