Returning Sun Shines Brightest for New Kid at Second

A phenomenon struck San Diego Friday. It was rare, at least of late, and wonderful. It had Padre players looking skyward in awe.

Eric Show looked up, baffled at what was getting so much attention.

Come on, Eric, what was up there you had not seen for a while?

The sun.

It has seemed for a while that San Diego had been transplanted to the shores of Puget Sound, or some similarly rainy locale. The Padres, of course, had spent three days counting raindrops in Los Angeles.

One particular player might have been more antsy than the others. He was waiting to make his major league debut, but he might have been excused for wondering if maybe his entire career was going to be rained out.

“I was so anxious to play,” said Roberto Alomar, “but maybe God wanted me to start my career here in San Diego.”

Young Mr. Alomar, all of 20, may be anxious to play, but he hardly seemed anxious about playing. After all, a ballpark is a ballpark, and a ballgame is a ballgame.

And Roberto Alomar might well have spent more time in major league ballparks than any of his veteran teammates. About the only player in the stadium Friday night who has been around major league baseball longer than the kid second baseman was Nolan Ryan, Houston’s eternal kid pitcher.

Alomar, you see, had the good fortune of having a father who was a real, live major league player. Sandy Alomar, who played for 15 years in the major leagues, started taking his son to the park when Roberto was about as tall as a fungo bat.

Young Roberto may have been the envy of the neighborhood then, but his father is the lucky guy now. Since he happens to be employed as the Padres’ third base coach, Sandy Alomar had an awful nice seat from which to watch his son make his debut.

And this debut as been ordained for a long time.

“I told my father when I was a young kid that pretty soon I’d be in the big leagues,” Alomar said. “That’s all I’ve wanted. To be like him.”

Just like him. He is a switch-hitter. He is a second baseman. He even wore No. 2 on his uniform, just like his father.

That, of course, was the only drawback to being with the same team. The number was already taken, and his father had it.

“I can’t take that from him,” Roberto said. “Now I’m No. 12.”

And now he is here as the Padres’ second baseman of the present and the future.

Shortstop Garry Templeton laughed at the notion of “working” with a new second baseman.

“I won’t have to work much with him in there,” Templeton said.

Life will be easier?

“Oooooooh,” Templeton said. “Easier than it’s been in a long time.

And this kid just might be here a long, long time?

“This kid,” Templeton said, “is not going back.”

Second base with the Padres has not exactly been like an appointment to the Supreme Court. It has been more like a test tube from which one failed experiment after another has been washed down a sink.

That, of course, was why Alomar started the season in Las Vegas. The memories of The Bip Roberts Experiment and The Joey Cora Experiment were too fresh to risk bringing another rookie second baseman to the big leagues under the glare of the opening-day spotlight.

And so Alomar went to Las Vegas.

Sandy Alomar, whose 21-year-old son, Sandy Jr., is the catcher in Las Vegas, could deal from experience in assuring his younger son that he would not be condemned to an eternity in the minor leagues.

“The same thing happened to me that happened to him,” Papa Alomar said. “I hit .364 in spring training and wind up in the minor leagues.”

Roberto’s father was the Milwaukee Braves’ spring phenom in 1964. He did not get called up until September, but he ended up playing 15 years with the Braves, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Angels, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

“My dad said to wait, and my time would come,” Roberto said. “My time has come.”

His time came swiftly. He was in Las Vegas all of two weeks before he was beckoned to the major league. In the end, it seemed as if the time spent waiting for the rain to stop was longer than that spent with Las Vegas.

“When he went out,” his father said, “I told him it was part of the game. I knew he’d be back, but I guess I’m a little bit surprised that he’s back after a couple of weeks. But the way things have gone here, I guess I’m not surprised he’s back.”

And his fatherly advice a few hours before that major league debut?

“Be relaxed,” he said, laughing at the idea of coming up with such a simple suggestion. “Me? I was very nervous. The first day, everyone is.”

Roberto Alomar, however, did not seem nervous. His only concern seemed to be with the fate the weather had dealt him, raining on his parade.

“I played in spring training and I played good,” he said. “If you feel pressure, you won’t play good. You have to be relaxed.”

To many, make that most, being relaxed in such a situation is a state of mind not easily accomplished.

A key here is that Roberto Velazquez Alomar is not expected to come in here and turn the franchise around. All the Padres want him to turn is double plays, and he comes to the major leagues with a reputation for doing that with an almost gymnastic flair. In fact, playing second is supposed to be like a floor exercise to Alomar.

“They just want me to play good defense,” he said. “They’re not worried about my hitting, but I want to hit. About .280 would be OK with me.

If Roberto Alomar plays second base the way he is capable of playing second base and hits .280 as well, this kid will be a sunshine superstar.