FanHouse RobertoAlomar

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Even for baseball, where winter can seem as endless as a trek through the desert with Lawrence of Arabia, this has been a long and cold one. Long before the Alex Rodriguez revelations, the free-agent market slowed to a crawl, bogged down by the economic downturn. Rather than getting treated to the usual flurry of Hot Stove transactions, we got a series of big-money Yankee signings and an endless stream of updates on the on-again, off-again, still-unresolved Manny Ramirez negotiations.

It seems that this week baseball has decided to play a game of "I can shock you more" with the media. First there was the news of Alex Rodriguez's positive steroid test, which, admittedly, wasn't all that shocking. Then earlier this morning we got to find out about Roberto Alomar's ex-girlfriend suing him for allegedly having unprotected sex with her while knowingly having AIDS. I don't think anybody is going to top the Alomar bombshell, but Darryl Strawberry is going to try.



Strawberry has a new book coming out in April, and something tells me his ex-teammates aren't going to appreciate the contents much. Strawberry's claims about all the cocaine they did and the women they had sex with -- sometimes during games -- probably won't sit well.

Roberto Alomar (seen to the right in April of 2008) received a shocking set of legal papers Tuesday, as his ex-girlfriend, Ilya Dall, filed a lawsuit in state and federal court alleging that Alomar had unprotected sex with her while knowingly infected with AIDS. As a result of these claims, she is suing the likely Hall of Famer for $15 million.

The New York Daily News initially reported the lawsuit, which is absolutely packed with -- whether they are valid or not -- shocking allegations. Included are claims that Alomar was raped as a 17-year-old, suffered from erectile dysfunction and has been inflicted with HIV and AIDS for some time now.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The Hall of Fame talk has begun to die down and baseball fans are starting to look forward to that oh-so-exciting date -- February 15th, when pitchers and catchers report -- but before we get there, let's look ahead at the players who will be eligible for enshrinement in Cooperstown for the first time in 2010.

I don't understand why people are making such a big deal of Ozzie Guillen telling Joe Morgan that he thought Ivan Rodriguez and Roberto Alomar were the two best players to come out of Puerto Rico, and not Roberto Clemente, but for some reason it really seemed to strike a chord with a lot of different people. The story was covered all over the blogosphere, including here at FanHouse, and treated as though it was of some great importance.

It's not, it's just the opinion of one man. Sure, the man happens to be everybody's favorite insane Venezuelan, but it's still only an opinon. I mean, don't you get into arguments with your friends all the time about certain baseball players being better than others? Isn't that one of the great draws of baseball?

It seems I'm wrong, though, because most of Puerto Rico hates Guillen right now.

Guillen made that statement even though he has been a lifelong collector of Clemente memorabilia and gave his son Oney the middle name of Roberto, after Clemente.

''If Clemente had to squat behind that plate like Pudge does every day, he would have been out of the game in two years,'' Guillen said Monday. ''People just want to be politically correct because of the way Clemente's life ended [in a plane crash].''

You're doubtlessly aware of Joe Morgan's credentials as an annoyer of baseball fans from coast to coast. It comes with the territory of maintaining positions that are indefensible in the face of actual facts. It's also probably not much of a surprise to you that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has the propensity to come unhinged from time to time.

Predictably, sparks flew when the two men met over the weekend in Detroit. Morgan took issue with Guillen's statement that Ivan Rodriguez and Roberto Alomar were the best players to come out of Puerto Rico. Morgan argued in favor of Roberto Clemente and off they went.

Morgan told Guillen he was "crazy,'' starting a series of "FU's'' from Guillen..."The problem is these old guys think that none of the players now are better than back then,'' Guillen said. He then sighted (sic) an example, bringing up how Babe Ruth was fat and out of shape, but yet was a dominant hitter and pitcher back in "the old days.'' "Babe Ruth couldn't even play now,'' Guillen insisted.

That sickening feeling rolling over your body is the realization that Joe Morgan is right. Clemente was a better player than either Pudge or Alomar and Guillen's entire rationale is skewed. You can't argue "back in my day" is wrong when the basis for your entire argument is that none of the players back then are as good as the players now.

(H/T With Leather)

In a year of injuries, disappointments and the league's coolest beer vendor, second baseman Aaron Hill has been one of the few good things for the 2007 Blue Jays. And he's also close to hitting the team record books, supplanting Roberto Alomar in the categories of most home runs (17) and most doubles (41) by a Blue Jays second baseman.

Not bad company to be keeping, but the ever-gracious Hill insists there's no comparison between the two.

"No, golly, that guy's got a lot on me," Hill said when asked about Alomar. "The biggest thing is the World Series (victories) obviously. I mean it's great, but like I said, he won. I think that's what people remember. He's done some fantastic things. I'll never compare him (to me). We'll see when my career's over, I guess we can compare each other. But I've got a lot to make up to catch up to him."

Never mind the fact that he's not afraid to drop a "golly" from time to time; Hill's attitude and consistency make him one of the guys we look forward to rooting for in 2008.

Remember those Indians teams of the 90's? That lineup that featured players like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Roberto Alomar, Sandy Alomar Jr, and Carlos Baerga? The most important member of that lineup, which in my opinion is one of the best I've ever seen, was Kenny Lofton.

He set everything up for everybody else. Lofton had some of the best years of his career in Cleveland, and now there's a possibility he may be rejoining the club in the coming weeks.

As the Rangers start retooling for next season, Lofton and Sosa could be among the first Rangers traded. Lofton has drawn significant interest from Cleveland and Milwaukee, both of which had scouts at Saturday's game, and several other clubs have shown preliminary interest.

I'm no expert, but I'm guessing none of those "several other clubs" are the New York Yankees.

Switching clubs is nothing new for Lofton, so it's no wonder he looks at these rumors the way he does.

"I've been around the game a long time, and I've seen players come and go," said Lofton, who has been dealt three times previously around the trade deadline. "I look at the whole situation like it's still just a ballgame. It's still baseball. I've never been one to go off what the talk was."

Grady Sizemore owns centerfield at Jacob's Field now, but it would still be a nice story if Lofton did return to Cleveland, and finally won that World Series that eluded him during his previous stay there.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Mets fans know this, especially in light of just how close they were to never getting a chance to see Jose Reyes play. According to the New York Post, the Mets almost gave up Reyes to the Indians back when they were putting together the trade that brought Roberto Alomar to the Big Apple:

An official who was involved in the discussions that led to that Dec. 11, 2001 deal said that one of the players the Mets made available to Cleveland was a Low-A shortstop named Jose Reyes. The official said the Indians liked Reyes, but simply did not have enough information from their South Atlantic League scouts to make an 18-year-old with just two pro seasons the key player in the deal rather than Alex Escobar.

For the Mets, it was a crisis narrowly averted, especially considering Alomar's stay in New York was essentially a bust. But for Indians fans? Yeah, this one has to sting. To be fair, Escobar was widely regarded as one of the very best prospects in all of baseball at the time of the trade -- just about any team in the majors would have made the same mistake going after the player thrice named the Mets' Prospect of the Year by Baseball America -- but it just seems so fitting that it happened to a team from Cleveland.

Escobar's career nosedived immediately after being acquired by the Mets -- he missed all of 2002 after tearing his ACL, and four years later he still has just 388 career at-bats. Reyes, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the top talents in the entire game and a legitimate MVP candidate.

How can one city be so unlucky in every sport? Cleveland makes Philadelphia look spoiled.