Roberto Alomar Reaches the Pinnacle of Canadian Baseball

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, located in St. Mary’s, Ontario, is proud to announce four more inductees into its residence.

Roberto Alomar, who unfortunately fell eight votes shy of entering the hallowed hall of the Baseball Hall of Fame, will be honored along with former Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Paul Quantrill on June 19, 2010.

The two former Blue Jays are joined in the inductions by longtime executive Calvin Griffith and statistician Allan Roth who were elected posthumously.

Alomar, arguably the greatest all-round player the club has seen, sees this is a honor and a privilege...

“This is an honor, truly a privilege,” Alomar said in a statement. “I cherished my years with the Blue Jays and have always loved the Canadian people. Those years were the very best of my career.”

Alomar, who is the Blue Jays' all-time leader in batting average, while ranking second in stolen bases behind Lloyd Moseby, was named an All-Star on 12 separate occasions, and won 10 Gold Gloves in his career which is the most among second baseman, but lowest of all-time when compared to all other positions.

Paul Quantrill, a relief pitcher for 14 years, spent six of those with the Blue Jays during the late '90s and early 2000s.  Quantrill was born in London and is a long-time Port Hope resident had perhaps his his best season in 1997, his second with the Jays, posting a 1.94 ERA in 88 innings while yielding a Greg Maddux like 17 walks.

“Baseball has been a huge and wonderful part of my family’s life,” Quantrill said in a statement. “So getting the call from St. Marys created a lot of excitement around our home. The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame represents a community that has a true love and respect for our game. I hope my genuine enthusiasm and passion for a kid’s game reflects well on the Hall.”

Calvin Griffith a Montreal native, and adopted son of Clark C. Griffith, who was the long-time owner of the Washington Senators, was instrumental in the relocation of the Senators to Minnesota once he assumed control.

Allan Roth has been called the founder of Sabermetrics was influential in bringing statistics to the forefront of the game.  Branch Rickey, President and GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired Roth as the first full-time statistician shortly after the signing of Jackie Robinson.

What Roth did was introduce Rickey to his data on RBI percentage and relevant information as to how the Dodger batters fared against right-handed and left-handed pitchers.  The rest you can say is history.

If you would like to read more about Roth and his ground breaking techniques, “The Numbers Game” by Alan Schwarz is a captivating piece of literature entailing the history of statistics in baseball.

On June 19, the St. Mary’s will be the focus of baseball world and will undeniably be a tremendous day for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and a thrilling day for baseball fans.

I cannot wait!

This article can be found on The GM's Perspective