Former Met Player & Current Coach: Sandy Alomar (1967/ 2005-2009)

Santos Sandy Alomar was born October 19, 1943 in Puerto Rico. He was drafted by the old Milwaukee Braves in 1960. He played briefly as a sub with Braves from 1964-1966, and started out 1967 in Houston but he was traded to the Mets while hitting just .086 that August. I his Mets playing career Alomar just appeared in 15 games, going 0-22 with six strikeouts. He did score a run after being inserted as a pinch runner. Alomar went to the White Sox and by the next season he was becoming a regular second baseman. In May of 1969 he was traded to the California Angels and had some good years. He led the league twice in games played & plate appearances, playing every game of the 1970 and 1971 seasons. He was in the top 10 in stolen bases six years in a row, came in second with 179 hits in 1971 and made the All Star team in 1970. You could sum him up as a good steady defensive second baseman with speed, a great singles & sacrifice hitter.

He was traded to the AL New York team in May of 1974, becoming their regular second baseman in 1975 playing in 151 games hitting .239. He was pretty much expendable when Willie Randolph came up and appeared as a pinch runner & pinch hitter (0-1) in the 1976 ALCS. He finished his career in Texas in 1978 as a lifetime .245 hitter. Interestingly in 1481 games and 4760 at bats he only hit 13 career HRs.

After baseball Sandy became a successful coach, first with Padres from 1986-1990 where he got to coach his two sons, Sandy Jr. & Roberto Alomar. Both of them had successful baseball careers as well. From 2000-2004 he was with the Cubs & Rockies before joining the Mets staff in 2005. In 2005 he was bench coach under Willie Randolph moving to the first base coach in 2006, then third base coach in 2007. Since 2008 he has once again served as bench coach under Jerry Manuel. In 2010 he will be celebrating his 50th season in major league baseball.

I got to meet him at Spring Training 2007 while sitting in the first row at Dodger Town. Of all the players & coaches Alomar was the most accessible and a true gentleman.