Monday, October 13, 2014

Sandy Alomar Jr.'s managerial influences

Sandy Alomar Jr. was reportedly interviewed during the weekend for the Twins managerial job. His candidacy may be made moot soon; he's reckoned one of four finalists for the Arizona job as well, and the Diamondbacks are expected to make their hire as early as today, whereas Terry Ryan has hinted that he may take until November to pick a winner.

Alomar is from a baseball family. His father, Sandy Alomar Sr., was a durable good-field no-hit second baseman in the 1960s and '70s who went on to be a coach for several teams. His brother Roberto was also a second baseman, one of the 10 best in MLB history. The Alomars are Puerto Rican, and Sandy Jr. is the first known Twins candidate who (a) is of minority heritage and (b) is a native Spanish speaker.

Sandy Jr. was a catcher who carved out a 20-year career and was named to six All-Star teams but also had just four seasons of 100 or more games played. We remember him mainly as part of the great Cleveland lineup in the 1990s, but he also played for San Diego, the White Sox (three different times), Colorado, Texas, the Dodgers and the Mets.

Twenty years and lots of teams equals a ton of managers played for, And so it is:

1988-89 (San Diego): Jack McKeon
1990-91 (Cleveland): John McNamara
1991-99 (Cleveland): Mike Hargrove
2000 (Cleveland): Charlie Manuel
2001-02, 2003 (White Sox): Jerry Manuel
2002 (Colorado): Clint Hurdle
2004, 2006 (White Sox): Ozzie Guillen
2005 (Texas): Buck Showalter
2006 (Dodgers): Grady Little
2007 (Mets): Willie Randolph

Two current managers, Showalter and Hurdle, are in that list, and at least one (Guillen) who wants to be back in the mix.

As a coach in Cleveland, Alomar Jr. has worked under Manny Acta and Terry Francona. He was the interim manager for six games after Acta's dismissal in September 2012.




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