It’s odd that after all that has happened in baseball during the past decade—steroids, steroid-related suspensions, congressional hearings and the like—that anyone still would get worked up about Roberto Alomar’s spitting on an umpire in 1996. Surely, Alomar was wrong and he got suspended. He and the umpire, John Hirschbeck, are now friends. But it’s curious that the issue still has legs as the 12-time All-Star second baseman appears on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year.
Alomar has some of the strongest credentials of any second base candidate in the past 50 years: a .300 lifetime average, 2,700+ hits, 1,500+ runs, 10 Gold Gloves and a key ingredient of two World Series champions. At a position where offense is often secondary, he was at the top of his class. According to baseball-reference.com, he has no truly similar player in baseball history. The closest is Derek Jeter, but it’s not a close fit. Watching Alomar play in Baltimore for three years, his defense was stellar even though his best offensive years were in Toronto and Cleveland.
Over the next few years, Hall of Fame voters will have plenty of time to agonize over sportsmanship issues of the candidates. Hopefully that won’t cloud their judgment of Alomar this year.
Keeping track of the game's past -- and the Hall of Fame's future
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