PORT ST. LUCIE – The Mets can’t pin their September collapse last season on Moises Alou.
The most miserable of months in 2007 for his teammates was the stuff of dreams for the Mets’ seemingly ageless left fielder, who hit .402 while unleashing a club-record 30-game hit streak.
Last September was such a personal lift – and the Mets’ epic breakdown such gut-wrenching motivation – that the 41-year-old Alou now talks about retirement as something far into the future.
“I love playing the game, and as long as I can keep playing, I’m going to do it,” Alou said yesterday after the first day of full-squad workouts.
Alou wasn’t talking like that as recently as last May, when yet another injury – this one a strained quadriceps – forced him to the disabled list for the fifth time since 2005 and threatened to end a promising season.
But the six-time All-Star fought his way back, terrorizing National League pitchers for most of August and September with his trademark line drives so often that Alou didn’t want it to stop.
“I would loved to have gone into the postseason feeling the way I was feeling at the plate,” he said.
Alou was inspired enough that, after convincing the Mets last fall to pick up his 2008 option, he reported to camp yesterday gray at the temples but in terrific shape and with the lofty goal of at least 500 at-bats.
Alou hasn’t had more than 427 at-bats since 2004, when he was with the Cubs, but he seems determined to make it a reality this year.
“If I can do that, I’m going to have a great season,” he said of the 500 at-bat goal. “And if I have a great season, our team is going to have a great season.”
Willie Randolph downplayed the idea of 500 at-bats for Alou, saying he wants to keep his older players fresh, but the Mets won’t be surprised if Alou picks up where he left off last September.
Not when Alou still has the hands that teammate Pedro Martinez insists are the fastest the pitcher has seen in his 15 years in the big leagues.
“The hand-eye coordination Moises has is pretty amazing at his age,” Randolph said yesterday. “Some guys just have that gift. He’s just one of those rare, rare people that can fall out of bed and hit a line drive somewhere.”
Alou wasn’t going to take that gift for granted this offseason. Just 10 days after the Mets’ breakdown was complete, he was grinding away in a weight room in the Dominican Republic to get ready for a 17th big-league season.
Alou started hitting again in mid-January, which is earlier than normal, and when the Mets added ace left-hander Johan Santana a few weeks later, all systems for Alou were a go.
Randolph said he fully expected the Alou that showed up yesterday looking leaner (although still at 225 pounds) and energized.
“When you have the kind of year he had, you still feel like you have something to offer,” Randolph said.
Alou, in fact, now plans to keep offering himself to baseball for years to come. He turns 42 in July and said he can see himself playing until at least age 45.
My dad [former manager and player Felipe] told me a few years ago that, as long as you can hit the fastball, you’re going to stay in this game for as long as you want to,” he said. “As long as I have these fast hands, I’m going to keep playing.”
Will it be as a Met?
“Hopefully, it’s here, but I’m playing regardless,” said Alou, who is signed only through this season. “I’ve thought about retirement for three years now, but now it’s different.”
bhubbuch@nypost. com