Roberto Alomar
Roberto Alomar was a speedy second baseman who was well-known for his solid all-around game and was instrumental in the only 2 World Series titles for the Toronto Blue Jays.
He reached the Major Leagues with the San Diego Padres in 1988, when he finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year voting, and within 2 years had reached his first All-Star team, but he didn't hit his stride offensively until he was traded to Toronto after the 1990 season.
The Blue Jays reached the playoffs in each of Alomar's first three seasons with the team, and he was one of the team's best players in each of those playoff runs, batting .373 over those seasons and leading the Jays to 2 World Series. In 1992 he was the ALCS MVP, when he hit .423 in a 6-game series against the A's while also stealing 5 bases.
After dominating the ALCS, he struggled a bit in the World Series, but he did end up scoring the winning run in the 11th inning of Game 6, The following season, he hit .480 in the World Series with 6 RBI's as the Jays repeated as champs by taking down the Phillies, marking the third straight year that Alomar was huge in the playoffs, and the second time that he finished the season with a championship ring.
Alomar played two more seasons in Toronto, but the team started to enter a rebuilding process, and he wanted to chase more championships, so he left as a free agent in 1995 to sign with Baltimore, but he left the Blue Jays as the franchise's all-time leader with a .307 batting average. He played 3 seasons with the Orioles, reaching the ALCS twice, but they were never quite able to break through to the World Series.
His time in Baltimore was marred by an incident near the end of the 1996 season, when he became angry after a called third strike and got into a shouting match with the umpire. In the course of the confrontation, Alomar spat in the face of the umpire, and was suspended 5 games for the incident. He claims that the umpire used a racial slur against him, but the two later settled their differences publicly before a game the next season.
Alomar signed with Cleveland before the 1999 season in order to play with his brother Sandy, and while with the Indians he had two of his best seasons. He led the league in runs with 138 in 1999 while setting a career high with 120 RBI's, then had a career-high 193 hits in 2001, along with 100 RBI's and 30 stolen bases.
He played another 3 seasons, but his production dropped off and he retired before the 2005 season. He first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2010, but fell 8 votes short, the closest anyone has ever come during their first season without being elected, and many feel it was due to the spitting incident, but he was elected easily the following season, and deservedly so.
Alomar finished his career with a .300 batting average and 2724 hits, and he made 12 straight All-Star teams. He was a major contributor to two World Series champions, and played really well in another ALCS, and though he was never the MVP or a full-fledged superstar, he was a very good player for a very long time, and one of the best players of all time.
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