Now, A Trip To The Future

NEW YORK, April 1, 2000

I remember when sandy Alomar Jr. and Todd Zeile were rookies. Ten years ago. Crazy, huh? Ten years. Back before all the Gold Glove awards and the All-Star Games and the as-told-to biographies on the bestseller lists. Before the money was delivered, twice a month, in an armored car to the big houses on a hill.

Ten years ago. I remember talking with Alomar in the short spring of 1990 in Tucson, where the Cleveland Indians trained. Zeile was in St. Petersburg, Fla., then, with the St. Louis Cardinals. It seems like only last week.

There was a strike that year. Or was it a lockout? Something. The owners and the players had been arguing for a long time, probably about money, and the training camps opened four weeks late. I remember the mad dash to cover stories that were usually spun out at a much slower tempo, to the sound of tourist dollars being removed from wallets.

Alomar and Zeile were an obvious topic that year. Spring Training, Opus 1: The Arrival of the Phenoms. Two kids. Two catchers. Alomar had been universally picked to be the American League Rookie of the Year. Zeile had been universally picked to be the National League Rookie of the Year. The catching market had grown stale by 1990—Carlton Fisk, at 42, was still with the White Sox; Bob Boone, at 42, was with Kansas City—and the appearance of these kids was a major development.

"I've been in baseball for 29 years," said Indians bullpen coach Luis Isaac that spring. "Sandy Alomar is the best catching prospect I've seen since Johnny Bench."

Isaac's counterpart in St. Louis, Dave Ricketts, was equally enthusiastic about Zeile, though somewhat more cryptic. "What is it that they say? A million Frenchmen can't all be wrong?" Ricketts said. "The kid has done well on every level he has played."

There were none of the usual qualifying statements about either player's having "to prove himself and win a job down here." Both rookies' names were written on their teams' lineup cards in indelible ink. The Indians had traded heavy-hitter Joe Carter to the San Diego Padres to pick up Alomar, outfielder Chris James and infielder Carlos Baerga. The Cardinals had chosen not to re-sign All-Star catcher Tony Pena. Commitments had been made.

Alomar was supposed to be the better defensive catcher. He was big—6'5", 200 pounds—and looked as if he could throw a baseball through the cinder-block walls of the locker room at Hi Corbett Field. He had a basketball body. Power forward. "You wait and see how he develops as a hitter," Isaac said. "He's only 23 years old now. He still has some baby fat. Most Latin players don't mature until they're 26 or 27."

Zeile, then 24, was supposed to be the hitter. "He reminds me of Ken Boyer at the plate," one St. Louis sportswriter said. "Just the way he stands up there." At 6'1", 190 pounds, Zeile could have been an option quarterback. He even looked a bit like Doug Flutie, the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner.