A shame great Alomar no-showed at Shea

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.

We have it on good authority that Roberto Alomar really could play at Shea Stadium, after all. Pat Gillick, a fellow inductee into the Hall of Fame Sunday, said he saw Alomar taking grounders and batting practice there as a little kid.

Sandy Alomar Sr. was playing for the Yankees at the time, the Yankees were playing home games at Shea and Gillick was working for the Yankees. He couldn't help being impressed. "I thought then that there were probably good bloodlines, with his brother and him," said Gillick, who tried unsuccessfully to sign a 14-year-old Alomar for the Blue Jays, then traded for him in 1990.

After that, Alomar blossomed into the great player whose career was celebrated Sunday. He became a terrific hitter. His older brother Sandy Jr., in a taped introduction during the ceremony, recalled that when they were teammates in Double-A ball, they could afford only a one-bedroom apartment. The deal was that whoever had the best game that day would get the bed that night.

"I slept on the couch the whole year," Sandy Jr. said.

Roberto was even better as a fielder at second base, winning 10 Gold Gloves and earning praise as an all-time great.

No argument there. He clearly is a deserving Hall of Famer. He belonged on the stage Sunday with Joe Morgan and Ryne Sandberg and Bill Mazeroski. But as for the people -- such as Gillick -- who say he should have gone in on the first ballot, we say things worked out just fine the way they did.

Alomar made it in his second year of eligibility, which seems right in retrospect. Consider the one-year wait to be his payment for the way he played as a big-leaguer at Shea Stadium: not so hot. When he was a Met in 2002 and the first part of 2003, he just wasn't the star the Mets thought they were getting. His batting average in 2002 was 70 points lower than it had been for the Indians the previous year, his home run and runs batted in totals were barely more than half.

Yes, there is merit to the argument that a player either is or isn't a Hall of Famer. He doesn't get any better in his sixth year of retirement than he had been in his fifth year of retirement. In fact, this peanut stand did vote for Alomar the first time he was on the ballot. But it just seems right that he didn't get the extra gold star as a first-ballot guy.

He made only a passing reference to his time at Shea during his induction speech: "To the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, I wore your uniform with pride and dignity. And I want you all to know that I gave you my best, each and every time I hit that field to represent you. Thank you."

We will have to take his word for it. Maybe he really was trying his hardest for the Mets. Maybe his back hurt. Maybe age caught up with him; he never did regain his form.

That was stellar form while it lasted. As Sandy Jr., who played with Roberto on the Indians and White Sox, said, "He's Robbie Alomar, he's the best."

It was touching to hear him address his family from the stage, acknowledging his mom as she was crying for joy, and telling his dad that, as far as he was concerned, Sandy Sr. belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Also, it was heartwarming to see how beloved Alomar is among fans at home in Puerto Rico and in Toronto. The biggest cheers of the day came when he acknowledged being the first player to go into the Hall as a Blue Jay. "My heart," Alomar said later, "is half Puerto Rican and half Canadian."

It's just too bad he didn't leave a piece of his heart at Shea.