Baseball great Roberto Alomar has full-blown AIDS but insisted on having unprotected sex, his ex-girlfriend charged Tuesday in a bombshell lawsuit.
The shocking claim was leveled by Ilya Dall, 31, who said she lived with the ex-Met for three years and watched in horror as his health worsened.
In papers filed in state and federal court, Dall said Alomar finally got tested in January 2006 while suffering from a cough, fatigue and shingles. “The test results of him being HIV-positive was given to him and the plaintiff on or about Feb.6, 2006,” the $15 million negligence suit says.
Nine days later, the couple went to see a disease specialist who discovered a mass in the retired second baseman’s chest, the court papers say. Alomar’s skin had turned purple, he was foaming at the mouth and a spinal tap “showed he had full-blown AIDS,” the suit says.
Alomar, 41, who quit baseball over health issues in 2005, could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Charles Bach, would not say whether Alomar is HIV-positive. “We believe this is a totally frivolous lawsuit. These allegations are baseless,” Bach said. “He’s healthy and would like to keep his health status private. We’ll do our talking in court.”
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I'm guessing that Alomar got it the Magic Johnson way? If he got it from sharing steroid needles, then it could be even more devastating.
This seems a little misleading or titillating given the article's subject unless I'm not remembering why he retired correctly. I assumed there was a problem with something like his knee, back, etc. Did he retire because he had an illness?
In any case, I hope this isn't true for Alomar's sake.
And sad, also.
It's more for reckless endangerment. If someone intentionally does something could possibly kill you, I could see room in the civil code for compensation, even if they don't actually manage to kill you.
A guy (from Puerto Rico) I used to work with 10-15 years ago would say that Roberto wasn't too popular in his hometown since he supposedly did little for his "community". He also said that Roberto was gay...FWIW...
Is there any chance the latter led to the former?
I'm fully expecting stories about Ted William's spying on behalf of the Nazis and the Communists and Babe Ruth's role in creating the Great Depression.
The automatic association of AIDS homosexuality only helps the spread increase. And BBTFers should no better.
Of course it is, nobody is pretending otherwise. Automatically assuming only gay men can get AIDS is ignoring reality however.
Link
Clearly you're not visiting the right websites.
What I find particularly odd is that if the allegations in the article are true, that means Robbie Alomar intentionally moved to Cleveland after retiring. That's just...weird.
And it's obvious why: anal sex, which is probably much more common in homosexual male relationships than heterosexual relationships, is much more likely to transmit HIV and AIDS than coitus.
Homosexuals don't get AIDS because they're gay, they get it because they're more likely to engage in a sexual activity that transmits AIDS.
There have been rumors for years in Puerto Rico that he was gay. I remember his romance with tennis player Mary Pierce was ridiculed by common baseball fans as some sort of farce. I'll say that I hope that the guy's health is ok.
Are you trying to say that Mary Pierce really is a woman?
http://www.exposay.com/celebrity-photos/mary-pierce-2007-pre-wimbledon-party-hosted-by-richard-branson-nYWw01.jpg
http://www.feelosophee.com/img/pierce.jpg
Going to be?
Good God! That second one is worse than any Madeline Albright ever linked here.
It certainly would be better if AIDS was understood in terms of sexual behavior rather than in terms of sexual identity, but, given that people seem to like to speculate about who is gay and who is not, that may be wishful thinking.
The contention appears to be that Alomar's 3-years of unprotected sex with her while denying his medical condition (despite mounting evidence) left her traumatized, probably interfering with her ability to maintain and enjoy subsequent relationships. Not that much of a stretch, assuming she right on the facts, but asking for damages isn't the same as receiving them, and it's certainly possible any recovery is for a signficantly lower amount.
Printing 2 pictures of a woman to prove a "SHE'S DURN UGLY" argument seems to be the ultimate small sample size argument, coming from this site. Have 500 candid pictures taken of you, Prosimian, and let us know how those two - hell, twenty - worst look.
Would any writer be stupid enough to claim this modifies his decision to vote for Alomar?
One of those Pierce pictures was at a Wimbledon party where she knew there'd be pictures taken. If you can't look good then, you just don't look good.
Just sayin'.
It's probably not a bad thing to take a breather from BBTF once in a while.
It's more than that. Having sex with anyone who has a penis is more dangerous than having sex with anyone without a penis (because penises go into body parts, obviously). That goes for men and women. This little fact always made me love the argument that AIDS is a curse from God, because it suggests that God wants us all to be lesbians.
Alan Wiggins.
