Former baseball star Roberto Alomar hopes for 'Hall'
Election into Cooperstown still up in the air after controversial career
Bob Klapisch - The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
Issue date: 12/3/09 Section: Sports
(MCT) - Controversy has been a near-constant in Robbie Alomar's life, on and off the field. Consider the docket: The spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck (inexcusable, but well beyond the statute of limitations, he said) was followed by two poor seasons with the Mets (inexplicable), and more recently, accusations from a former girlfriend that he has AIDS (a lie fueled by spite, Alomar insists).
The former second baseman, arguably the greatest of our generation, no longer worries about the slings and arrows of his past. Instead, Alomar is focusing on Jan. 6, when he'll find out if he's been elected to the Hall of Fame - and if his history indeed has come back to wound him.
"I've made some mistakes, definitely, but I believe I deserve to be (in Cooperstown)," Alomar said by telephone this week. He was speaking from his home in Tampa, Fla., where he said he's "enjoying life" with his wife, Maripily Rivera, whom he married last winter. The couple is raising Alomar's 7-year-old son.
Election into the Hall is a no-brainer to Alomar and to anyone who measures his numbers against other recent inductees, notably Ryne Sandberg. Alomar was a 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, finishing with a .300 average, 210 homers and 474 steals in 17 major league seasons.
Alomar's legacy perhaps doesn't equal Joe Morgan's or Rogers Hornsby's, but he's still a notch above Sandberg or Rod Carew. That gap, however, narrows if you think an outrageous assault of an umpire counts for something; character issues, after all, are an integral part of a voter's decision.
To this day, Alomar has no explanation for his action against Hirschbeck, other than to say, "It was done in the heat of the moment, something I will regret for the rest of my life."
The incident took place 13 years ago, when in a hot dispute over a called third strike, Alomar, then playing for the Orioles, spit in Hirschbeck's face. To compound the act, Alomar said after the game that Hirschbeck had slurred him, adding that the umpire had become "real bitter" since the death of Hirschbeck's 8-year-old son to adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare genetic disorder that affects the brain.
The former second baseman, arguably the greatest of our generation, no longer worries about the slings and arrows of his past. Instead, Alomar is focusing on Jan. 6, when he'll find out if he's been elected to the Hall of Fame - and if his history indeed has come back to wound him.
"I've made some mistakes, definitely, but I believe I deserve to be (in Cooperstown)," Alomar said by telephone this week. He was speaking from his home in Tampa, Fla., where he said he's "enjoying life" with his wife, Maripily Rivera, whom he married last winter. The couple is raising Alomar's 7-year-old son.
Election into the Hall is a no-brainer to Alomar and to anyone who measures his numbers against other recent inductees, notably Ryne Sandberg. Alomar was a 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, finishing with a .300 average, 210 homers and 474 steals in 17 major league seasons.
Alomar's legacy perhaps doesn't equal Joe Morgan's or Rogers Hornsby's, but he's still a notch above Sandberg or Rod Carew. That gap, however, narrows if you think an outrageous assault of an umpire counts for something; character issues, after all, are an integral part of a voter's decision.
To this day, Alomar has no explanation for his action against Hirschbeck, other than to say, "It was done in the heat of the moment, something I will regret for the rest of my life."
The incident took place 13 years ago, when in a hot dispute over a called third strike, Alomar, then playing for the Orioles, spit in Hirschbeck's face. To compound the act, Alomar said after the game that Hirschbeck had slurred him, adding that the umpire had become "real bitter" since the death of Hirschbeck's 8-year-old son to adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare genetic disorder that affects the brain.
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