Thursday, May 17, 2012

Players I Collect - Sandy Alomar

It's been a few months since I've done one of these. At the rate I'm going I should be done this series of posts sometime in 2035.

First of all, it's not this Sandy I collect:

1974 Topps #347
But his son, Sandy Jr.

1989 Topps #648
I have 110 Sandy Alomar Jr. cards. Although he played a few games prior to 1990, his rookie year was in 1990 with the Indians.


1990 Score Rookie/Traded #18
Sandy played 132 games behind the plate, hit .290 and was an All-Star. He was also the AL Rookie of the Year. This is probably why I started to collect his cards.

1991 Leaf #189
Unfortunately. 1991 was not a good year. He only played 51 games, while spending most of the season on the disabled list.

1992 Triple Play #227
Injuries continued to plague him for several years. He hit .251 in 89 games in 1992.

1993 Ultra  #182

1994 Topps #273

1995 Upper Deck #92
Sandy hit .300 with 10 home runs in 66 games in 1995 and the Indians went to the World Series, losing to the Braves.

1996 Score #103
1996 was his best season since 1990, hitting .263 and appearing in 127 games. He was again elected to the All-Star game and the Indians returned to the playoffs but lost to the Orioles in the ALDS.

1997 Upper Deck #343
 1997 was his best year. He hit .324 with 21 home runs in 125 games. He had a 30-game hitting streak. He was the MVP of the All-Star game and the Indians again went to the World Series where he hit .333 with 10 RBIs. But they lost the Series to the Marlins.

1998 Fleer Tradition Vintage '63 #14
He was an All-Star again in 1998 and the Indians went to the playoffs but it was a disappointing season for Alomar after the triumph of 1997. He would, unfortunately, never be a regular player again, appearing in fewer and fewer games until finally he retired after the 2007 season.

1999 Black Diamond #27


2000 Topps Opening Day #72
2000 will be his last year with the Indians. He will sign with the White Sox as a free agent in December 2000.

2001 Topps Traded #1
He hit .245 in 70 games for the Sox and spent over a month on the DL.


2002 Stadium Club #64
In July, the White Sox traded Alomar to the Rockies for minor leaguer, Enemencio Pacheco.

 2002 Topps Traded #68

He was once again a free agent at the end of the season and resigned with the White Sox.

2003 Fleer Tradition Update #194

2004 Topps Total #522
Alomar stayed with the White Sox through 2004. This is the last card I have for him.  He signed with the Rangers for the 2005 season. He played for the Dodgers and the White Sox again in 2006. In 2007 he made 7 appearances with the Mets before retiring at the end of the season.

2 comments:

--David said...

Do you have want/need list, or a "already have list" of your Alomars? I will look through my Tribe cards and send you ones you need, if I have any!

capewood said...

Hey David thanks but I don't maintain a list of Alomar cards I'm looking for. Most of the "Players I Collect" are only collected out of opportunity. That is, when I get an Alomar card I put it into a binder rather than in a box where everybody else goes.