I note for the record that both he and Alomar are switch-hitters.
Just sayin' is all.
This is way ahead of ourselves, but do you think contraction of HIV would affect one's HOF status? Would it actually help him?
There's a joke about Albert Belle and Chris Truby that needs more airtime.
I heard something about Chris Truby...
This is just malicious.
If it is proven (in a general sense, not legally) that he knew he had HIV and kept having unprotected sex, or really any sex with an uninfected person, and hid it from that person, then I think it has a big impact.
That's about as bad as behavior gets without actually killing someone.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/1993/0823_large.jpg
* That said, like Shooty, I'm not sure how you reached your conclusion (#41) - that's not at all how I'm reading the other posts.
After he retired, he claimed that his retirement was due to a sudden decline in his vision. No mention was made of anything else.
Basically, AIDS virus is transmitted through bodily fluids, mostly blood. There is theoretical risk of virus being transmitted through saliva while kissing, but I don't think there is single proven case (spitting into eye or at wound / scratch is dangerous). Transmission during the sexual intercourse happens because there are usually slight injuries to sexual organs during the intercourse and seminal/vaginal liquid comes in direct contact with blood. Risk of injuries and their extent is larger during the anal sex. Gay population was (and maybe still is) at increased risk because of larger injuries during sex and because condoms were considered as birth control mechanism and therefore unnecessary.
I don't know about the US, but there was a recent case in Canada where a CFL player was charged and convicted for knowingly having unprotected sex while HIV positive. I'm not sure, however, if the charge was based on the unprotected sex, or on his decision to not disclose his status to his partners in advance - I believe it was the latter.
I'm curious: What percentage of AIDS cases are heterosexual males who received it from a heterosexual woman without anal sex or injection of drugs? Probably impossible to determine conclusively, but I'd guess that it's less than one percent. So, yeah, it's really not that big of a stretch to cast aspersions about Alomar's sexuality when you hear this kind of news.
Yeah, not even close, but what Shooty said. I'll say something awful otherwise.
It's probably not a bad thing to take a breather from BBTF once in a while.
What kind of man are you? You're worthless and weak. You do nothing. You are nothing. You're sitting here all day playing that sick, disgusting, electric twanger. I carried an M-16 and you carry that, that, that... GUITAR! Who are you? Where do you come from? Are you listening to me? What do you want to do with your life?
The article states that Alomar revealed to his girlfriend that he was raped by two males when he was 17 years old.
In the US, very low. In Africa, very high (heterosexual that is, we can't really know about particular sex acts). In Africa, AIDS has been spread mostly by promiscuous heterosexual intercourse, especially with prostitutes. I saw a fascinating report on how AIDS in Africa cluster around long distance trucking routes.
Wait, we're supposed to read the articles? I thought we were just supposed to read whatever excerpt was posted here, and then start jumping to conclusions.
Trying hard to resist making a joke...
I suggest that you go around having unprotected sex with women in Africa, or maybe Asia. Have fun.
Alomar would have turned 17 in 1985. According to the article, he started showing symptoms in 2005. That 20 year gap makes me skeptical that he contracted AIDS from that.
Damn tootin. Edit: (okay, I couldn't resist, sorry)
The article states that Alomar revealed to his girlfriend that he was raped by two males when he was 17 years old.
Pops RTFA for a big prize. That is horrible, if true. Of course, I know that sort of thing happens even if it wasn't to Alomar, but damn. That could also lead to the rumors of being gay in PR. It's common to "blame" a rape victim and it isn't really any different for a male victim of rape (it is probably worse). So if people knew or heard rumors of his being raped I could easily imagine it leading to rumors that he "wanted it". The whole damned thing gets more and more disturbing.
And this is what is terrible, to me, about the steroid hullabaloo. I want testing and would prefer a fairly clean game. But it is, in the end, not that huge of an issue warranting as much time and ink as everyone (including me and BBTF) has spilled on it. I suppose, though, it's exactly because it's meaningful without being life and death that it is such a rousing topic.
Well, that does sound like fun. I'll think on it. Thanks for your suggestion.
The high transmission rate is also directly related to the type of sex that the truckers prefer. Apparently the men prefer the women to have very dry vaginas - which leads to more small internal cuts in the vaginal walls during intercourse. And no condom usage, because the men don't care if the prostitutes get pregnant. It's the same cause for high transmission rates due to anal sex. Higher chance for tiny cuts and tears & no condoms.
Ironically, the offseason is really the best time for that.
Given how AIDS is commonly transferred, is "trucking" really the right description for these routes?
