Roberto Alomar: The Greatest Second Baseman of All-Time

The Toronto Blue Jays retired their first ever number in franchise history today.

This honour goes to second baseman Roberto Alomar who had his number 12 raised to the rafters after playing five of his 17 seasons (most with one team) with the Toronto Blue Jays while helping win two World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.

Before becoming a Blue Jay, Alomar played three seasons in San Diego hitting .283, 22 home runs, 157 runs batted in and 90 stolen bases never fully hitting his stride offensively but still was an All-Star in 1990.

In 1990, along with future Blue Jays great, Joe Carter, Alomar was traded to the Blue Jays for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez—who would later return for the Blue Jays magical run.

Toronto is where his career took off.

In his first season, he hit .295 with nine home runs, 69 RBI’s and 53 stolen bases. He was named to his second All-Star team but won his first Gold Glove award at second base.

In 1992, Alomar and the Blue Jays started to show their dominance with a record of 96-66.

Alomar again was an All-Star, won his second straight Gold Glove and finished the season with a .310 batting average, eight home runs, 76 RBI’s and 49 stolen bases.

However, it was not until the 1992 American League Championship Series that would forever make Roberto Alomar a Blue Jays legend.

With the Blue Jays up two games to one in a seemingly back and forth series and the Oakland A’s having a lead with Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley on the mound, Alomar hit the game tying home run in the top of the ninth to force extra innings, where the Blue Jays eventually won. Alomar was named MVP of the ALCS.

This is considered by many the second most important hit/home run in franchise history behind only Joe Carter's 1993 World Series winning home run.

After Alomar had hit that home run, it seemed to inject confidence and a winning attitude into the organization that had shown nothing in their 15 year existence up to that point.

That was no longer the case as Alomar and the Blue Jays won their first ever World Series over the Atlanta Braves becoming the first team outside of the United States to win a World Series.

The Blue Jays, and especially Alomar, were not done following up with an even more impressive 1993 season, though their record did not show it (95-67).

Alomar hit .326 had 17 home runs, 93 RBI’s and 55 stolen bases finishing third in the batting title (behind teammates John Olerud and Paul Molitor) and sixth in MVP voting. As well, which was becoming more of an automatic every year Alomar was selected to the All-Star game (one of seven Blue Jays players that year) and won his third consecutive Gold Glove.

In the playoffs, the Blue Jays cruised to their second straight World Series title highlighted of course by Joe Carter's famous walk-off home run.

In Toronto, Alomar played in 703 games, had 832 hits, 152 doubles, 55 home runs, 342 RBI’s and 206 stolen bases. As well, he was a five-time All-Star (his whole tenure), a five-time Gold Glove winner (his whole tenure) while helping the team win their only two World Series in franchise history.

In the postseason, Alomar hit .375, two home runs, 20 RBI's and 18 stolen bases in 29 games with Toronto.

Alomar had this to say to Stephen Brunt of how strongly he feels towards the Blue Jays, Toronto and Canada:

“My heart is half Puerto Rican, half Canadian. That is how I feel,” he said. “The city embraced me since the day that I got here. The same way I gave my heart to them, they gave their heart to me.”

After leaving Toronto, he would go on to play for Baltimore, Cleveland, the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. Though he would have similar individual success he was not able to recapture what he had in Toronto.

During his 17 year career, Alomar was a 12-time All-Star (1990-2001), a 10-time Gold Glove winner (1991-1996, 1998-2001) which is an American League record by a second basemen and has won the second most Silver Slugger Awards with four (1993, 1996, 1999, 2000).

Alomar finished third in 1999 in AL MVP voting and was named All-Star Game MVP in 1998.

He finished his career with a lifetime average of .300, 2,724 hits, 504 doubles, 210 home runs, 1,134 RBI’s and 474 stolen bases.  

In postseason play, Alomar had a lifetime .313 batting average, four home runs, 33 RBI's and 20 stolen bases.

After narrowly missing being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame his first year of eligibility (2010) Alomar was finally inducted in 2011 with 90 percent of the vote (third highest ever).

He is the first player ever to dawn a Blue Jays cap in Cooperstown--though four Hall of Famers have played for Toronto (Paul Molitor, Ricky Henderson, Phil Niekro and Dave Winfield) and joins former General Manager Pat Gillick who was honoured in the same class as Alomar in the Executive/Pioneer category.

In 2008 Alomar was inducted into the Level of Excellence joining No.1 SS Tony Fernandez, No. 11 LF George Bell, No. 29 RF/1B Joe Carter, No. 37 P Dave Stieb, No. 43 Manager Cito Gaston, No. 4306 Broadcaster Tom Cheek, Vice President Paul Beeston and General Manager Pat Gillick.

Joe Carter’s No. 29—for hitting the most important hit in franchise history and Roy Halladay’s No. 32 are the only jerseys that could ever be considered right now by the franchise to be retired as Alomar is truly the only one that deserves so.

Alomar is arguably the best second baseman of all-time combining average, power and defensive ability.

The Blue Jays think so, this Blue Jays fan thinks so and so do many others.

Congratulations to Roberto Alomar on a splendid career and for what he did for the Toronto Blue Jays making the city proud of their baseball team.