Cooperstown Bound

The waiting is over for Robbie Alomar, a year after just missing out by a scant amount of votes, the first actual Toronto Blue Jay, cap in hand will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Cooperstown, New York, which symbolically stands for the bogus birthplace of baseball will open it's doors and be prepared for an onslaught of Jay fans to make the 6 hour drive to celebrate a first.

While the Hall always reserves the rights to switch teams, Alomar's 5 years in Toronto totally outshine any other stint he enjoyed in his 17 year career, so the coronation will be fairly automatic, despite the photo on the ESPN website ( as a Cleveland Indian ). Gasp ! How could they ? American bias at work, maybe hoping to heal the wounds of Lebron, who knows, just a typical reaction from a large US media conglomerate.

This would normally be just a blog to recognise Alomar's great accomplishments, and I do want to acknowledge his Gold Gloves, his many All Star appearances, his 2 rings, and the other career numbers.

But today, today, I wanted to relate a story.

Back when my son Kevin was playing baseball as he set himself at 2nd base with a runner on 3rd hoping to brought home, a hard grounder was hit way to his right, almost over 2nd base, he ran hard to his right, picked up the ball, and performed the pirouette manouver that was the trademark jump turn and toss to 1st that Alomar performed on a nightly basis.  The ball did reach 1st, the runner was out, and the runner on 3rd was denied his objective.  As I stood about 10 feet away from the umpire at first, I heard him comment clearly that " that was like a Robbie Alomar like play "

So as my son has just accepted a 4 month contract to do animation ( his passion ) in Sudbury, my head is swimming with all the things a parent goes through, panic, acceptance, concern, pride and happiness.
When he made that throw he was congratulated by his team mates, and yesterday was another big day, his 6 years at Sheridan, the tireless hours spent have all paid off.