This is simply horrible

Just when you think this offseason couldn’t get more sordid and sad:

Baseball great Roberto Alomar has full-blown AIDS but insisted on having unprotected sex, his ex-girlfriend charged Tuesday in a bombshell lawsuit. The shocking claim was leveled by Ilya Dall, 31, who said she lived with the ex-Met for three years and watched in horror as his health worsened. In papers filed in state and federal court, Dall said Alomar finally got tested in January 2006 while suffering from a cough, fatigue and shingles. “The test results of him being HIV-positive was given to him and the plaintiff on or about Feb.6, 2006,” the $15 million negligence suit says. Nine days later, the couple went to see a disease specialist who discovered a mass in the retired second baseman’s chest, the court papers say.

The article sets forth all of the complaint’s sordid allegations, though people close to Alomar say he is healthy and this suit is baseless. I don’t suppose it will be long before we get confirmation one way or the other about the state of his health.

If Alomar is sick, I would be incredibly sad. If he is sick and behaved irresponsibly as alleged in the suit, I would be sadder still. If he is healthy — or if he is sick and acted responsibly at all times — I hope this suit and this plaintiff are dispatched with a quickness.


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scot
15 years ago

This is horrible news all around. If true, far sadder, and far more disturbing than the steroid news that writers have been pontificating about.

This could make for a very strange and uncomfortable Hall of Fame speech moment should Alomar get in first ballot next year.

Grant
15 years ago

If this turns out to be true, do you think the writers will come down on him like they did McGwire and his brethren? It’s not an on-field issue, and Kirby Puckett did get in despite being a bad guy, but I dunno “what we knew and when we knew it” about Kirby.

The world is a dark place.

The Common Man
15 years ago

@ Grant

The bad stuff about Puckett didn’t come out until after his induction. And the really disturbing stuff happened after he got in.  As for Alomar and the writers, I imagine it’s hard to come down on and act all morally superior to a guy who’s dying of AIDS.  If this is true, of course.  Which it may not be.  And I hope it’s not.

But if it is, that would explain the precipitous and strange end to his career.

http://www.the-common-man.com

MooseinOhio
15 years ago

Alomar is clearly one of the best to ever play second base and should be an easy first ballot Hall of Famer if voters look only at what he did on the field.  Granted he has shown himself not to be the greatest person in the world and if these allegations are true then confirmation exist that he has a seriously flawed character.

However the HoF is about what you did on the field and not about the type of person you were or we will need to start removing some of those already enshrined.

Joe
15 years ago

Moose, read up on the guidelines for the HOF.  Character is clearly mentioned.  Of course, the precedent has been set for liars, cheaters, and bad people to be inducted, but the voting guidelines discuss off-the-field traits, too.

Chipmaker
15 years ago

If the AIDS report is accurate—and echoing others, I hope not—it’ll only be a few moments before some writer starts wondering if John Hirshbeck, the victim in The Spitting Incident, is at risk and/or has been tested.

No saliva-based spreading vector has ever been established, but what good are facts when there’s sensationalism to publish?

The Spitting Incident will, I think, deny Alomar a first-year election.

Bill
15 years ago

I don’t think the end to Alomar’s career needs this sort of explanation. I mean, yes, he went from a superstar at 33 to a below-average hitter at 34, and that was a little surprising. But second basemen, for whatever reason, wear down faster than anybody except catchers, and Alomar has the third-most plate appearances of anybody who spent at least 75% of his career at that position. If you look at how 2Bs perform into their 30s, that he was awesome in 2001 is probably more surprising than that he was pedestrian in 2002-04.

So I don’t think there’s any observable-by-us reason to believe it’s true, though of course I really HOPE it’s not, which makes it easier to come to that conclusion. If it’s not, of course, it’ll be the easiest defamation suit a celebrity ever filed…

MooseinOhio
15 years ago

Joe – I understand that integrity and character are included in the criteria but you would have to do a lot of convincing to tell me that Alomar’s character is so bad that guys like Ty Cobb or Gaylord Perry can be enshrined and he cannot.

none
15 years ago

What is really interesting about the Hirschbeck incident is that the spitting came after the ump called him a c@#$s(#$#er.  Guess it really hit close to home.

TheNaturalMevs
15 years ago

Not too sound too pessimistic, but I think he definitely has it.

Where there is smoke with this delicate stuff, there is fire. The fact him or his attorney don’t immediately shoot it down makes it more probable of being true.

All the other stuff pretty much adds up with the story about him being raped leaking out.

Pete Toms
15 years ago

Didn’t RTA yet but a CFL player – Travis Smith – was convicted of knowingly having unprotected sex with different women while knowing that he was HIV positive.  I think he’s still in jail and is due to be extradited back home to the US soon.

Ron
15 years ago

There are only two questions that matter in this entire story:

1. How much money did Alomar make playiing baseball?

2. How much did she try to get out of him for not making the story public?

pete
15 years ago

Didn’t this woman choose to stay with Alomar through this whole time? It seems ridiculous that she would sue him for anything, given that it sounds like she kept going back for more.

Millsy
15 years ago

Well, considering they were together unprotected for 3 years.  And that Alomar alledgedly had HIV for this entire time.  And the article says she recently tested negative.  And she’s not suing for any physical damages, I’m pretty skeptical.  The lawyers speficically states (it actually says this in the article) that she’s suing because she now has “AIDSphobia”.  It almost sounds like some sort of joke.

This is a real shame either way.  As an Orioles fan and a middle infielder growing up, I’ve always loved Alomar.  I hope everything works out to be okay, and he’s a first balloter next year.

Leo
15 years ago

However the HoF is about what you did on the field and not about the type of person you were or we will need to start removing some of those already enshrined.

Hmmm, ask Pete Rose about this

Bill
15 years ago

“Hmmm, ask Pete Rose about this”

Wait, is there an explicit rule that says that a player who has unprotected sex while infected with HIV shall be permanently banned from baseball? How did I miss that one?

David Burden
15 years ago

Meta-comment: I notice that ESPN hasn’t picked up this story.  One could argue that Alomar isn’t a public figure any more, but didn’t they recently run a story about Ryan Leaf on the front page of their website?

Basically, I’m wondering if they’ve got some knowledge that this is untrue.