SHOCKER: Roberto Alomar NOT voted into Hall of Fame

Posted on January 6, 2010

Roberto Alomar of the Toronto Blue Jays slides home safely as Oakland Athletics catcher Jamie Quirk applies a late tag during a game at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California in 1991. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

12-time All-Star second baseman Roberto Alomar was NOT elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America into the Hall of Fame today in his first year on the ballot. The announcement was made live on the MLB Network by Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson. Alomar garnered 73.7% of the votes (75% is required for induction) and will not be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on July 25. Alomar did not get in on the first ballot after being suspended for five games following his September 1996 confrontation with John Hirschbeck in Toronto’s SkyDome, when he spat on the umpire during an argument following a called third strike. Many people in baseball equated this incident to the Juan Marichal incident when he hit John Roseboro over the head with a bat in 1965. That incident delayed Marichal’s induction for several years. Alomar’s incident apparently hurt his election also.

Alomar was a fun guy to photograph. When I had the chance to shoot him during his days with the Blue Jays, Orioles, Indians and Mets I always knew I was shooting one of the all-time greats. He put up terrific career numbers that include a .300 career average, 2,724 hits, 210 homers, 474 steals, 10 Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers. He was pretty much done by the time I shot him with the Mets in San Francisco, but it did not matter. What I saw during his prime in the American League was enough to cement him in my mind as one of the greatest second basemen of his era.

I had the amazing opportunity to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum last April to lecture about baseball photography along with my good friend Robert Seale. It was my first time to Cooperstown and I finally understood what it meant to walk the hallowed Halls. Alomar belongs in the Hall. I am shocked. Some voters have a thing about not voting for someone in their first year on the ballot. I think Alomar got screwed. He will get in- just not this year.

SHOCKER: NOT Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar – Images by Brad Mangin