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Friday, April 30, 2021
Major League Baseball is placing Roberto Alomar on its ineligible list after reviewing an allegation of sexual misconduct against the Hall of Fame second baseman, according to multiple industry sources.
Alomar’s contract as a consultant to MLB in Puerto Rico was terminated, as anyone on the ineligible list is banned from working in the league office or for any team in the majors or affiliated minors. He also served on commissioner Rob Manfred’s competition committee and worked for the Toronto Blue Jays as a special assistant, but that position was restructured as part of wider cost-cutting moves last September.
The discipline comes after an external law firm hired by MLB investigated the allegation and presented its findings to commissioner Rob Manfred, who determined a violation of league policies occurred.
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1. Gch Posted: April 30, 2021 at 01:53 PM (#6016327)Is it that Alomar harassed another man? Because I think that's what many are expecting.
There was that weird lawsuit years ago from a woman alleging that Alomar gave her HIV or AIDS, is that related?
#5, there are articles stating that his accuser is a female.
no, that was Tim Tebow
There was that weird lawsuit years ago from a woman alleging that Alomar gave her HIV or AIDS, is that related?
I assume not, as that was an ex-girlfriend whose was not anonymous -- she filed a civil suit against him. (He was also accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife.)
The current accusations are supposedly from someone who works in baseball.
Will Alomar be the first player kicked out of the Baseball Hall of Fame? (It's already happened in hockey.)
It's early days, I wouldn't put much stock in the HoF's announcement.
They (nor the BBWAA) never took any action to strip Conlin of the Spink Award.
Nobody doubted Brad Park was serious when he said, him or me (Park was the public face of the stand against Eagleson). Or doubted that he was speaking for many others. And the hall relies on the hofers showing up for certain key events.
If a sizeable number of hofers speak out against Alomar then I'd expect the HOF to take action. Not otherwise.
The hockey HOF also booted Gil Stein but that one was easy. He had in effect bribed some of the electors. Board members vote for builders. Stein appointed some people to the board in exchange for promises to vote for him.
Yes, the Spink award is an honor, but compared to Hall of Fame players the winners are virtually anonymous. A player is a whole other story--quite literally, it's a completely different news story that may not allow itself to be simply ignored. It's a lot easier to point at precedent and wait for the story to go away when hardly anyone knows about it.
On the other hand, it's doubtful the accusations against Alomar are more disturbing to the general public than ones lodged against Conlin.
Given the Hall's history, I would be surprised if it took any steps to boot Alomar (which would just open the door for campaigns to oust Cap Anson, Kirby Puckett and others), absent some kind of "him or us" stand from fellow players Ron mentions.
I'm pretty sure they don't want to open Pandora's box. Given standards of conduct in the past, would it really be shocking if some highly regarded player had aggressively propositioned a woman or used words that are currently taboo? Set the precedent of removal, and you encourage a witch hunt.
Which was 10 years ago and Conlin was never convicted (or as far as I know charged) with anything. He was also 77 at the time and conveniently died about 2 years after the allegations.
British actor/producer/director Noel Clarke was just accused by 20 women of sexual harassment and bullying. Within a day, the final episode of his current hit miniseries was withdrawn before airing. His top-rated TV series was cancelled. He was just given a special BAFTA (the Brit academy) and the chair of the BAFTAs had this to say:
“People will say, ‘Bafta knew, and didn’t do anything about it.’ We’ve been trying to do something about it,” Majumdar told one intermediary. “In the court of public opinion we are going to be … this will destroy us.”
(Apparently BAFTA was aware of some of the allegations beforehand, did reach out to the women involved, they declined to speak to BAFTA ... so BAFTA went ahead with the award which may not have been the best idea. But as far as I know, they haven't yet said they're taking the award back, whatever that might mean. And I suspect the chair is overstating things.)
Now of course almost nobody in the US cares about the HoF, Alomar wasn't much of a household name to begin with and retired over 15 years ago and it remains to be seen whether any HOFers are sufficiently aware and concerned enough to call for his ouster so in all likelihood this will not become a major story outside of (or even inside of) baseball. Or some folks will decide this is a big deal or (given how these episodes often go) more women will come forward, the HoF will come under increasing pressure and will change its position. But it's also the case that those suspended for domestic violence have been welcomed back into baseball without major public turmoil so there's a good chance this story will fade away too.
