Alomar’s legacy in Toronto takes shocking turn.
JAYS SEVER TIES WITH FORMER STAR AFTER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATION
If the Toronto Blue Jays were in the business of making statues of team legends, Roberto Alomar would have been an ideal choice for the first bronzing.
He was the best player on the best version of the Blue Jays in their history, a magician with the bat and glove who also authored one of the franchise’s defining moments: a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series in Oakland. That shot, off dominant closer Dennis Eckersley, was the prototype to the Bat Flip. Alomar crushed Eckersley’s offering and immediately lifted both hands in the air, turning around the narrative of a team that until that point had only known playoff heartbreak. That it was Alomar who hit that home run, who did it when it seemed mostly unlikely, was fitting. He was that good. Everyone loved Robbie.
But that’s a relationship that is now deeply strained. Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it was firing Alomar, 53, from his job as a consultant in his native Puerto Rico, after an investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct from what it called a “baseball industry employee.” The incident took place in 2014, but MLB was made aware of it more recently. Commissioner Rob Manfred said an outside law firm carried out the investigation, and after its findings Alomar has been placed on MLB’S Ineligible List, effectively booting him from the sport.
The Blue Jays said they agreed with the decision and based on their review of the findings, they “are severing all ties with Alomar, effectively immediately.” His number will be removed from the Level of Excellence at the Rogers Centre and the banner celebrating his Hall of Fame selection will be taken down.
“We commend the courage demonstrated by the individual who bravely came forward, and in order to respect their privacy, the organization will have no further comment at this time,” said a statement from club president Mark Shapiro.
Alomar posted a statement on social media saying he was “disappointed, surprised and upset” by the findings. “My hope is that this allegation can be heard in a venue that will allow me to address the accusation directly,” he said. Alomar also appeared to suggest that he was a victim of changing attitudes toward sexual misconduct: “With the current social climate, I can understand why Major League Baseball have taken the position they have,” his statement said.
MLB is in the midst of a furor over attitudes toward women in the sport. The newly appointed general manager of the New York Mets was fired recently after a detailed report of his conduct toward a female media member, and MLB has an ongoing investigation into Los Angeles Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway, after another detailed report on allegations of lewd conduct dating to his time coaching in Cleveland and with the Mets.
But while Major League Baseball is clearly at a moment where it wants to be seen taking sexual misconduct allegations seriously, Alomar’s suggestion that he wants to “address the accusation directly” is a curious one. An investigation by an outside law firm would provide exactly the venue that he would have wanted and crucially, with the whole thing kept quiet while that process took place, neither MLB nor the Blue Jays can be accused of having caved to public pressure once the alleged 2014 incident was brought forward. This is the rare case where the process reached its conclusion absent any of the media uproar that typically follows such accusations. So far, none of the parties have aired any of the details. And, given Alomar’s beloved status in the game, it also follows that the investigation’s findings must have been serious for the league and the Blue Jays to cut ties with him so completely. With a few exceptions, Major League Baseball is not often accused of overreacting in disciplinary matters.
For the Jays and their fans, and especially those of that era of
Blue Jays baseball, it is dispiriting news. I was one of them, wearing Alomar’s number 12 when I played baseball in high school. The Jays of that time were a bit of a mercenary crew, with players like Jack Morris, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, David Cone and Rickey Henderson showing up to help finally push them to post-season success. But Alomar was a foundational piece, arriving in a trade at 23 years old and just entering his prime. He was a prodigious talent from a baseball family, and played the game with an obvious zest. He made plays, he stole bases when they really needing stealing and when the Blue Jays absolutely needed a big hit off a guy who was basically unhittable, Alomar did that too, turning on its ear what it meant to be a Jays fan.
His record was, in truth, not spotless. After he left Toronto, he was suspended for spitting in the face of an umpire who had ejected him for arguing a strike. That 1996 game with Baltimore came against the Blue Jays, making his split from the team that much more awkward. He was also known to have an active social life, so to speak, although that is hardly uncommon among professional athletes. By the time of his Hall of Fame call in 2011, Alomar was fully back as a member of the Toronto sporting establishment in good standing, an icon of a franchise that does not have too many of them.
And now this. It’s the problem with retired numbers, or banners, or indeed statues. Those things reflect certain sporting accomplishments, heroics on the field of play. The people who achieve them, though, are more complicated than that.