A cross star

Mets' Alomar, still stinging from trade, lashes out

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The story is as old as boy meets girl, or ball meets bat. Star baseball player gets traded, star acts stunned, star lashes out at old team, star professes love for new team.

The cross star is Roberto Alomar, a perennial All-Star Gold Glove second baseman now of the New York Mets. He played his first game against his old team, the Cleveland Indians, on Wednesday.

Before the game, he took five minutes to lash out at what he calls the "lies" of new Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro, the man who sent him to New York for outfielder Matt Lawton and a handful of prospects.

"They were not straight with me," said Alomar. "I think we would have had a great team. I wanted to be a part of the team."

The trade of Alomar was a doozy, and it took a lot of people by surprise. For one, Alomar was arguably the Indians' best player, driving in 100 runs and hitting .336 last season. He is maybe the finest defensive second baseman of his generation and, only barely arguably, a future Hall of Famer. Maybe a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Shapiro approached him late last season to talk about the team's desire to go younger -- and cheaper -- and asked Alomar whether he wanted to be part of it. Alomar said yes.

"I clearly stated," Shapiro says, "that I couldn't guarantee anything."

In fact, the Indians were trying to unload another high-priced veteran in return for some prospects -- that veteran, it is believed, was the Tribe's current shortstop, Omar Vizquel -- but found no takers. So Cleveland dangled Alomar.

The Mets jumped at the chance to land him, giving up Lawton, highly prized outfield prospect Alex Escobar and some minor leaguers. Shapiro then called Alomar with the news.

Roberto Alomar is not happy with the circumstances behind his leaving Cleveland. AP

Shapiro characterized that conversation as "positive," but the two haven't talked since. They didn't talk Wednesday, either, both possibly opting to let time get its chance to do some healing before any attempt at reconciliation.

If that was the thinking, this may take awhile.

Before the game, surrounded by at least 20 reporters outside the Mets dugout at the Indians' Chain of Lakes training complex, Alomar was controlled yet still clearly agitated about how things worked out.

"Let me tell you, I'm happy to be where I am," Alomar said. "I will say I'm disappointed the way they told me things.

"If you are a man, you should tell a man the truth in his face. And he didn't."

Shapiro says he is "absolutely" comfortable that he handled the situation in the best way possible. "I'm sorry Robbie is hurt," Shapiro said. "But I can't go back and change history."

Alomar was 0-for-2 in Wednesday's game. But it was just spring training. This particular story of the star-crossed star is far from finished. The Mets travel to Cleveland for a regular-season interleague series June 7-9.

Facing the music

Outside of Ft. Myers, where the Red Sox are grappling with managerial questions the size of an Immokalee water bug, Winter Haven has been the center of Florida's spring training universe the last couple of days.

There's the Alomar thing, of course, but more important than that to Cleveland fans is the sad story of one of the guys who the Indians got from the Mets for Alomar.

Outfielder Escobar blew out his left knee earlier this week running into the wall in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Bradenton and is lost for the season. Wednesday, he showed up at camp -- on crutches and with a brace -- as upbeat as a 23-year-old with a dream delayed can be.

"I was in a good groove," Escobar said of his spring, during which he hit .500 (5-for-10) with two steals. "I had a real good chance [of making the team] and a good feeling."

Escobar instead will face reconstructive surgery in a couple of weeks and then months and month of rehabilitation. He has gone through similar ordeals in the past, to his shoulder and back, but this is something that figures to be much more trying.

"I kinda hate training rooms," he admitted. "I'd like to have the surgery and start playing right away. But, hey, you deal with it."

A ringing endorsement

The Red Sox, who fired manager Joe Kerrigan after Tuesday's game, asked permission Tuesday night to talk to Grady Little, the Indians' bench coach.

Shapiro, once he cleared it with Cleveland's owners, not only gave the Red Sox permission to talk to Little, he offered a strong endorsement to Boston interim GM Mike Port, saying he couldn't think of another coach in baseball who more deserved a chance at managing.

Little was a bench coach with former manager Jimy Williams in Boston from 1997-99. He is considered a front-runner for the job. Port said he hopes to have a new manager in place by the weekend.

"I don't want to lose Grady, 'cause Grady's the guy who does my paperwork for me," said Indians manager Charlie Manuel. "But he deserves a shot to manage in the major leagues."

Manuel said he would promote from within if Little gets the Boston job. "I'm pulling for him. He's my man," said Manuel. "I think he thinks he has a good chance."

Camping out …

Looking for some hope on the labor front? This from former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who told SportsTicker of a golden age for baseball in the future. "I can't see the players or owners looking for a work stoppage," he said. "You can never rule things out in a negotiation but I think a work stoppage is less likely than it ever has been." … In Lakeland, Fla., on Tuesday night, Yankees prospect Drew Henson was booed soundly. Henson is the former Michigan quarterback who turned his back on the Wolverines in favor of a six-year, $17 million contract with the Yankees. Lakeland, of course, is the spring training home of the Detroit Tigers. See, folks don't forget stuff like that … The telling line from Pedro Martinez when asked about the next manager for the Red Sox: "Who's going to be the leader? We don't care," he said … Of course you'd want a guy like Mark McLemore on your team. The Seattle Mariners' everythingman is 5-foot-11, 207 pounds, yet he took down a 6-foot-3, 330-pound store manager the other day in a scuffle over -- well, who knows who's telling the truth? The point is, the two disagreed and it was the monstrous manager -- who is only 20 years old, which makes him 17 years younger than Mac -- who ended up on the floor. Maybe McLemore is the bad guy here. He's a pro athlete in the public eye. He should avoid stuff like this. But giving away 17 years and more than 100 pounds? Wow … One more labor note while the two sides are still hacking away at each other here in the Sunshine State: The crux of this revenue sharing mess revolves around the players' longstanding opposition to anything that will curtail salaries. The players don't want the top-revenue teams paying too much toward revenue sharing because it will limit the ability of those richer teams to sign players to megadeals. If a massive revenue sharing overhaul is passed, neither the big-revenue teams nor the small ones will be able to get those multi-million dollar contracts that set the scale for everyone else … After the first 55 innings of spring training play, the Montreal Expos' had a team ERA of 1.83 … Finally, let's hope it's something in Rick Ankiel's elbow that has gone wrong, and not something a little higher -- again.

John Donovan covers baseball for CNNSI.com. His Spring Training Buzz will run each Tuesday and Thursday until Opening Day.

 

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