Alomar, Roberto V.
Baseball
b. Feb. 5, 1968, Ponce, PR
The son of former major league player Sandy Alomar Sr. and brother of major league catcher Sandy Jr., Roberto signed with the National League's San Diego Padres in 1985 and played both shortstop and second base in the minor leagues until early in the 1988 season, when he became San Diego's starting second baseman.
The Padres traded him to the AL's Toronto Blue Jays in 1991. Always a good hitter, Alomar improved dramatically as a fielder in a very short time. He led the National League at his position with 17 errors in 1990, but in 1992 he tied an American League record with just 5 errors in 152 games and he set league records by playing 104 consecutive errorless games, from June 21, 1994, through July 3, 1995, handling 482 chances during that period.
Alomar's best offensive season with Toronto was 1993, when he batted .326 with 17 home runs, 93 RBI, and 55 stolen bases. The 6-foot, 185-pound switch-hitter was named most valuable player in the 1992 AL championship series, when he batted .423 with 4 runs scored, 4 RBI, and 5 stolen bases in Toronto's six-game victory over the Atlanta Braves.
In 1996, Alomar went to the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent. He had a career season there, hitting .328 with 94 RBI and 132 runs scored. But it was marred by a nasty confrontation with home plate umpire John Hirschbeck on Sept. 27. Hirschbeck called Alomar out on strikes and threw him out for arguing the call. Alomar then protest ejection and spit in Hirschbeck's face.
That naturally brought anger from media and fans, but Alomar didn't let it bother him. In the fourth game of the divisonal playoffs at Cleveland, he hit a single to tie the score in the ninth inning and then eliminated the Indians with a home run in the 12th.
Alomar was suspended for the first five games of the 1997 season because of the Hirschbeck incident and he hurt his left shoulder on May 31. As a result, he could bat only left-handed and he appeared in only 112 games. After off-season surgery, he hit only .282 in 1998, his lowest batting average since his rookie year.
Again a free agent, he signed with the Indians in 1999 and bounced back by hitting .323 with 24 home runs, 120 RBI, and a league-leading 138 runs scored. After hitting .310 and .326 the next two seasons, he opted for free agency once more and returned to the National League with the New York Mets.
He hit another low with a .266 average in 2002 and was hitting only .253 in 2003, when the Mets traded him to the Chicago White Sox. He left the White Sox for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004.
In 16 major league seasons, Alomar has won 10 Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger awards.