MONTREAL -- Felipe Alou was fired Thursday as manager of the Montreal Expos and was replaced by Jeff Torborg.

Alou, Montreal's manager since May 22, 1992, was let go with the Expos last in the NL East at 21-32. His overall record with the Expos is 691-717.

	At the age of 67, Felipe Alou is now the oldest manager in the majors.

In an interview broadcast on the RDI, the CBC's French all-news channel, Alou said he wasn't entirely surprised by the move after recent speculation.

"I almost feel relieved, you know," Alou said. "I could feel it coming.

"I must take it as a firing, another change in my career," he added, saying he had no immediate plans.

In 1994, Alou had the Expos in first place at a major league-leading 74-40 when a players strike ended the season in August. He was voted NL Manager of the Year.

"The decision to change managers was very difficult, but one that I felt necessary," Expos owner Jeffrey Loria said in a statement. "Our team has been underperforming for some time. Before the season started, and many times since, I have reiterated the fact that we expect to win and that excuses of past years will not be accepted.

"Jeff Torborg understands that the pressure for this team to turn around starts tonight."

Torborg, who signed a three-year contract, previously managed Cleveland (1977-79), the Chicago White Sox (1989-91) and the New York Mets (1992-93). He had been working as a broadcaster with Fox.

He has a 492-551 record in parts of eight seasons.

	Falling off
	With 691 wins, Felipe Alou is the winningest manager in Expos history. But he is 103 games under .500 since the start of the 1997 season:
		1992-96	1997-01
	W-L	392-315	299-402
	Win Pct.	.554	.426
	Avg. finish	2nd place	4th place

"Felipe and I have been friends since 1964 and I have tremendous respect for him, admiration for him," Torborg said. "I learned a great deal being around him that it makes a day like this very difficult."

Alou turned down a chance to leave the Expos after the 1998 season, when the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted to hire him.

"He is a tremendous baseball man, and a very popular sports figure in this city," Loria said. "I believe it's in the best interest of the organization to proceed in this new direction. We have a lot of baseball yet to play this season, and we feel this change is a positive one that is needed to turn our team around."

Montreal has not finished with a winning record since 1996, when the Expos were 88-74.

The Expos, who have the lowest attendance in baseball with an average of 9,605 going into Thursday night's game against Philadelphia, are widely thought to be the major league team most likely to relocate or fold. Repeated efforts to gain a new stadium have stalled.

	Tough go of it
	The Expos have lost at least 94 games in each of the last three seasons. Only the Devil Rays have a worse winning percentage since the start of the 1998 season:
	Team	Win Pct.
	Devil Rays	.402
	Expos	.410
	Marlins	.412
	Royals	.433
	Pirates	.435
	Tigers	.439

Alou, one of the most respected managers in professional baseball, spent 27 years with the Expos as manager, coach and player. He signed a three-year contract worth $6 million in October 1998.

The Expos have the third-worst record in the National League and the worst attendance in the majors, but Alou, 66, had been considered the strong point of the franchise for he last 10 years. Alou is one of the highest-paid and most respected managers in the majors, but Loria, who bought the Expos after Alou was already one year into a three-year, $6 million contract, has soured on him, the report said.

Alou's career record is 691-717 and has spent 27 years with the Expos as a manager, coach and player. Montreal (21-32) is on pace to lose 90 or more games for the fourth straight year. The Expos last had a winning record under Alou when the club was 88-74 in 1996. He was named National League manager of the year in the strike-shortened 1994 season.

Alou was supposed to be announced as a coach on Bobby Valentine's staff for the National League All-Star team, but Major League Baseball delayed Wednesday's announcement for one day because the Expos told baseball officials of the imminent dismissal. Valentine will select another manager to join Dusty Baker of the San Francisco Giants on his staff.

Alou's former players took their share of the blame for his firing.

"I don't think it's Felipe's fault," Montreal second baseman Jose Vidro said Thursday, hours after Alou was fired by the Expos. "We didn't play the way we could. It's our fault.'

"I feel very bad," Vidro said. "Not because he was fired, but what the man means to me. Nobody trusted me. He was about the only guy behind me. If I ever see him, I will say thank you to him for what he did for me. We have a good team. It's not his fault but it always happens like that. You can't blame the team, you blame the manager."

Larry Walker, John Wetteland, Pedro Martinez and his own son, Moises, were a number of the young players Alou helped develop into stars before they moved on to greater prominence with bigger-budget teams.

"I became a star, and I've been a solid star for many years," Martinez said before Boston's game in Toronto on Thursday. "Felipe believed in me."

Toronto catcher Darren Fletcher played for Alou from 1992-97 and was a member of the 1994 team, when Alou was voted NL manager of the year after the Expos were a major league-best 74-40 when a players strike ended the season in August.

"He truly enjoyed coming to the yard," Fletcher said. "He enjoyed watching the younger players develop and progress to be quality major leaguers. And then, unfortunately, the majority of the time those players ended up leaving and going to other organizations and having great success."

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.