Elliott: Robbie Alomar flip a game-changer

This can’t be true. I seem to remember Rich McKinney attempting this once…and ending up in the weeds.

“I was thinking the other day about changes I’d seen in the game since I started playing,” Mike Flanagan said. “The only one I can think of was brought in by Robbie Alomar.

“On a ground ball up the middle, how he’d field the ball and do a back-hand flip to the shortstop on a double play grounder.”

Alomar was the first Flanagan ever saw make the play and without breaking stride, use his glove to flip towards second. “Before Robbie Alomar, second baseman were taught to stop, pivot and throw,” Flanagan said. “Most do it now ... or try to do it.”

Like Bobby Orr changing the way the defensive position was played.

Flanagan saying it was the first major change in the game covers come ground. He was first drafted in 1971.

“The split finger? Elroy Face had that pitch in the 1960s. Robbie is the only person I’ve seen do anything different others have picked up,” Flanagan said.