Wow, this is shocking and sad if true. Alomar was a tremendous 2nd baseman until the last 2-3 years of his career. From today's NY Post:

Alomar in AIDS shock

Raped my Mexicans?? Really?? Nothing to do with a habit of unprotected sex while on the road with a Major League team? And how stupid is she that she had unprotected sex with him??

What is sad is that if he had gotten tested when he had the chance, he might have been able to slow the progression from HIV to full-blown AIDS.

I shook my head, too, SB when he claimed to be raped. When he played with Cleveland, he was engaged to tennis player Mary Pierce. I'm not sure if they ever got married.

I think everyone who reads that article will have that same exact reaction SB.

Is the New York Post a gossip tabloid newspaper? Do they always write their articles like that? It didn't seem as professional as most sports columns. It looks like it was quickly written and it seemed to make the point of putting Alomar in a negative light. For example the way it blurted out he was raped by Mexicans, and then later saying his baseball career will be remembered for spitting in an umpires face (I don't remember that). Plus the unprofessional wording... "Full Blown AIDS" as well as others.

Yeah, really. Seems the "writer" was too excited to get the sentence out, and the "editor" too excited to read it, to notice...


And yeah, the NY Post isn't exactly the NY Times

Yahoo Sports and SI.com also have the story regarding Alomar. So far, ESPN has not addressed the story. It appears to all stem from a lawsuit filed by the ex-girlfriend of Alomar. If he did knowingly have AIDS and had sex with her, then he has no regard for others.

Unfortunately, the first thing I think of when I hear Alomar's name is th spitting incident in 1996. He was arguing a called third strike with umpire, John Hirschbeck and deliberately spit in his face. He was fined and suspended multiple games. The next day he made comments about Hirshbeck having a mean disposition, which he publicly blamed on the recent death of the umpire's young son due to ALD. At the time Hirschbeck (who eleven years later was behind the plate when Bonds hit #756) had another son presently suffering from the disease.

In time they mended their fences and raised some money for the disease, but that incident will always be a dark cloud over a productive career. It unfortunately will be forever tied to his legacy, like Juan Marichal attacking Johnny Roseboro with a bat.

It was a huge story at the time, Blibble. You must be a bit younger than I thought you were.

In any event I feel sorry for Alomar now.

According to the article it was in 1996, so that would make me 18-19 at the time. So that makes sense that I don't recall the incident. I spent that entire year surfing and skateboarding, from dawn to dusk, literally. It's one of the few couple of years I didn't follow sports outside of the Giants. I was just too preoccupied. Looks like I picked an interesting year to miss out on.

I remember the spitting incident well. It was late in the season and some fans (of opposing teams) wanted the suspension to impact Alomar's availability for the playoffs. It was a classless act by Alomar, who alleged at the time that Hirschbach hurled a racial slur against the player.

I was very glad the Indians signed Alomar from 1998-2001. Watching Robbie & Omar Vizquel turn double plays was a thing of beauty. They were probably one of the best 2B-SS tandems of the past 25 years.

No doubt.