Sandy Alomar Sr.

Sandy Alomar Sr., in full Santos Alomar Conde (/ˈæləmɑːr/; Spanish pronunciation: [aloˈmar]; born October 19, 1943 in Salinas, Puerto Rico), is a former Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves (1964–66), New York Mets (1967), Chicago White Sox (1967–69), California Angels (1969–74), New York Yankees (1974–76), and Texas Rangers (1977–78). Alomar was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He is the father of former Major League catcher and current Cleveland Indians first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar.

Career

Through his career, Alomar was a valuable defensive player. His range and defensive positions were excellent but he was prone to poor throws after making fantastic stops. Alomar was able to play all infield and outfield positions. He led league second basemen in fielding percentage in 1975. Alomar's offense was below-average with a .245 career batting average, 13 home runs and 282 RBI in 1,481 games played. He was, however, a great bunter and gathered a significant number of bunt singles in his career.

Alomar enjoyed his best season in 1970 with career highs in batting average (.260), home runs (4), runs (82), hits (179) and games played (162), and received an All-Star berth. Alomar was a smart and aggressive base-runner compiling 227 stolen bases including a career high 42 in 1971.

A durable player, Alomar was the Angels' everyday second baseman for five years. He twice played a full 162-game season and played in 648 consecutive games between 1969 and 1973.

Alomar had only one postseason at-bat in his career (with the Yankees in the 1976 American League Championship Series).

After retiring, Alomar became a manager both in his homeland and minor leagues, and coached in the majors for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres. While in San Diego, Alomar coached his two sons, Sandy Jr. and Roberto. .

After the 2004 season, Alomar was hired by the Mets as a bench coach and was moved to first base coach after the 2005 season. In 2007, he was moved to third base coach. On June 17, 2008 he was once again made bench coach of the Mets by former bench coach and recently promoted manager Jerry Manuel. Following the 2009 season, Alomar was let go by the Mets, and replaced by Dave Jauss.

See also

• List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
• List of players from Puerto Rico in Major League Baseball
• List of second-generation Major League Baseball players

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Angels All-Time Team
• Baseball Library
• Tokyo Newsline interview