Alomar Apologizes for Remarks

Roberto Alomar apologized for spitting at an umpire and making comments about his late son, who died from a rare disease.

The Baltimore Orioles second baseman also pledged a contribution of $50,000 to help research ALD, the brain disease that umpire John Hirschbeck’s eight-year-old son died from three years ago. The umpire’s nine-year-old son is also afflicted with the malady.

Earlier Monday, the umpires’ union said it was considering ways to have Alomar’s five-game suspension, which was appealed and would not go into effect during the playoffs, lengthened.

After Friday’s game in which Alomar spit at Hirschbeck and was ejected for arguing a third strike, Alomar said of the umpire: “I used to respect him a lot. He had a problem with his family when his son died--I know that’s something real tough in life--but after that he just changed, personality-wise. He just got real bitter.”

When Hirschbeck was told of the comments by reporters, he charged into the Orioles clubhouse, yelling that he would “kill” Alomar. He was restrained by another umpire.

“I deeply regret my disrespectful conduct toward a man that I know always gives his utmost as an umpire,” Alomar said in a statement. “I’m sincerely sorry that my actions deeply offended John and, by engaging in indefensible conduct, I failed the game of baseball, the Orioles organization and my fellow major leaguers.”

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Baltimore center fielder Brady Anderson didn’t feel like talking about hitting 50 home runs in a season--until he actually did it, that is.

After becoming only the 14th player in major league history and the first from UC Irvine to hit 50, Anderson called family and friends to discuss his feat Sunday night. When he phoned his uncle, Kevin Anderson, he heard this greeting on the answering machine:

“Hi, this is Kevin. [Stan] Musial didn’t do it. [Hank] Aaron didn’t do it. Reggie [Jackson] didn’t do it. But my nephew did it [hit his 50th home run] today.”