Foul, by a Mile

It was despicable for Roberto Alomar, hotshot second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, to spit at an umpire after being ejected for arguing a third-strike call last Friday night. But worse yet is the baseball establishment’s wink at his outrageous action.

Major league baseball, just as fans were beginning to trust the game again after last year’s strike, is coddling a hideously unsportsmanlike player because it’s playoff time. Only the threat of a boycott of Tuesday’s playoff game by major league umpires got some action on the issue.

Alomar showed no remorse until making a tardy apology Monday. Initially he blamed his target, declaring that umpire John Hirschbeck had become bitter and “changed personality-wise” after he lost an 8-year-old son three years ago to a rare brain disease.

Alomar should have been suspended Friday night. Instead, on Saturday American League President Gene Budig declared a five-day suspension and then, when Alomar appealed, put off a hearing until after the World Series. So Alomar played Saturday and got the run that put Baltimore into the playoffs. Alomar played again Tuesday. This might not have happened if baseball owners had gotten off their duffs and named a commissioner; at present, there is only an acting--and weak--commissioner.

In an effort to prevent a boycott, baseball officials went to court Tuesday. The umpires agreed to work the first three days of the playoffs, and Budig moved up Alomar’s suspension appeal hearing to Thursday. If nothing is settled then, it all goes back to court Friday.

In considering the stir he created by his uncivil behavior, perhaps in the future Alomar will demand of himself the basic sportsmanship that baseball’s overseers have ignored.