Again, MLB didn't just fire the guy and let teams know he's blackballed, they actually put him on the ineligible list. As far as I know, Chad Curtis, Luis Polonia and Mel Hall aren't on the ineligible list and they were all convicted. Times have changed.
Polonia got 60 days and a $1500 fine after pleading the charge down to a misdemeanor in 1989; Curtis got only 7 to 15 years in 2013 and is already out on parole; Hall got 45 years and won't be eligible for parole for another 10 years. Polonia played for another 10 years and was inducted into the Caribbean HoF. The judge actually postponed the sentincing until after the season ended. About Polonia, Yankees manager Dallas Green said: "It's a shame to see that happen. It's a personal thing. All you can do is warn people. You can't live their lives."
Times have changed. Not as much as we'd like but Green would at least have to pretend to have a smidgen of empathy for the victim.
Added: Or (c) the accusation was brought by one person, but during the investigation more people testified that they had seen similar conduct like the accusation, so that went in the report.
He was the most popular Blue Jays alumni, and the only one inducted into the HOF with a Jays cap.
His number was one of two retired (with the late Roy Halladay).
They disowned him immediately, so whatever evidence/information was presented to them by MLB must have been substantial/convincing.
His public statement has the weird phrasing of "With the current social climate, I understand why Major League Baseball has taken the position they have."
he had morphine, amphetamines, Ambien, Prozac, and a trace of alcohol in his system when he crashed his plane - risking the lives of countless people with his recklessness. or am I missing something?
(and if the "trace of alcohol" sounds like nothing, he violated FAA rules with his dosage and let's just say I doubt they helped his drugs cocktail any).
the Blue Jays seemingly are cool with that - so what the hell did Alomar do?
Alomar's accused of harming another person.
The severity of MLB’s reaction, when there was literally no public awareness of the accusations or pressure on them to do anything, makes me think their investigation revealed some pretty bad stuff.
* And if Halladay had crashed his plane into a busload of children, the reaction might have been different.
For the Jays to cut ties with Robbie Alomar, it must have been an awful transgression. Or at least awful looking.
Indeed franchise icon. There are few that have one so clearly. Although maybe Joe Carter is in the conversation? (Different conversation, not changing subject. And it helps to have only started in 1977.)
I guess the Alomar details will come out in time. I gave a few reasons [28] how/why it happened, but I don't want to speculate with examples.
RTG: Glad to hear you got a vaccine, from the other thread. Mrs Snowboy & I are still too young and good looking, in this region, but we'll get it eventually. My niece is a nurse, and has been giving it in London and Mt. Brydges.
we don't know what Alomar's actions were, and their direct impact on people.
but to this point, I'm a little surprised at the possible dichotomy.
if he was a Calloway-like creep, then that's awful and extremely upsetting to anyone who was on the other end of such creepiness.
taking a plane off the ground in an "altered state" in a very non-remote region, though - and it's ok because luckily no one else got killed and it's all good because the offending athlete died?'
I dunno.
In any event, Halladay & Alomar are already in the Hall. There isn’t a process for removing Hall of Famers, and I wouldn’t lightly go down the path of creating one.
Alternatively, perhaps MLB just decided that now is the time to take a firmer stand on workplace sexual harassment, and that Alomar would be the right guy to make an example of. That seems less likely to me, but we don’t know.
As for the lack of outcry at Halladay's bloodwork, I'm not really that surprised. He ultimately didn't injure anyone else and society seems to have a sort of sympathetic impulse towards addicts who manage to maintain a public appearance of functionality as long as they don't actually kill or maim anyone. Probably because so many people medicate themselves--legally or not--just to get through their day.
They've actually said that they've "suspended" the award, whatever that means.
The Halladay situation is that he was so revered as a Blue Jays player that when the toxicology report (and stories) came out, most fans just chocked it up to "pain killer addiction" that hits a lot of athletes.
Obviously, if he killed more than himself (like Jose Fernandez), then the response might have been different.
(Side note: There was more "pain" in Jays fandom when Halladay's wife seemed to make the arbitrary decision for Roy to go in without a logo on his cap. He has said specifically (in an earlier interview after retiring) that he'd go in with a Jays cap. Of course, no one wants to get angry at a grieving widow, so it just simmers for now.)
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