Roberto Alomar

The game of baseball runs in Alomar's family. Alomar's older brother, Sandy Jr., is currently a catcher for the Colorado Rockies, and their father, Sandy Sr., played in the major leagues for fifteen years. When the younger Alomars were first signed into the major leagues, they found themselves playing in Charleston, S.C., for a Class A team in the San Diego Padres organization that featured their father as a coach. Although Sandy Jr. was older, Alomar was the first of the two to break into the major leagues, becoming a regular figure in the Padres lineup in 1988. In 1989, the twenty-one-year-old Alomar became the youngest player to take the field for a National League team on opening day. That same year Sandy Jr. was traded

Roberto Alomar

to the Cleveland Indians, where he would become the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1990.

Although Alomar had some freshman jitters in his first full year in the major leagues, committing eleven errors in the month of April, 1989, by the end of the season he had proved himself to be an excellent player. He finished that year with the sixth-highest batting average in the league and the third-highest number of hits, including the most sacrifice hits of any player. Alomar was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for the 1991 season, and it was there that, at the age of twenty-three, he first became a true star. He won his first Golden Glove award that year and placed sixth in the Most Valuable Player voting.

"For [Alomar] to have accomplished what he has at this age is really mind-boggling," Blue Jays' hitting coach Larry Hisle said to Bruce Newman of Sports Illustrated early in the 1992 season. "You have to remember that most players that age are just making it to the big leagues. Robbie has already been an All-Star twice." But the best was yet to come: Toronto won the World Series that year and again in 1993, and Alomar was named the Most Valuable Player of their 1992 American League Championship Series win over the Oakland Athletics.