That assumes that we get agressive girls to come down to mom's basement...
No.
Was that pic' taken before or after the twister dropped the house on her?
Best Regards
John
That's about as bad as behavior gets without actually killing someone."
That IS killing someone. They just don't die right away.
Not only that, the plaintiff is arguing that the reasons he should have gotten tested were all readily apparent to her as well. There is a big assumption of risk argument here.
For Arva and others who are upset about an assumption that a male who contracts this disease may be engaging in gay sex would you feel all that much better if the comment was that he must have been engaging in risky behavior? Whether it is anal sex or sharing needles or whatever else it all comes down to risky behavior. Long before now there have been rumors of Robby being gay. Didn't matter to most of us.
Separately, I'd recommend not getting too wrapped up in mortality statistics such as 5th leading cause of death among all women aged 35–44 years and the 6th leading cause of death among all women aged 25–34 years. Problem with those numbers is the mortality rate for women in those age groups is actually extremely low. Some women do die in those age groups but it is a very low number considering the size of the population group. So saying a particular cause of death is the fifth or sixth largest killer is not all that telling. My guess (educated guess, but still just a guess) is the women who make up those results mostly contract HIV through drug usage rather than through relationships. Baseball fans more than others should understand how statistics can be misread especially when they are a small sample size.
At the same time, I gather that most people around here attach no social or moral opprobrium to being gay, especially people of my generation and younger (I'm 43). If Alomar really is gay, I'm not going to think any worse (or better) of him.
In one sense, I don't care whether he's gay - but I can't deny that it's an interesting fact to have. We get involved with baseball players for far more than their onfield play. I don't think I could turn off my interest-meter at a player's homosexuality any more than I could turn off my interest in Mitch Williams' legendary abilities as a bowler or Roberto Petagine's marrying a woman 20 years older than him. Talking about whether Roberto Alomar is gay is no different, to my mind, than talking about whether Alex Rodriguez slept with Madonna.
Forget assumption of risk. Why would you have sex with a guy so obviously sick? Forget AIDS. Just in terms of general appearance?
Interestingly, it appears that the relationship continued for another couple of years thereafter - there's talk in the SoC of her residing with him in various places. If she's really suffered some sort of psychiatric injury, that's very unfortunate but it strikes me as add that her debilitating AIDS phobia didn't prevent her from living with a guy who, on the basis of the pleadings, she knew to have AIDS.
Not to be too cynical, but I suspect that there's a relationship breakup lurking in the background here. If that's what this is really all about, it's a pretty scummy thing to do, whatever Alomar's conduct might have been.
I don't see the bias (at least in this thread) at all. Black people disproportionately have sickle-cell anemia. Ashkenazi Jews disproportionately contract Tay-Sachs disease. Women disproportionately get breast cancer. There's nothing racist or bigoted about simply stating hard facts about a disease - the problem only comes in when people suggest oppressing those people, which nobody has done here.
No, now that I check, I was wrong. She's 24 years older than him.
I think there is a reasonable argument that she believed she was likely to have AIDS and therefore also believed she would be unwanted by anybody outside of the AIDS-carrying Alomar.
Not to be too cynical, but I suspect that there's a relationship breakup lurking in the background here.
Yes, a fairly recent breakup according to the article.
I wouldn't feel much better about that. Why the need to sit in judgment and make assumptions about how someone lives their life? It's comforting to distance one's self from someone by presuming that they did something to deserve the disease, but people's lives are way more complicated and interesting than that.
Yeah, his best friend's mom.
It's not judgement, it's just a fact. There are risky behaviors for contracting AIDS. Someone may engage in them without "deserving" to get the disease. Well, check that, I don't believe anyone ever "deserves" any medical condition. Take heart disease, if you smoke, eat like crap and don't exercise in your adult life you don't "deserve" a heart attack, but you, and your friends and family, certainly can't be shocked when it happens.
The instant reaction to any statement about risky behaviors (in many settings) seems, to me, to belie a view that doesn't allow for not judging everything.
Lots of references to him being signed as an amateur free agent in 1985, but I can't find a list of where he played.
On his web site, in the Flash scroll, there's a brief shot of him with the 1987 Wichita Pilots (Texas League), but I can't find info on his earlier years.
oh, I see that is old news.
Good lord man, welcome to the 90s.
In 1985, he would have been just turning 17. Most likely, he was in some some of extended training camp, rather than playing in the organized minors.
Or I could just check the Baseball Cube, and find out that he was playing in Charleston, in the South Atlantic League, but that would be the smart thing for me to do.
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