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ou graduated from Framingham South High School in 1989. He then enrolled in Providence College. The Boston Red Sox drafted him on June 6th, in the 10th round of the '93 free agent draft.

At the age of 22, Lou started his professional baseball career, playing on the Rookie level team in Fort Myers. He hit for a .357 average in 14 at bats and was quickly promoted to the low Class A team in Fort Lauderdale, where he finished the year hitting .244.

Lou was promoted in 1994 and played the entire year on the high Class A team in Sarasota, along with some guy named Nomar. They became good friends, and have been very close ever since. Lou hit .286 in 419 at bats, while Nomar hit .295 in 105 at bats.

In 1995, Lou was promoted again, this time to the AA team in Trenton, where he hit .277 on the year.

Lou missed a promotion in the beginning of '96, and found himself back in AA. Although he was injured for a time, he was able to work his way up to AAA in Pawtucket by the end of the year, where he batted .252 as a Paw Sock.

Lou once again found himself back down in Trenton at the start of the '97 season. He responded by hitting a very good .310 in 255 at bats and managed to get back up to Pawtucket and this time he was going to stay. He finished in AAA hitting for a .297 average.

Lou hit a tremendous .386 in 88 at bats in Pawtucket to begin 1998. This prompted a call up to the major league club to play as a utility infielder. His major league debut was on 5/10/98 at second base. He got his first taste of glory when he hit a 3-run homer, on a 3-2 count, in his first plate appearance at Fenway Park. Lou hit a respectable .281 while on the roster, and though the Red Sox made it to the post-season, Lou didn't. He got injured.

Lou made it on the major league roster in 1999, but unfortunately he did poorly during the season. He hit for just a .254 average in the majors, and spent some time down in Pawtucket where he hit .279. Despite this, Lou was lucky enough to get a small chance to redeem himself in the playoffs.

The Red Sox were facing the Indians in the 1999 ALDS. The Indians were ahead two games to nothing, they had beaten Pedro and Bret Saberhagen and it seemed that the Red Sox season was coming to an end. As if that weren't enough, Nomar had to sit out of game 3 because of a minor wrist injury. But one man's loss is another man's gain; Lou was chosen to be the starting shortstop. In his first post-season appearance he went 1 for 3 with a walk, in a game that Boston ended up winning 9-3. This win propelled the Sox to stage a major comeback, and beat the Indians three games to two. Unfortunately the Red Sox went on to lose to the hated Yankees 4-1 in the ALCS, and Lou never got another opportunity to play.

After a somewhat disappointing '99 season, Lou didn't find himself starting in the minors again, he found himself starting in another country, Japan. On 11/22/99, the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan purchased Lou's contract. Being an American meant he was expected to do well. He didn't. He ended up hitting only .213 in 42 games. The management was so disappointed, Lou found himself riding the bench and wondering if he'd ever play in the majors again. After going weeks without starting a game, he finally talked to the front office and asked to be released. He got his wish and found himself welcomed back to familiar territory, Pawtucket.

One man's loss is another man's gain. During this time, the Red Sox were desperately trying to find a third baseman. John Valentin had gone down with a season ending injury in May, and the top third base prospect Wilton Veras proved he wasn't ready. The utility man Manny Alexander proved he was a utility man, and even Ed Sprague, whom the Sox traded for, couldn't produce. While Sprague proceeded to hit a poor .216, Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette knew he needed better production from the hot corner. He needed to look no further then AAA Pawtucket. Lou, rejuvenated by being back in America, was hitting for an incredible .410 average. In August he was called up to the majors once again, just weeks after suffering on a bench in Japan. The Red Sox ended the season just 2 1/2 games behind the despised Yankees, who won the AL eastern division. Lou did hit a terrific .320 in 128 at bats though, and played a personal high 300 innings in 40 games at the majors, surprisingly all at third base, since he was more experienced at second and short.

Entering the 2001 season, Lou hoped to find himself on the opening day roster of the major league club. Unfortunately he found himself in Pawtucket once again, even though the team was short an infielder because Nomar had to have wrist surgery in early April. Then on April 6th, Lou got the birthday gift he wanted most. Due to an injury to infielder Chris Stynes, he was called up to Boston. It wouldn't last though. Lou spent the year going back and forth, being sent down and called up several times. It actually became a joke among the Boston sports pundits and whenever a player was sent down to the minors or called up to The Show it was said that he was taking "The Merloni Shuttle." He was able to finish the season in Boston. Although the Red Sox finished well behind the Yankees, Lou provided the best infield defense the Sox had all year and hit .267 at the plate (over .300 during the final month), playing a new high 52 games.

With the Red Sox under new ownership in 2002, the semi-rebuilding of the team with many veteran players not returning, and Nomar hopefully being finished with his rehab, it looked like Lou might have trouble making the opening day roster. Fortunately Lou had a great spring and made the team as a utility infielder. Lou played very well and was able to play in 84 major league games during the 2002 season, he even had the game winning hit as the Sox won their first game against the Yankees 3-2. In the end though the Red Sox weren't able to top the Yankees and fell short of making the playoffs again.

Lou wasn't able to start 2003 with the Red Sox, because of getting claimed off waivers by the Padres. Being in the National League was a good move for Lou, it allowed him to get more playing time and really show off his versatility. Unfortunately he was injured for part of the season, but he was still able to hit .272 in 65 games before being traded to, you guessed it, the Boston Red Sox. Lou arrived in Boston just in time to enjoy the stretch run where he hit .233 in 15 games. The Red Sox won the wild card and had a crazy post-season that saw the Red Sox reach new heights in desperation. Let's just skip the gory details for now. Suffice it to say that Lou wasn't able to get into a single post-season game, which probably helps explain why the Red Sox failed.

In January of 2004 something that Lou has been getting used to happened. He left the Red Sox. Again. This time he signed on with the Cleveland Indians, who present a good opportunity for him to get into a lot more games. Good luck Lou!

To Be Continued.....